Everything you know about a customer, in one place
One file per company, with the people you speak to and the whole history underneath. Including the part your colleague was there for.
Last time is in somebody's inbox
You ring a company and the person who answers says: I went through all this with your colleague last month. You've lost the conversation before it started. Not because you weren't paying attention, but because the answer is in an inbox you can't open.
A spreadsheet doesn't fix that. One row per company can hold where things stand now, but not the history, and it is the history you need the moment somebody picks up.
A file that fills itself while you work
The company is the centre. Underneath it sit the contacts, the deals, and a timeline that fills up with what you and your colleagues do. There is nothing extra to keep up: a note after a phone call is one field and three lines.
The timeline holds seven kinds of event: called, emailed, a meeting, a note, a new deal, a task and a stage change. The last two arrive on their own, so move a deal to Quote and it is in the file without you writing it down.
What is actually in it
Enough fields to recognise a company, and no field you have to fill in before you can get on.
The company
Name, town, sector, website, company registration number, customer number and payment terms. Only the name is required; the rest you add when you know it.
The people underneath
Per contact a name, job title, email address and phone number. As many people per company as you need.
The timeline
Every conversation, every note, every new deal and every stage change, by date, with the name of whoever did it.
A note in three lines
After a phone call you write down what was said. It stays in there for good, including on the week you aren't in.
Finding it again
Search by name, town or sector; part of a word is enough. The list shows you the town, the sector and the owner for each company.
Where this carries through
The file doesn't stand alone: deals and tasks hang off it.
Sales pipeline
Every deal belongs to a company, and every stage change ends up in that company's timeline.
Read moreTasks and follow-up
Something you agreed in a call becomes a task with a date, so the file doesn't only look backwards.
Read moreImport and export
Your existing customer list doesn't have to be typed in again.
Read more
Put one company in
One customer, one note. After that you'll know whether this is where you keep track of it.