Selecting Customers by Sales Patterns, Sales History

If you purchased Customers+Sales or Catalog Sales Edition or included any of the sales tracking modules in your custom system you can select customers by their sales history.

You can select customers:

• who bought something from you in any specified period,
• who bought a specific product(s),
• with sales of certain status (eg quote, invoiced, paid),
• who spent certain amount with you, eg more than $1,000 or made certain number of purchases,
• who did not buy from you in a specified period or did not buy a specific product,
• combine these criteria in any way you want.

Using these additional criteria makes your reports much more powerful. The Sales by Product report can show how people who bought certain product buy related products.

• Standard Report - Select Contacts by Sales Patterns
• Using Sales Patterns in Additional Filters and Custom Reports

Standard Report - Select Customers by Sales Patterns

Located in the Mail Merge department, this standard report allows you to select customers by their sales history and send them a letter or an email. When you invoke the report, it prompts for these parameters:

• Sold on: date range when the sale occured. For example, entering 01/01/2006-31/12/2006 will select customers who bought something from you in 2006.
• Has Product: Selects customers who bought specified product(s). If you enter multiple products, the system will list the customers who bought either of them.
• Sale Status: Selects customers with sales of specified status.
• Amount: Amount spent. For example, specifying 1000-2000 will select customers who spent between $1000 and $2000. If used in conjunction with the Sold On parameter, this selects customers who spent specified amount of money in the nominated period, eg between $1000 and $2000 in Jan-Jun 2006.
• Not sold in these dates: Selects customers with no purchases in the specified date range (opposite to Sold On parameter).
• Does not have product: Select customers who did not purchase specified product(s). If multiple products are specified, the program will select customers who did not purchase either of them.

You can use a combination of these criteria to select what you need:

• Combining Sold On and Has Product selects customers who bought specified products in the nominated date range.
• When using Sold On, Sales Status, Has Product and Amount together, you can select people who bought selected products in the nominated date range with transactions of specified status totalling the specified amount, eg people who bought 10 new widgets last year spending at least 10K.
• To select people who used to be good customers, but are no longer, use a combination of Sold On and Not sold in these dates, eg people who bought something last year but not this year.

Using Sales Patterns in Additional Filters and Custom Reports

To filter by sales pattern in any function or report, press the Also Filter by button and select any combination of the parameters highlighted in the figure below:

• Has_Amount | Amount: Amount spent. For example, specifying 1000-2000 will select customers who spent between $1000 and $2000.
• Has_NumSales | Has #Sales: Number of sale transactions. For example, you can use this to select people who only purchased from you once.
• Has_Product | Has Product: Selects customers who bought specified product(s). If you enter multiple products, the system will list the customers who bought either of them.
• Has_SubProduct | Has Sub-Product: Selects customers by product attrribute, such as colour - depending on how you use sub-product field when recording sales.
• Has_Sale_Date | Sold on: date range when the sale occured. For example, entering 01/01/2006-31/12/2006 will select customers who bought something from you in 2006.
• Has_Sale_Status | Sale Status: Selects customers with sales of specified status.
• Not sold in these dates: Selects customers with no purchases in the specified date range (opposite to Sold On parameter).
• HasNOT_ProductDoes not have product: Select customers who did not purchase specified product(s). If multiple products are specified, the program will select customers who did not purchase either of them.
• HasNOT_SubProductDoes not have sub-product: Select customers who did not purchase product(s) with specified attributes - either of them, if multiple ones are selected.
• HasNOT_Sale_StatusSale Status: Select customers who do not have sales of specified status.

Most of these parameters are the same as in the standard report described earlier. You can use a combination of these criteria to select what you need:

• Combining Sold On and Has Product selects customers who bought specified products in the nominated date range.
• When using Sold On, Sales Status, Has Product and Amount together, you can select people who bought selected products in the nominated date range with transactions of specified status totalling the specified amount, eg people who bought 10 new widgets last year spending at least 10K.
• To select people who used to be good customers, but are no longer, use a combination of Sold On and Not sold in these dates, eg people who bought something last year but not this year.

Important note. These filters apply at a customer level, not the sale level. If you filter of any of sales reports by Has... or HasNOT... parameters, they will return all sales for customers who had or did not have specified sales or products. For example, if you filter sales by Has_Product: Jeans, the system may return sales of dresses, too. However, only sales to customers who bought jeans in the specified period of time (or over your entire relationship with them) will be included. If they have not bought jeans, any other sales to them will be excluded.