[QUICK START] Setting up your team on Cloze

Setting up your team is easy. Below is a guide to get you started. 

1.) Create and Invite your Team on Cloze:

You will get started by first creating your team. 

Each team member will receive an invitation and create their own Cloze account with their own email, calendar, phone, etc.. connected.

Here are instructions on how to setup your Team

2.)  Invite team members

Following the instructions above Cloze will walk you through creating your team and inviting your team members.

You can invite additional team members at any time by following these instructions.

In the Team Members section Cloze Admins can view the status of their invitations. Here is an overview.

3.) Team Settings and Access Controls

You can enable the ability for any Team Member to...

• Self Service - Team members with a validated work email address can join without an invitation.
• View other team members, see who else is talking to their contacts, see leaderboards — Enable this option to all your team members to see who else is talking to their contacts. It also enables them to see the Leaderboard in the Analytics section.
• Invite people to join the Team — Enable this option to let members of your team invite others to your team.
• Take ownership of unassigned contacts — Enable this option to allow members of your team to assign unassigned contacts to themselves. [RECOMMENDED]
• Follow team updates to their contacts — Enable this option to receive contact information updates from the team. [RECOMMENDED]
• View shared Contacts and Projects (or Sales, Cases, Deals etc..) — Enable this option to allow team members to see shared Contacts, Projects and Deals (your team view). If disabled they will only see Contacts that have been assigned to them or Projects and Deals in which they are involved.
• Edit shared Contacts and Projects (or Sales, Cases, Deals, etc...) — Enable this option to allow team members to edit shared Contacts, Projects and Deals (your team view). If disabled they will only be able to edit Contacts that have been assigned to them or Projects and Deals in which they are involved.

Here is an overview of Team Settings and Access Controls.

4.) Team Roles

As Team Members join you can assign them specific Roles. The person that creates the team will be assigned the Administrator Role. 

Cloze Business offers three default team Roles:

Administrator

• Administer the Cloze Business subscription (add new Seats, Update billing information)
• View Team Member dashboards
• Update segments, stages, steps, and templates for all Team Members
• View other team members and search for contacts across the team
• Invite people to join the team
• View shared projects
• Edit shared projects

Manager

• View Team Member dashboards
• View and edit shared contacts and projects

Member

• A regular Team Member

Note: Team members with the Member Role are assigned the access you set in the Team Settings and Access Control section.   

5.) Customizing Cloze 

When you first get started with Cloze we recommend organizing the people and companies you are currently working with using the options provided in the Relationship section for People and Companies.

We provide many flexible options to help tailor Cloze to your business. 

Stages and Segments

At a high-level, you will classify your contacts with a Stage and Segment.  The combination of Stages and Segments (e.g., Active Customer) are important because they set three core functions in Cloze:

1. Keep in touch reminders (how often Cloze will remind you to get back in touch)
2. Next Steps and Custom Fields (your workflow)
3. Provide organization for you and your team

Stage:

• Lead 
• Potential 
• Active
• Inactive
• Lost  

All of the above labels are customizable. 

• Using Segments you can classify and track many types of relationships
• Customize the labels used for your Segments 
• Adjust your keep in touch settings for each Segment
• Track Next Steps with your various Business Segments

Process Mapping (i.e. Next Steps)

After you have customized your Segment labels it is important to next think about your overall process. We provide Next Steps to help you embed your process in Cloze.

Next Steps are an extension of the higher level Stages—they should mirror your workflow and all of the things you and your team need to get done to move to the next Stage. 

Consider...

• Steps to qualify a lead
• Steps to win a deal
• Steps to deliver the service or implement the product
• Steps for different Segments (Partners vs Customers)

Think of Next Steps as repeatable checklists that you can write once and reuse. In sales you may refer to the combination of Stages and Next Steps as your "pipeline" or "sales funnel".  In Projects you will track all of the Steps to "win" your engagement (move from Lead to Potential to Active) and then track all of your steps to deliver the project or service. 

Below are a few examples of how you might structure your Next Steps for a Project or Sales Pipeline. You will likely have a much different process, but they should help you get started. You can have as many Next Steps as you would like (in other CRMs our Next Steps are often called Stages). Each Next Step can have it own reminder and email template associated with it too. 

You can visualize all of your Next Steps and progress in our Kanban board view. 

Here is an overview of how to think about your lead flow in Cloze.

LEAD QUALIFICATION TO CUSTOMER EXAMPLE

Lead Stage:
As leads come in you will need to qualify them to see if they are good match for your products or services. Here are some example Next Steps that might be used for the "Lead" Stage:   

• Introduction / Follow-up
• Send additional information
• Document needs
• Qualified

Potential Stage: 
Before you can deliver your service or product, you will need to keep track of everything it takes to win the deal or engagement. Here are some example Next Steps that might be used for the "Potential" Stage:

• Discuss Capabilities
• Draft Proposal / Cost Estimate
• Deliver Proposal
• Intro Project Team
• Negotiation
• Final Proposal
• Contract Signed

Active Stage:
Now that you've won your deal or engagement you need to track everything required to deliver the project to the client. Here are some example Next Steps for the "Active" Stage:

• Kickoff Meeting
• Rollout Plan Draft
• Plan Sign-off
• Client Acceptance
• Phase 1 Delivery
• Phase 1 Invoice Sent
• Phase 1 Payment Received
• Phase 2 Delivery
• Phase 2 Invoice Sent
• Phase 2 Payment Received

Inactive Stage:
Your product or service has been successfully delivered/completed, but you have a some final items to take care of before you are truly done. Here are few examples of Next Steps at this phase. 

• Final Invoice Sent
• Final Payment received
• Thank You Email Sent and Request Referrals
• Checking in (30-60 days after the deal/project has completed trigger a reminder to checkin)

Example Next Steps for Deals and Projects

SERVICE ENGAGEMENT EXAMPLE

For a typical project you'll move through Stages and Steps to deliver your project or service. 
Create Project → Potential Project → Active Project → Done (or Lost) Project 

Potential Project
Before you can start delivering your service, you will need to keep track of everything it takes to win the engagement. Here are some example Next Steps that might be used for the "Potential" Stage:

• Needs Assessment 
• Project Scoping
• Agree on Scope
• Draft Proposal and Cost Estimate
• Intro Project Team 
• Deliver Proposal
• Negotiation
• Agree on Price
• Final Proposal
• Engagement Agreement Signed

Active Project
Now that you've won your engagement you need to track everything required to deliver the project to the client. Here are some example Next Steps for the "Active" Stage:

• Kickoff Meeting
• Rollout Plan Draft
• Plan Sign-off
• Client Acceptance
• Phase 1 Delivery
• Phase 1 Invoice Sent
• Phase 1 Payment Received
• Phase 2 Delivery
• Phase 2 Invoice Sent
• Phase 2 Payment Received

Project Done
Your project has been successfully completed, but you have a some final items to take care of before you are truly done. Here are few examples of Next Steps at this phase. 

• Final Invoice Sent
• Final Payment received
• Thank You Email Sent and Request Referrals
• Checking in (30-60 days after the project has completed trigger a reminder to checkin)

SALES PIPELINE OR FUNNEL EXAMPLE
For a typical pipeline you'll move through Stages and Steps to deliver to win your deal. 
Create Deal → Potential Deal → Won Deal (or Lost Deal)

Potential Deals
Winning a deal often takes many calls, meetings and emails. You can use Next Steps to track all of the things you need to do to keep the deal moving forward and ultimately win it. Here are some example Next Steps that might be used for the "Potential" Stage:

• Discuss Needs
• Value assessment 
• Summary of Needs
• ROI analysis
• Customer Reference Calls 
• Draft Proposal / Cost Estimate
• Send Draft Proposal
• Negotiation / Agree on Price
• Final Proposal
• Legal Review
• Contract Signed

Won Deals
You've won your deal, but you have a few final items to take care of before you are truly done. Here are few examples of Next Steps at this phase. 

• Thank You Email and Referral Ask
• Invoice Sent
• Payment Received

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to customize your Next Steps.

6.) Share your Customizations with your Team

Cloze Business Administrators can share customizations to members of your organization to ensure the entire team is using the same Segment labels, Next Steps, Custom Fields and email templates. 

Here are instructions on how to share your customizations with your team. 

7.) Keeping Track of your Progress with Analytics and Kanban Views

You can then track your progress in the your Pipeline and Forecast with the Kanban Board View and in the Analytics section:

• Kanban Board view for People and Companies
• Lead Engagement Analytics
• Kanban Board View for Projects and Deals
• Pipeline Analytics
• Forecast Analytics