See the Big Picture: Working with Goals in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2011

Setting goals is a necessity for any successful business. By setting and meeting goals, your business can gauge progress, boost motivation, and project growth. Goal Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2011 allows organizations to track goals by using any metric that measures the performance of their various teams.

Usually, a business determines its goals by using a top-down forecast based on factors such as research, budget planning, and historical performance. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online takes it a step further. Overall goals, or parent goals, can be assigned to sales managers who have the responsibility of meeting them. Child goals can then be created, which are assigned to individual teams, organizations, territories, and product lines. The child goals are then rolled up into the parent goals in order to measure progress. This means individual users or teams can measure their contributions to the company’s overall goals, thus keeping them informed and motivated.

Goal Management allows you to track just about any metric you can quantify in Microsoft CRM Online. You can set a goal for how many prospects you want your sales team to call every day, and then track the number of contacted records. You can set goals for your service team based on resolved cases. Goal metrics can also extend beyond company boundaries. If your company sends its customers a satisfaction survey, CRM Online can track the results. You can even track customer satisfaction by team member, so individuals can learn what needs to be improved upon.

You can access Goals from the Sales or Service modules. Click the New button in the ribbon to create your own Goal.  

Through effective goal management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2011, your business can identify points of growth and areas that need improvement. In addition to helping your business deploy a CRM Online solution, xRM.com can also help you fully utilize its many capabilities, such as Goal Management. For tutorials covering a range of features in CRM Online, we invite you to sign up for the xRM.com CRM Success Portal.