The CRM as the shared record
🎯You'll be able to
Set up a CRM as the shared record: record types, required fields, owners and clear stage meanings.
🏠The everyday picture
A family keeps one calendar on the fridge. If everyone keeps a private diary instead, two people book the car for the same evening. One shared record avoids clashes.
📘What it really is
- A CRM holds the shared record of customers and sales. Common record types:
- contacts (people), companies (businesses), deals or opportunities (possible sales), and activities (calls, messages, meetings).
- A pipeline is the list of deal stages, such as New → Contacted → Quote sent → Won / Lost. Each stage needs:
- a clear meaning (exit rule): "Quote sent" means a written quote went to the customer;
- required fields, such as amount and expected close date at "Quote sent";
-
an owner: one named person responsible for the deal.
-
One source of truth per field: decide which system owns each piece of data. For example, the CRM owns the deal stage; accounts owns invoice status; the shop owns orders. Automations copy data from the owner to the others, not both ways.
-
Keep the number of stages and custom fields small. Unused fields make people skip the ones that matter.
📝A worked example
Sharma Textiles' wholesale pipeline, agreed with the owner and two sales staff:
| Stage | Means | Required |
|---|---|---|
| New | Enquiry recorded | Contact, source |
| Contacted | Someone spoke to them | Owner, next step date |
| Quote sent | Written quote shared | Amount (paise), products |
| Won | Order confirmed in writing | Advance amount, delivery date |
| Lost | Not going ahead | Reason (price, timing, stock, other) |
The "Lost reason" field was the owner's idea: after three months it showed that 40% of lost deals were "stock", which changed what the shop kept in its warehouse.
🌍Where it's used
- Sales teams of any size.
- Reporting: pipelines only give useful numbers if stages mean the same to everyone.
- Automations: stage changes are reliable triggers only if people use them consistently.
📝Case scenario
Two salespeople use "Quote sent" differently: one moves deals there after a phone call, the other only after sending a written quote. The pipeline value looks twice as large as reality. You agree an exit rule (written quote attached), make the quote file a required field for that stage, and review the stuck deals together.
🖱️Try it
Design a pipeline of four to six stages for a business you know. For each stage write what it means, which fields are required and who owns it. Then list which system owns each important field.
⚠️Common mistakes
- Stages with no exit rule. Sign: "Won" means different things to different staff. Fix: write what must be true to enter each stage.
- Letting every source create duplicates. Sign: one customer has three contacts. Fix: match on phone or email before creating.
🛠️For your project
Project 1 moves deals to won or part-paid, and Project 3 cleans contacts. Write the exit rule for each of those stages.
✅Quick check
What's an exit rule for a pipeline stage?
Show the answer
A clear statement of what must be true for a deal to be in that stage.
Why decide which system owns each field?
Show the answer
So automations copy data in one direction, and two systems don't overwrite each other.