Field guide

You are being told to put it all in the CRM

What is happening

The show's read on why salespeople resist is not laziness. It is that they do not see how it helps them close more deals and make more money, and most companies confirm that read by forcing data in with a stick rather than a carrot.

What to do now

Invert what you use it for. The episode's framing is that a CRM should be your argument for how and why you are going to close a deal. Kept that way it is yours; kept as a reporting obligation it is your manager's.

What not to do

Do not fill it in the day before the pipeline review. That produces the data graveyard the episode is named after.

Source: CRMs: Deal Engines, Not Data Graveyards, episode 87 of the Oil & Gas Sales & Marketing Podcast.

Other situations

The next step

Bring this to your own pipeline

If the way energy buyers actually buy is costing you deals, talk it through with ModalPoint, the go-to-market firm Matthew Bertram runs. A 30-minute discovery call: no scope, no commitment, and a mutual NDA before anything substantive. You get a reply within one business day, and the first call is with someone who works in the sector.