Quickstart Guide
Learn the basics of the CXM Prototype.
Client: CXM | Use Case: Fundraising Only
v0.6 – Last update 3/1/2022
Table of Contents
Part I: Data
IMPORTANT: The instructions, the fields and the options have been adjusted for CXM’s fundraising process and that only.
Welcome! In this part, we will go through the centerpiece of the platform: your Database, so that you hit the ground running. You will learn how to set it up and how to keep it up-to-date. Remember, your platform is as good as its data. And the more you groom your Database, the more effective the application gets.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our Customer Support (aka Nikos) team. We are more than happy to help!
Adding Contacts & Companies
Contacts and Companies are the building blocks of the platform. There are 3 ways to add them to your account.
Website Forms
This applies to Contacts. The Forms automatically creates a new one for each submission, typically with their Name and Email. You will need to fill out the rest of the details manually.
→ This approach is great for capturing people interested in your business but are not Customers (yet).
Batch Import
The data import is implemented by our Customer Support and typically involves exporting your Contacts and Companies address book to a .csv file, a common file type of everyday applications like Excel. Worry not, we will go through this process together.
→ This approach is great for the initial set up of your platform.
Manually
Here, entries are created one by one through a simple process outlined below.
→ This approach is great for maintaining your Database and keeping it current.
How To Add A New Contact or Company
To add a new Contact / Company:
1. Click Customers > Contacts or Customers > Companies.
2. Click Add New.
3. Fill in the New Contact or New Company page data.
4. Once done, click Save.
Data Categories
You will be asked to fill in the following data:
Contact Details or Company Details
Core information about the Contact or the Company, including how to communicate with them.
Given the constrains of the Prototype the following fields may be omitted and will be removed: Language, Tone of Voice, Birthday, Address.
Tags (Contacts & Companies)
Descriptors and labels that give depth to your Database and help create Segments. Please review section 3 for more details.
Company (Contacts)
Who they work for, if applicable.
→ In order to link a Contact with a Company, you have to create the Company entry first.
Social Profiles (Contacts)
The focus is on LinkedIn but you can enter the other Social Profiles too. For LinkedIn enter the profile name of the Contact. It can be found in their LinkedIn profile url.
For example, if the url is: linkedin.com/in/joesmith/ the profile name is the last part: joesmith/.
Alias (Contacts)
The secondary email of the Contact.
→ In order to add an Alias you need to save the New Contact first.
Timing
As a best practice, try to add new Contacts and Companies the day you first interact with them. When you make a data entry, the platform interprets the input date as your first interaction with them.
Based on this timestamp, it creates the personalized recommendations that make CXM special (for example the platform create a reminder to ‘reach out’ or a series of Automations like a ‘Welcome’ series of emails).
Understanding The Data Fields
While there are no mandatory fields in the Prototype, we ask you to enter as a minimum, for Contacts, the Prefix, the First and Last Name and either the Email, the Mobile Telephone or the LinkedIn Profile and for Companies, the Name and Website. This way, there’s at least one channel of communication recorded.
Field Definitions
Good news! Most Data Fields are self explanatory and customizable. However, their usage is determined by the platform’s conventions and definitions that are designed to make your life easier. Below you can find more color on the most important or hardest to decipher.
State
It’s the barometer of the ‘state‘ of your relationship with a Contact and is set both automatically by the platform (magic!) and manually by you. Its values are:
OK
Means that things are smooth, communication flawless, so nothing to do here.
Needs Attention
Means that the relationship is in danger and you must act by completing a suggested task.
Other
Means that the rules of engagement do not apply to this contact or have not been defined yet.
Status
Describes where a Contact or Company stands in the ‘buyer’s journey‘ to become an Investor. This means that the Status is strictly tied to fundraising and shouldn’t be used beyond it, because it doesn’t make sense.
Prospect
A Contact or Company that is a good potential target for becoming an Investor but has not been exposed yet to a presentation of the opportunity.
Lead
A Contact that qualifies as an Investor, is aware of the opportunity, has seen a presentation or other key material but is undecided yet.
Investor
Self explanatory. A Contact or Company that has invested.
Other
Any Contact or Company that’s not part of the Fundraising funnel.
For example, CXM itself.
Vocative (Contacts)
This is what you call a Contact in real life and is language specific.
For example: Joshua -> Josh, Nikos -> Niko
Understanding The Tags
Tags are used to provide insights about a Contact or Company and to segment them into easy to manage and understand groups. The impact of your communication activities is determined to a big extent by the proper tagging of your Database.
Relationship Tags
Tags that are used to describe the relationship between you and the Contact, in other words how you see them in relation to you.
VC
Angel
Advisor
Networker
Potential Partner
Service Provider
Team
Team Tags
Tags that denote which team member is affiliated with a Contact.
NK
GG
GP
Location Tags
Tags that denote location of a Contact, assuming not in Greece.
Europe
US
Activity Tags
Tags that are generated by the platform automatically and indicate level of activity. Such tags are:
Not Contacted in 30 days
Deciphered from the Activity Log of the Contact, which is based on automatic (eg. a newsletter) and/or manual inputs (eg. an in-person meeting).
Older than 30 days
Determined by the day the contact was created.
Understanding The Activity Feed
The Activity Feed is a timeline of Actions associated with a Contact. Companies don’t have Activity Feeds.
Actions
By actions, we are referring to any interaction with the Contact, whether it was initiated by you (for example, you sent an Email to them through the built-in Messenger), by them (for example, they opened your Email) or by the platform (for example, the automatic log of the day the contact was added).
Logs
In the context of the platform, the representations of the Actions in the Feed are called Logs. In plain English, this means that if you want to inform the platform that an off-platform interaction took place (for example, add a call that you had with a Contact), you need to add a Log.
Activity Feeds
There are two types of Feeds:
Contact Activity Feed
It’s an overview of the Activity of a specific Contact and is located in the View Contact page.
Universal Activity Feed
It’s an overview of Activity across the platform, basically a compilation of all the individual Contact Activity Feeds . It’s located in the Dashboard.
Logging Activity
An Activity is logged, which means recorded in your personal database, either automatically by the platform, or manually by you.
Being diligent when it comes to capturing Activities which the platform can’t know on it’s own (for example, an in-person meeting or even a random encounter) is the single most important success factor of your investment in CXM. The platform will, from time to time, nudge you to fill in information about specific Contacts, but we rely on you for an accurate representation of the state of your relationships. 5 minutes per day is all it takes!
How to Log/Edit An Activity
To Log an Activity
- Go to Contact > Edit Contact.
- In the Activity Log area click ‘Add Log‘.
- Add the Description of the Activity and any Details about it.
- Click ‘Save Log‘.
- Click ‘Save‘, on the top right corner, to save any changes you made to the Contact, including Adding a Log .
→ If you miss this last step the log won’t be recorded.
To Edit
- Go to Contact > Edit Contact.
- In the Activity Log area hover over the Log you wish to edit. You can only edit Logs created by you.
- Click on the Pencil icon.
- Make the changes you want and then click ‘Save Log‘.
- Click ‘Save‘.
At this time, you can’t delete a log.
Activity Types And Use
There are multiple Activity Types that you can log manually through the Edit Contact page. To keep the Activity feed easy to read and navigate we will be using a subset of Activity Types and in a consistent format. Here are the options you have and how to use them:
Note
Captures any information that informs the relationship with the Contact, except the communications with them that are covered by other Activity Types.
- The first Log entry of every Contact must be the ‘how you met’ or ‘who made the introduction’. Use past tense and start with a verb (for example, ‘Introduced by Joe Smith.’).
- For Contacts imported in the platform, the first log should be when you met the Contact (for example, ‘Met in March, 2008.’).
Example
Activity type: Note
Description: Joe loves desserts and orders online.
Details: His favorite dessert is the Carrot Cake.
Email, Call & Meeting
Captures Emails/Calls&Txts/Meetings that took place outside the platform. For Emails this means not through the built-in Messenger or the Newsletters module. Note that, at this time, Calls and Txts through the platform are not logged.
- The Activity will be logged as if it happened at the time you made the log entry.
- As a Description enter why you communicated or met and what the subject of the discussion was. For threads with multiple events (for example, multiple calls), enter the outcome of the conversation (for example, ‘Agreed to move forward.’).
- Use past tense, punctuation and start the Description with a verb. The Activity will be tagged as an Email/Call/Meeting and will be associated with a specific Contact, so don’t include this information again.
- Keep the Description short, no more than 10 words.
- The Details below are optional; use when there’s key information that you need to remember.
Example
Activity type: Email
Description: Reached out to introduce myself.
Details: Joe Smith, who knows them well, recommended to contact them this way. I got the email address from their secretary.
