COMPANY: Understanding Companies

What is a Company?

How do I create a Company?

Navigate to CRM > Companies.

Click the +Add Company button. Give the new Company a Name. 

Then select the Role. These Roles are meant to be used in the context of a Sales Funnel.

A  Company can be added as a Lead, Prospect, or Client.

Lead: a Company that you have just met and do not have a lot of history with, but you want to track them in the system and schedule follow-ups, etc. A Lead does not receive an invitation to create a login to your Portal. Leads may be added without an email address.

Prospect: a Company that has progressed to the next level in the Sales Funnel. They can receive an invitation to log in to your Portal. This additional level allows you to share Files and Pages. It also gives the Company the ability to receive Estimates.

Client: a step beyond a Prospect. This role gives you the ability to assign the Company to Projects & Tasks. You can also send them Invoices & Documents, etc.

You can upload a logo for the Company, which will have the same function as an avatar for a Contact.

Primary Contacts

If a Company is added as a Prospect or Client, you must add or assign a Primary Contact w/ an email address. If you want to add the Company as a Lead, then you have the option of adding the Company without a Primary Contact. This means the Company will not have a login and will not be able to receive email notifications. 

As a Lead, the Company cannot receive email notifications unless they are assigned a Primary Contact w/ an email address. If a Company is created as a Lead without a Primary Contact, then the Company will appear in the "Idle Companies" list.

To access the Portal, a Company must be a Prospect or Client and must be assigned a Primary Contact w/ an email address. 

When adding a Primary Contact, you also have the option to toggle the button to prevent the Primary Contact from switching into 'Individual Mode'. This means that the Portal they enter and navigate is the Company Portal and they will not be able to switch to their Individual portal in the Flyout Menu.  

If 'Prevent switching' is enabled, the Primary Contact will be hidden from all areas of the Platform except for the Contact List.  This is to prevent Automation and Assignments being accidentally applied to the 'Individual' rather than the Company.

CLICK HERE to learn about preventing a Primary Contact from switching into ‘Individual Mode’.

IMPORTANT: If you add a Primary Contact for a Company, please read. The Role you choose for the Primary Contact is completely independent of the Role assigned to the Company. The Role you assign here will only become relevant if you need to work with this person as an Individual, completely outside of any Company association. If you are adding this person only to be the Primary Contact of the Company and you will not work with them as an Individual, then we suggest adding them as a Prospect because that will give you the most flexibility in the future if something changes and you find that you do need to work with them as an Individual.

CLICK HERE to learn about Adding & Editing Contacts

Idle Companies

Idle Companies are Companies that do not have a Primary Contact assigned. When Companies are in this state, you cannot work with them in the sense of assigning Invoices, Documents, etc., because there is no "actual human" representing the Company, and therefore no one to view or process any interaction that you may initiate. From the Idle Companies list, you can use the menu to add a Primary Contact.

To assign a Primary Contact, click the three dots and select Activate

From here you can either create a new Primary Contact or assign to an existing Primary Contact.

Coordinator & Salesperson

A Coordinator is the member of your Staff that you specifically assign to be the "Point of Contact" for a Prospect or Client. The Coordinator optionally receives email notifications when the Contact performs certain actions within the platform. You can set the Coordinator to be notified in relation to Messages, Files, Projects, Tasks, and more. If no Coordinator is selected in this step, YOU will be assigned as the Coordinator because YOU are the Staff member creating the Company.

The Salesperson Role is unique in that visibility restrictions regarding Companies can be applied to these users, either manually or automatically. This is called "claiming" a Company, which will hide that Company from anyone else in the Salesperson Role. This is ideal if your business operates with a sales team that requires insulation from each other (e.g. they work on commission). This is different than a Coordinator, who is designated as the point of contact for that user. The Salesperson and the Coordinator for a Company can be the same member of your Staff, or they can be different members of your Staff.

CLICK HERE to learn about the Salesperson role

You can assign this Company to one or more Circles. A Circle is the group permissioning & assignment structure for Clients and Prospects. If your Company is a Lead you will not see this field. 

CLICK HERE to learn about Company Circles

You can select to add this Company to an Email Marketing Audience, which means that you can easily include this Company in any Email Marketing Campaigns that you send to that Audience. If you have created a Drip Sequence for that Audience, then this Company will immediately start receiving the emails according to the schedule that you have pre-set in that Drip Sequence. 

CLICK HERE to learn about Marketing Audiences

Select one or more LMS Product(s). When you "grant" an LMS Product to a Company, that makes them the Owner of that Product. An LMS Product can include a single Course or multiple Courses, so an LMS Product is like a "package" or "bundle" that you can design based on your needs. Each Course contains a Module or set of Modules to open, in which the Participant can access the Lessons contained in that Module. If your Company is a Lead you will not see this field.

CLICK HEREto learn about LMS

You can also apply an Event Generator for this Company. An Event Generator is a pre-configured series (or sequence) of Events you can "pre-create" and then use in an Automation to instantly generate those Events on your Calendar. This allows you to create multiple configurations and apply the correct Event Generator to the appropriate scenario, depending on your needs. 

CLICK HEREto learn about Event Generators

A Folder Generator is a predefined folder/file structure that you can pre-create and then apply based on your needs. You can automatically generate this folder/file structure inside the Shared Folder for this Company. This structure can include any number/level of folders and files.  If your Company is a Lead you will not see this field.

CLICK HEREto learn about Folder Generators

A Project Generator lets you "pre-create" a Project with customized variables and settings. When triggered, the Project will automatically be assigned to the correct Company/Contact. If your Company is a Lead or Prospect you will not see this field.

CLICK HEREto learn about Project Generators

An On-Demand Invoice Generator lets you "pre-configure" the details of an Invoice. You can create & configure many different O-D Invoice Generators, each one designed to be used in a specific scenario. You pre-define the line items, the amounts, the payment options, payment gateways, etc., and all it needs after it has been activated is to be triggered and told which Company/Client (the Target) should be assigned to the generated Invoice.  If your Company is a Lead or Prospect you will not see this field.

CLICK HEREto learn about On-Demand Generators

If you have the PLUS Bundle Power-Up Active in your account you can select Email and/or Form Cannons to go out to this Company. If your Company is a Lead you will not see this field.

CLICK HEREto learn about Email Cannons

CLICK HEREto learn about Form Cannons

Trigger a Dynamic Accumulating Invoice Generator & Assign it to this Company.  If your Company is a Lead or Prospect you will not see this field. 

CLICK HEREto learn about Accumulating Invoice Generators

Trigger Dynamic Recurring Generator & Assign to this Company. A Recurring Invoice Generator lets you automatically generate Invoices on a schedule and frequency that you specify.  If your Company is a Lead or Prospect you will not see this field. 

CLICK HEREto learn about Recurring Invoice Generators

Dynamic Proposal Generators are not assigned to anyone, but rather, they are a mechanism that lets you pre-create and pre-configure details/content and save all of that as part of a Dynamic Proposal Generator that can be referenced in an Automation and then triggered on the fly as a part of that Automation. If your Company is a Lead you will not see this field. 

Tags are labels you create to help organize your Companies and form your own structure. Tags are highly customizable, so you can create and assign them as you see fit.

CLICK HERE to learn about Tags

You can optionally select a  Category for the Company from the dropdown. This section also allows you to put in the Website, Phone number, Skype, and Background info for this Company.

CLICK HEREto learn about Content Categories

Next, you can enter the location info for the Company. By default, this address information will be displayed in other platform areas (ex. Estimates/Invoices sent to Prospect(s)/Client(s)). 

Lastly, you can fill in your Custom Fields. 

Private Custom Fields are only viewable by the Primary Contact of the Company. 

Public Custom Fields can be viewed by any Contact associated with that Company.

CLICK HEREto learn about Custom Fields

How do I add an existing Contact to a Company?

Navigate to the Companies screen. Select the Company you would like to work with by clicking on their Company name. This will take you to the Company Dashboard.

Under Contact Details, click Add.

Choose  Assign Existing Contact. A drop-down menu will appear in which you can choose multiple Contacts.

How do I change the Primary Contact?

To change the Primary Contact go to CRM > Companies and click the 3 dots on the Company to reveal the options.  From the list, click Change Primary Contact.

Now you can either Assign Existing Contact or Create New Primary Contact if you are assign someone who is not yet in the CRM.  

To   'Assign Existing Contact' click the option and then use the dropdown arrow to find the existing Contact from your Contact list and then click save.

Your Previous Primary Contact will then be made a secondary contact of the Company by default.

How do I make a Company Inactive?

If you are no longer working with a Company and you are wanting to remove them from the Active Companies list, you can do so by making them inactive. This will remove them from the Active Companies list but can re-activate the Company if required.

In CRM > Companies, click the 3 dots on the Company to reveal the options;

Once the Company has been made inactive, you can go to the Idle/Inactive Companies list to make the Company Activate, copy the UID or Delete the Company.

IMPORTANT: Please note that if you choose to Delete the Company, all data associated with the Company will be deleted.