It was great to have several clients and even non-clients join us in Houston, TX to ELEVATE their CRM system, Cosential. In this hands on workshop, we covered best practices, optimization, data integrity, maintaining data with reports, user adoption and more. Below is a high-level recap of what was shared during the sessions.

Session 1 – Cosential Optimization

In this three-hour training, we demonstrated the core functionality of Cosential, giving a complete picture of connections, interactions, and history with any client or partner associated to leads, opportunities, projects, communication, personnel, activities, images, and documents.

Optimization starts by first maintaining data

Start with big picture and what matrix are important to your firm
Think backwards about storing data for efficient “publishing” and reporting
DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT all decisions
Have clear and consistent naming conventions for opportunities, companies, names and abbreviations
Which dollar and Firm Org fields matter when implementing and using widgets
Create and document a process for when are projects created, when descriptions are gathered, reviewed, approved, etc.
Use work flows to keep your data up to date and always include a link to the recor
Work flows can also help with requiring fields if users are bypassing the fields by using the grid
Review your data monthly, quarterly and annually
Maintenance reports are a MUST

Best Practices

Home page set to Dashboard
Automate Opportunities created by you via "Opportunity Preferences" to associate yourself as a Staff Team member
Set your Contact Manager module landing page
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS start at Company record
Parent/Child relationship for multiple offices, subsidiaries, etc.
New administration feature for company fields customization (Custom Labels, On/Off)
New Administrate Company Fields section in Contact Manager Administration to require fields
New "tabs" at the top of records to jump to sections
Administration for contact fields customization (Tool Tips, Custom Labels, On/Off, Required)
Move contacts to document changes to their employment
New Reference Ratings field, first turn on in Firm Setup, then create values, then assign values shows on Personnel and Project References
Define opportunity fields clearly, including the difference between Client and Owner
Incorporate project record updates as part of your daily routine or proposal close-out checklist
Store top marketing photos, not your entire image database
Use call logs as a communication and collaboration tool

Users Adoption

Buy-In from the right people
TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING
Identify office or market sector champions so users have someone to “go-to”
Internally market Cosential
Celebrate milestones to avoid burnout

Session 2 – Templates and the Publisher Module Hands-On Workshop

Cosential’s Publisher Module makes it easy to prepare targeted and accurate proposals, qualifications statements, resumes, project profiles, project lists, government forms, and other marketing collateral. You will eliminate hours spent tracking down content — resumes, project lists, and other details — and spend that time perfecting your winning materials.

Connect with the Presenters on LinkedIn

Courtney Kearney, CPSM

Owner of CKearney Consulting

Julie Shaffer, CPSM

Owner of Shaffer Creative

Emy Burback, MBA, CPSM

Owner of Marketing Engine

Elevate 2018

By: Courtney Kearney, Julie Shaffer, Emy Burback

Integration at its Best

Best Practices for Maintaining Contact Lists

Big Data. Buried Alive or Brilliant?

Is Your "Project Opportunity" Price Right?

Wonder What the Savvy Project Manager's Most Important Tool Is? CRM of course!

CRM Users Group Recap