Customer Coverage Map: How to Prioritise Your Hubspot CRM Implementation

During stage 1 of our HubSpot CRM implementation process, there are a lot of things to consider. From customer journey mapping to deciding your development methodology, when looking at your never-ending task list, it can be hard to understand what to prioritise.

While it’s important to understand what your customer needs, often it can be difficult to picture how your internal processes line up with their expectations. The simple solution to this tricky problem is to try customer coverage mapping.

Customer coverage mapping (or CCM) allows you to think about your go-to-market approach for different customer-product combinations.

What Is customer coverage mapping?

A customer coverage map shows which customers buy which products or services, and through which sales channel. It's a simple way of showing how your customer buy from you so you can ensure that sales capacity and processes properly align with the customer's needs.

Each process will require different support based on the nature of that translation. If you were to sell someone a t-shirt online, the process needed would be vastly different if you were trying to sell someone a house; you need to think about what the persona needs and the process you’re offering to satisfy that need.

The map is based on two dimensions:

• Product/Service complexity shows the ease with which products are purchased. These are defined as either simple, bundled, or customised.
• Customer value shows the size and potential of the target customer. These are either low, medium, or high,

Each revenue is then segmented into 1 of 9 squares on the grid based on their complexity and customer value.

In each segment of this matrix, you’ll need to determine which sales channel you are going to sell through based on the customer's expectations. So, if the client is about to make a big purchase with you, it’s unlikely that they’d want to make this sale without speaking to a member of your sales team directly. Similarly, if you’re making a low-level transactional sale, it’s unlikely that the persona would need a high-level of service from your team.

Why is this important?

Although you might not see the effects of a CCM until the latter stages of your CRM implementation process, it’s vital that you begin filling out this map in stage 2: the strategy & planning phase. As a CRM covers all customers and sales channels, deciding what to prioritise can become difficult.

The customer coverage map is a way of thinking about how to set your priorities as you begin to plan your CRM implementation. 

As different customers will buy in different ways, you need to understand how your customers are segmented and how you expect them to buy. This will help you understand your buyer persona further, as you will be able to see how complex your journey is whilst filling out your customer journey map.

This will help you define which type of customer you should prioritise first. In order to decide this, think about where you will get the best return - both financially and where there is currently the greatest friction. or the greatest area for journey transformation.

Then, during the latter stages of the implementation development, you will need to make sure your systems and processes align with the expectations of your customers. Although a robust HubSpot CRM will help create a simplified sales journey for your buyer’s internally, externally you still need to meet their expectations. This CCM allows you to ensure you’re meeting their high level of expectations, providing them with a high level of service and information that they will expect when making a substantial purchase.

Setting priorities for your team

This early, vital step in your CRM implementation process can be the barrier between your team and a successful system. 

From this customer coverage map, you will be able to determine how to best delegate your time and effort:

• In stage 4: Implementation, Testing & Training, as you will be able to decide how to create the best user experience for your client and your team.
• Internally during Stage 5: Continuous Improvement. Over time, your persona's expectations will change. As you think about your CRM and any updates you need to provide to your process, you’re also going to have to make changes to how you offer your services in the future.

Customer coverage mapping ensures that your team is meeting persona service expectations. In order to make sure your team is dedicating the right time and effort to each sale, turning passive buyers into active leads.