Zoho CRM and Defining Contact Data Fields

Zoho CRM fields are similar to what you find in a smartphone contact list: names, companies, addresses, and phone numbers. You still need to know all that information about a contact, and generally speaking, more is better. With more data, you can personalize your messages to leads and clients. You can measure behavior differently, using data to create market segments to understand why people do what they do. If you have different products for men and women, you can use your knowledge of the gender of each lead or client to target each market segment appropriately. Sales, marketing, and customer support all benefit from having more data available to them. Building a data model for your business, however, goes way beyond the standard fields you’ll find in smartphones. The power of modern CRM software is that you can store any number of unique data fields attached to each contact. More data is usually good, but you want to be careful to not clutter your database with too much, or you and your staff can get overloaded with information. Your CRM includes various methods of collecting and organizing your data. Every plan for implementing a CRM requires taking this variety into consideration. You inust model what data you want to store, how you collect your data, and how it’s displayed to the users of your CRM.

The process of building your data model is straightforward;

1. Write down the common fields among all your contacts.

These include name, address, city, state, zip code, phone, website.

2. Think about what other information you want to know by going through your buyer personas.

Examples of these are:

• Income
• Number of children
• Social media URLS
• Favorite sports teams
• Hobbies

3. Add information specific to your industry.

Include fields for any information that can help your sales team better connect with a lead, your marketing target send a meaningful message, or your customer service team better understand the contact