Sales

Don't lose customers when a salesperson leaves your organization

Published: January 1, 2008

When a salesperson leaves your organization, it's important that all their contacts know who to talk to, and that no activities are left undone. In just a few minutes, you can protect the critical business data owned by the person who is leaving, reassign all data and activities to other employees, and send a personal e-mail to each contact letting them know who their new salesperson will be.

On This Page
You don't need a system administrator: Sales managers can make these changes You don't need a system administrator: Sales managers can make these changes
Secure your business data Secure your business data
Reassign the work to one person Reassign the work to one person
Reassign the work to multiple people Reassign the work to multiple people
Communicate the transition Communicate the transition

You don't need a system administrator: Sales managers can make these changes

These transition tasks can be done by a user with the Sales Manager or Vice President of Sales default security roles, or by a person with the System Administrator security role.

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Secure your business data

This article assumes that a salesperson named Henrik Jensen has left your organization. When Henrik leaves, you should deactivate his user record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM so that he no longer can access the data. This also prevents other people from assigning him any records or activities.

  1. In the Navigation Pane, click Settings. In the Administration area, click Users.

  2. Find and open the user record for Henrik Jensen.

  3. On the Actions menu, click Disable, and then click OK.

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Reassign the work to one person

If Henrik's work will all be handled by one employee, while you're in Henrik's user record, you can reassign all his records at once.

  1. On the Actions menu, click Reassign Records, and then on the Reassign Bulk Records dialog box, click Assign to another user.

  2. Click the Lookup button. From the Look Up Records list, select the employee name, and click OK.

  3. On the Reassign Bulk Records dialog box, click OK.

  4. Close Henrik's user record.

This will reassign every record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM that is owned by Henrik to the other employee. You'll still need to do a little more work on appointments, as Henrik might be scheduled as the organizer, or as a required or optional attendee to appointments he did not own.

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Reassign the work to multiple people

Sometimes transitions are more complicated than a one-to-one assignment, and you need to divide a salesperson's responsibilities among two or more people. In the following example, Henrik is responsible for sales in both Washington and Oregon, and you want Gail Erickson to own everything associated with Washington contacts and customers, and Shiraz Cupala to own everything associated with Oregon contacts and customers.

First, identify which record types have records that need to be reassigned. Typically, salespeople are responsible for contacts, leads, opportunities, accounts, tasks, phone-calls, faxes, letters, e-mail messages, and appointments. They might also own quotes, orders, and invoices.

For accounts, contacts, leads, quotes, orders, and invoices, you can identify records owned by Henrik where the person or company resides in a specific state. You'll have to specify the search a little differently for opportunities and activities, because address information is not stored in these records.

Reassign accounts, contacts, leads, quotes, orders, and invoices

  1. On the Standard toolbar, click Advanced Find.

  2. In the Look for list, select a record type: Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Quotes, Orders or Invoices.

  3. Click Select, and from the list, select Owner.

  4. Click the operator (by default this will be Equals Current User), and then select Equals.

  5. Click Enter Value, and then click the Lookup button. Type Henrik, click Find, double-click Henrik Jensen, and then click OK.

  6. Click Select, and then select one of the following:

    • For accounts, select Address 1: State/Province.

    • For invoices, select Bill To State/Province.

    • For leads, select State/Province.

  7. Click Enter Value, and then type WA, or use Lookup to find the value.

  8. Click Find.

  9. Click the check box at the top of the list that selects all records, and then click the Assign button on the toolbar.

  10. Click Assign to another user, click the Lookup button, double-click Gail Erickson, and then click OK.

  11. Repeat the search for records in Oregon, and assign them to Shiraz Cupala.

  12. Repeat steps 2-11 until accounts, contacts, leads, quotes, orders, and invoices are all reassigned.

Reassign opportunities

Next, reassign opportunities. You must specify opportunities that are based on a lead from the specified state, because addresses aren't stored in opportunities.

  1. On the Standard toolbar, click Advanced Find.

  2. In the Look for list, select a record type: Opportunities.

  3. Click Select, and then click Owner.

  4. Click the operator (by default this will be Equals Current User), and then select Equals.

  5. Click Enter Value, and then click the Lookup button. Type Henrik, click Find, double-click Henrik Jensen, and then click OK.

  6. Click Select, and in the Related section of the list, select Originating Lead.

  7. Click Select, and then select State/Province.

  8. Click Enter Value, and then type WA.

  9. Click Find.

  10. Click the check box at the top of the list that selects all records, and then click the Assign button on the toolbar.

  11. Click Assign to another user, click the Lookup button, double-click Gail Erickson, and then click OK.

  12. Repeat the search for records in Oregon, and assign them to Shiraz Cupala.

Reassign any open or scheduled activities

Next, reassign any open or scheduled activities. Unfortunately, you can't see the state in the Advanced Find search results, so you'll need to open each activity to determine which person to assign it to.

  1. On the Standard toolbar, click Advanced Find.

  2. In the Look for list, select a record type: Activities.

  3. Click Select, and then click Owner.

  4. Click the operator (by default this will be Equals Current User), and then select Equals.

  5. Click Enter Value, and then click the Lookup button. Type Henrik, click Find, double-click Henrik Jensen, and then click OK.

  6. Click Select, and then select Activity Status.

  7. Click Enter Value, double-click Browse, double-click Scheduled, and then click OK.

  8. Click Edit Columns, and under Common Tasks, click Add Columns, select Due Date, Regarding, and Start Date, and then click OK.

    While you're here, you may want to adjust the width of the columns so that all fit on the screen. To adjust the width, select a column, click Change Properties, select a width, and then click OK.

  9. In the Edit Columns dialog box, click OK.

  10. Click Find.

  11. You'll need to look at each scheduled or open activity, and decide who to assign it to. Click the link in the Regarding column to see what the activity is about. You may have to click another link in the record that comes up to determine which state the activity is related to, and, therefore, who to assign the record to.

  12. Select each record, and then click the Assign button on the toolbar.

  13. In the Assign to Queue or User dialog box, click the Lookup button, find the user, and then click OK twice.

Look for additional appointments

The last assignment task is to look for appointments where Henrik is not the owner, but is listed as the organizer, or as a required or optional attendee. To find all appointments where Henrik has one of these roles:

  1. On the Standard toolbar, click Advanced Find.

  2. In the Look for list, select Appointments.

  3. Click Select, and in the Related section, select Activity Parties (Activities).

  4. Click Select, and select Party.

  5. Select Equals Current User, and then select Equals.

  6. Click Enter Value, and then click the Lookup button.

  7. In the Look for list, select User, type Henrik, click Find, double-click Henrik Jensen, and then click OK.

  8. Click Find.

  9. Open each appointment, and look both on the Appointments and Details tabs to see whether Henrik is required, optional, or the organizer of the appointment, and change the data as required.

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Communicate the transition

Both Gail and Shiraz can easily send e-mail to all their newly assigned contacts – or the manager or system administrator who assigns the contacts could send the e-mail.

There are two basic steps: creating an e-mail template for notifying contacts about changes, and then selecting and notifying the employees. Gail and Shiraz can create their own e-mail templates, or the sales manager or system administrator can create one template for both of them to use.

Prepare an e-mail template

First, prepare an e-mail template with the message to send to the contacts:

  1. Click Settings, and then click Templates.

  2. Click E-mail Templates, and then click New.

  3. In the E-mail Template Type dialog box, select Contact, and then click OK.

  4. In the Title box, type something like Notify Contacts about New Account Manager. This information helps you and other employees to select the correct template, but is never seen by customers.

  5. In the Subject box, type the subject line of the e-mail that will go to customers. For example, you could enter I'm your new sales representative at Adventure Works Cycle.

  6. In the body, type and format the text of the e-mail message you want to send. You can insert fields from the contact record. For example, to start your message with Dear <contact_first_name>:

    1. After you type Dear, on the Form toolbar, click Insert/Update, and then click Add.

    2. In the Record Type list, select Contact.

    3. In the Field list, select First Name, and then click OK twice.

  7. If this template will be used by multiple users, make sure the signature inserts the name of the user who's using the template. For example, you could select the Full Name and Job Title of the user from Insert/Update. The result will look like this in the file: 

    {!User: Full Name;User : Job Title;}

  8. When you're satisfied with your text and formatting, click Save and Close.

Send e-mail to reassigned contacts

  1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, and then click Contacts.

  2. On the Standard toolbar, click Advanced Find, and then click New.

  3. Click Select, and select Modified By.

  4. Click Equals Current User, and then select Equals.

  5. Click Enter Value, click the Lookup button, select the name of the user who assigned the records, and then click OK.

  6. Click Select, and select Modified On.

  7. Click Enter Value , click the calendar control, and then select Today.

  8. Click Select, and then select Owner.

  9. Click Equals Current User, and then select Equals.

  10. Click Enter Value, click the Lookup button, select the new owner, and then click OK.

  11. Click Find.

  12. Select the Select/clear all records on this page check box.

  13. Click the Send Direct E-mail button on the toolbar.

  14. In the Send Direct E-mail dialog box, select the new template you just created:

    1. In the Send direct e-mail to section, select Selected records on current page.

    2. In the Send direct e-mail from section, click the Lookup button, select your name, and then click OK.

    3. Click Send.

Your customers now know who to contact, and all work items are reassigned so that you don't lose business during the transition.

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