Basecamp for PRM
Monday, February 20th 2006 | Ismael Ghalimi
Salesforce.com is one of the greatest tools for CRM, but as such it works best with existing customers. For wannabe customers, also known as prospects, something slightly different is required. I call it PRM (Prospect Relationship Management), and I’m currently experimenting the use of Basecamp for it. In essence, Basecamp can be used as a password-protected blog where you can post messages and comments, as well as manage task lists and documents. Add to this the ability to share writeboards, and it makes for a very powerful tool that can be used to sell a large deal where multiple stakeholders have to be involved. We are currently working on a particular deal where more than 60 influencers have been invited to explain why they would like to use our product, the benefits it would offer to them, their group and their users, and the new features that they would like to see being added to the product. Next step: integrate it with Salesforce.com for managing the entire customer lifecycle, and provide a link to our upcoming Demand Driven Development infrastructure. I will tell you more about the process if we manage to close that deal.
Entry filed under: Office 2.0, SaaS
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I’m curious how things go for you. We use Basecamp today and are a Salesnet reseller and implementation partner, and I like your idea for using Basecamp for soliciting input from prospects during the sales process. That said I don’t think there are Basecamp API’s at this point, so I assume you’ll use Web links? I’m following your Demand Driven Development as well.
Frank,
You’re correct, there is no API at this point. We will have to convince the good folks at 37 signals to add one, or use web scrapping technologies if the end user agreement allows us to do so.
Very cool idea, Ismael. May I ask about some logistics:
1. Did the client have network security or related concerns (e.g. privacy?) about setting up a big batch of users?
2. Were participants coached concerning what they could or could not say?
3. Does the system require free text input or can it support coded responses? (i.e., how “survey like” is this process of gathering requirements and how do you crunch the data?)
Dennis,
Here are some answers to your questions:
1. Some, but we successfully adressed them. For example, the URL we are using does not display the name of the customer, ensuring a good level of privacy. Also, we invited users individually, based on our own records, therefore the customer did not have to provide a batch of users on their own.
2. Participants were not coached, but we are moderating the forum. To date, we did not have to use our moderating rights though, beyond casual fixing of spelling errors and simple text formatting.
3. The system currently supports text input only, but I am looking at a couple of options for adding surveys. I would expect that 37 signals’ upcoming CRM solution will offer that out of the box.
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