Most CRM software systems on the market today include a field for “Stages of a Sale.” The number of stages in a sale can vary according to industry and sales methodology. Whether the number is 12 or five, it is critical that the sales team clearly understands the criteria for each stage, as well as what does not qualify for the stage.

Salespeople in firms that use CRM tend to feel pressure to have their pipelines reflect movement from stage to stage. This pressure creates an open door for “stage creep,” where salespeople try to fit their situation into the stage by the weakest of standards. Stage creep is the easy way to have their pipeline show activity, which keeps management happy.

Unfortunately, every time a salesperson falls for the deceptive appeal of stage creep, the odds of landing this opportunity decrease substantially because minimum standards of qualification were used to move it to the next stage.

Let’s take a look at a typical stage called “Visited Account.” The name of the field appears to be self-explanatory, but without a clear definition of this stage, the door is wide open for interpretation.

A salesperson that has difficulty breaking into new accounts, might believe that getting into the lobby and speaking to the receptionist counts as Visited Account. A different salesperson might believe that talking to an engineer from the lobby phone counts as Visited Account. A third salesperson that stopped by the account and found out that no one was available, could also believe that they have met the criteria for Visited Account.

Visited Account Criteria

The criteria for Visited Account can be spelled out in various ways. Let’s take a look at a set of ideal criteria for the stage Visited Account. The criteria might include:

• That the salesperson has visited the account.
• Has identified and met with the economic buyer who will approve the purchase.
• The technical buyer who created the specifications for the product.
• Any possible user buyers in the firm that might have preference issues.
• If at all possible, a “coach” at the account who is an ally, and wants to see the salesperson win the opportunity.

In the ideal example above, any or all of the types of influencers can affect the outcome of the opportunity. It is critical that none of these influencers are overlooked, because there exists a chance that the competition is working with all the influencers.

In order to reflect “pipeline movement” a salesperson that takes a shortcut and applies a minimal standard to the definition of this first stage, Visited Account, has actually damaged his chances of landing the opportunity. Shortcuts in the first stage have a negative ripple effect and it becomes increasingly difficult to move the opportunity through further stages.

A different type of stage creep can occur with a commonly used stage called “Needs Confirmation.” This stage is actually one of the most critical stages of a sale. Many salespeople tend to rush through this stage — or even worse — skip the stage. This stage is where the salesperson establishes whether or not there is an identifiable reason or need for the customer to purchase his or her product.

A clear definition of this stage can vary, but all definitions have something in common — a situation exists at the account creating the “need” for product. One example could be a situation where a customer is experiencing quality problems with the current vendor’s product. Another example could be that the customer is experiencing delivery issues and long lead times with the current vendor that is impacting production schedules. A slightly different example could be that the customer is designing a new product, and they are looking to purchase a component that is represented by the salesperson.

Identifying True Needs

The main reason why salespeople tend to rush through this stage or skip it altogether is that it is not easy to identify if the customer has a true need. It takes skill as well as the effective use of open-ended questions. If the salesperson is not properly trained to solicit responses from a customer, they are limited in ability to identify needs.

Stage creep at the Needs Confirmation stage can really damage a salesperson’s pipeline and prevent a salesperson from hitting forecast or budget. Opportunities that never had any real identified need by the customer might move to another stage, but they usually never are won. What is even worse, these opportunities never advance far enough to show them as a loss, and that creates false metrics in regards to the total dollar of opportunities that the salesperson is targeting. These opportunities that will never be won inflate the value of the salesperson’s pipeline, and because of that, the salesperson will not have enough potential business in the pipeline to attain quota. The deceptive appeal of stage creep once again negatively impacts the salesperson’s performance.

Sales managers who coach their salespeople on CRM should make it a practice to continually ask salespeople to explain the specific need(s) at the accounts they have in their pipeline. A salesperson who is well versed about the issues or needs at the account is always better equipped to provide a solution that best solves the customer’s issues.

Stage creep can happen with both new and seasoned salespeople. That is why it is critical that sales managers consistently reinforce the criteria for each stage in the CRM software. Speak frankly about the pressure that salespeople feel in this area, and also remind them that stage creep only serves to sabotage their new business opportunities and their ability to hit quota.

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Let’s Keep It Clean

There are numerous articles about the importance of keeping your CRM database clean and accurate. Almost everyone believes that “garbage in” equates to “garbage out.” So let’s take a look at a number of practical ways to keep databases clean from both a preventative as well as an ongoing basis.

When an organization makes the decision to move to a CRM system, a bit of up-front planning is essential as part of a preventative approach to keeping data clean.

The use of drop-down menus, where applicable, is an excellent way to help keep your database clean. Drop-down menus allow the user to choose one or multiple pre-established options that are already in the system, limiting the user from typing anything in the field.

Because the use of drop-down menus is not feasible for all fields in a CRM system, there are other steps that can be taken in the planning stage to help keep the database clean. One such option is to set up limitations on field length. Another option would be to put a qualifier on a field so it will only accept numeric values.

A field for the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code of an account is an excellent example. SIC codes are always four-digit numbers that identify the industry that
the account serves. If the field is set up to only accept numeric values of four digits, data-entry errors can be prevented.

Additional Protocols

Once an organization is up and running with CRM, it will need to establish some additional protocols to keep the database clean. Most firms disable deletion rights for users in an organization to prevent the accidental or malicious erasure of data. Usually a person from information systems or administration with knowledge of the system and data is selected to be the point person, who has the rights to delete data in the system. This person does not review the data for errors or gaps. This person relies on the users in the company to code accounts that might be duplicated or that need to be deleted.

One of the best methods to mark records for deletion is to have the users put the word “delete” at the beginning of any record that they want deleted. This allows the person with delete rights to run an alphanumeric sort of accounts, and then clean up any records that have word “delete” in them.

One very important protocol has to do with free-form text fields. In order for the users in the organization to be able create accurate queries in the system, the organization needs to create some naming conventions. For example, if an account name is “Associated Builders Compound” and everyone in the industry refers to them as “ABC,” the organization needs to establish a naming convention for this account and similar accounts that can be listed differently by users. In this example, the organization needs to determine whether it will be “A.B.C.” or “ABC” or “Associated Builders,” or the full name of the company.

Firms that use CRM on an on­going basis recognize that the individual user is the one who is responsible for his/her data, and that includes keeping it clean. It is important that the organization create a number of search views users can utilize on an ongoing basis to catch missing data in system records. These types of search views save valuable time for everyone.

A Living Plan

Keeping a database clean requires that an organization create a living plan — a plan that is actually used, not one that sits in the bottom of a desk drawer. Part of that plan should include ongoing messaging about the negative impact of entering new records in the system with partial information. The old adage about doing something right the first time applies to clean data as well; loading it correctly the first time is more cost-effective than having to go back in again, “to keep it clean”!