Executive Status

I realised a flaw in crm systems today. For the cynics out there I guess there’ll hardly be a shock reaction to that statement, but there are salespeople that love their recording tools, so please bear with me.

I was party to a conversation where a senior exec was clearly frustrated that they weren’t being told what was happening with a particular endeavour.

The way they got this across was a peach. It took me back a few years and I loved it.

In this instance, even the minutiae of the process was being shrouded, whereas in my experience it is the detail that is focused on upon, with way to much irrelevant reporting rather than imparting the theme that matters. Nevertheless, it was wonderful insight.

The reason given for wanting to know was basically that they could get asked at anytime by vested interests (any involved party, within or without) what is going on with that initiative, and they’d look (and feel) stupid if they could not provide a plausible view.

Wouldn’t it be terrific if your crm could provide that simple soundbite-style status for Executive recital? Especially without having to rely on the salesperson to input such headline. What a great report that’d be for your boss’s boss and for the salesperson to show progress outside of canned ‘gateway’ or percentage likelihood measures.