Here’s a quick way to use a core dynamic books principle to empower your reps, sharpen outbound focus and improve your CRM data — all without big changes.
Here’s the problem. Reps have worked their territories for 6 months and learned a ton. Some accounts have bad data, have been acquired, are a bad fit or can’t move forward because they’re mid-contract with a competitor. Your reps are doing bookkeeping to stash those accounts away so they don’t waste time going back to a bum account. Over time this cruft builds up and saps rep focus. Even worse, all that bookkeeping is a double waste because each rep does it differently, so you can’t actually use it to improve your CRM data.
The solution is to set up a returns process to standardize and track this behavior. Give the reps a structured way to “return” an account with a logged reason. Typically this means that you’ll reassign the account to a pool user of some kind but it could also just mean setting a status and a few fields on an account. This makes it easy for reps to avoid these accounts when prospecting. And it gives RevOps a standardized way to identify and deal with data issues.
Check out the video below for a simple version of the process for a rep using Gradient Works. You can do something similar in your CRM. Just make sure you’re validating ROE, flagging the account as a return, and storing the return reasons in a structured way.
Give it a shot. If you’ve got questions, hit me up. Your reps, pipeline and CRM data will thank you.
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PS: One of our customers’ favorite more advanced plays here is “Get Back to Me” which records a better time to reach out to the prospect when the account is returned. These accounts can be removed from the rep’s book and then reassigned to them at the appropriate time.
