Managing Companies

What is a Company

A company is just that... a business where somebody works. The company view contains all contacts, sales projects and prospects related to that company, as well as that company's specific information.

How to find Company information

All Company information is stored in the CRM area of Membrain. This is found in the main menu to the left.

The quickest way to find a company you are looking for is to use the search feature in Membrain. Just go to the search icon in the main menu (or hit S on your keyboard) and start typing! You will see a list appear, including Companies, Contacts, Sales Project and Prospects. You can either choose from this list or hit enter to see a full list where you can see more options and select the company you are looking for.

You can also click into a company view from other areas of Membrain where you see a company name highlighted in blue font. For example, from a Sales Project, Prospect or a Contact View.

Company Information

At the top of the company view, a number of fields are visible:

• Name of the company and company logo
• Phone number, email address, website, social media links (Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook).
• Account manager for this company - This is the Sales Representative that is responsible for this Company.

Company Enrichment

Details about the Company can be updated automatically by using the Enrich  icon, found just to the right of the company name. Clicking here sends Membrain out to a web service called Full Contact which retrieves and offers company and contact updates which you can choose to accept to keep your CRM datase up to date with current informaiton.

Fields that can be updated by using the Enrich service are:

• Company Icon
• Phone
• email
• Website
• Social media links (LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, Facebook, Instagram and Skype

Membrain will not offer updates to information which is already recorded. It will only suggest new information for fields which have no data recorded.

Current

Under this heading you see all current Sales Projects or Prospecting Campaigns this Company is linked to. If the Company is part of a prospecting campaign, an overview of each prospect will be shown beside the binoculars icon. The same applies for Sales Projects, if there are any current Sales Projects, details of these will be shown beside a leather wallet. 

A company can have multiple Sales Projects open and multiple Prospecting Campaigns at the same time.

History

Here you see all the historical Sales Projects and Prospecting Campaigns this company has been linked to in the past.  

You also see additional information here, such as if a Sales Project was won or archived, or if the Prospect was disqualified or converted to a Sales Project.

Note the wallet and binoculars icons can subtly change to show you their current status (eg. wallet with a yellow flags)

Information

This is where you find more detailed information about the company itself. Information is stored in Custom Fields, which are created by your administrator during the initial setup of Membrain.

Examples of information which can be stored here are things like Sales Characteristics, Industry, Financial Information etc. Anything that you believe is important to record about a company should be stored here. And information can be in the form of single or multiple select lists, text or numerical fields.

The first 3 fields in this view are default system fields which can make filtering your company information even easier: 

• Country - The country where this company is based
• Territory - Useful if you want to subcategorise your company list into larger global groupings (eg. Europe, North America).
• External Identifier - Necessary if you link to another program outside of Membrain and need to identify Companies by unique ID, rather than name.

Activity Stream

At the bottom of the Company View, you find the Activity Stream. This is a great resource to see all the activity, past and future in chronological order. Every appointment, email, task, note... pretty much anything that ever happens with this Company is recorded here. And all filterable of course to help you easily find the information you need.

You can also comment on these activities to keep all discussions right there in context, and even mention your colleagues to get their immediate attention on specific items.

Labels

To the right of the Company View you will see a list of Labels that have been applied to this company. You can edit the labels assigned to the company by clicking on the edit button and choosing which labels apply from the list.  

 

Company Hierarchy

Below labels, you will see the Company Hierarchy. This is where you can see a clear overview of how this company is related to any parent or subsidiary companies. From here you can set the parent company for the company view you are currently in.  

You can also click on related companies to bring you directly to that company view, or just hover to see company information and related sales projects and prospects.  

The company in bold font is the company you are currently viewing.

 

Notes

Below this again is the notes field. The notes field is designed to record information specifically related to the Company only, such as a planned expansion, or a change in address.

Addresses

And below the Notes field is the Company Address information. Here you can store multiple addresses for one company. Simply click into the address to edit or delete. Or click on Add Address to add new information. 

Contacts

And finally below addresses we find a list of all Contacts related to this company. From here you can:

• Hover over a contacts name to see additional information.
• Click on the contacts name in this hover box to go directly to the contact view.
• Add a title or upload a photo for this contact.
• Click directly on the email link to open a new email to this contact.

From this contacts list you can also add a new contact to the company and even view or create a new Organisational Chart.

Tools and Functionality

In the tool bar at the top of the view, a number of quick access options are available:

• New Prospect - add the company to a prospecting campaign.
• New Sales Project - create a new sales project for this company from this view.
• New Contact - add a new contact to the company.
• Organisational Chart - create or view an existing Organisational Chart.
• View Hierarchy Info - toggle between viewing and hiding company hierarchy information in this view,  including activities, contacts, current & historical sales efforts on all subsidiaries.

More

• Upload Document - click to browse your pc or drag and drop directly into the box to upload a file related to this company.
• Copy Company - click to create a new Company which has the same Country, Territory, Labels and Custom Field Values as the source Company. Other data such as Phone, Email, Social, Addresses and Contacts are not copied.
• Create Appointment - create a new appointment for this company,with the option to choose which contact from this company will be a participant.
• Create Task - create a new Follow-Up Task, with the option to choose which contact from this company will be a participant.
• Delete - option to Delete this Company. Confirmation is required before the Company is deleted.
• Export Activities - allows you to export all activities related to this Company. Options are available to filter these activities before exporting.
• Merge Company- this allows you to merge duplicate company information to the correct company record. Options are available which help you choose the correct details before you merge.