To maximize the value of Scale IR's services and optimize your lead follow-up process, we recommend implementing these CRM best practices. These practices will help you maintain organized lead management, strengthen your CRM infrastructure, ensure team-wide consistency, and enhance overall visibility.
1. Define Contact Lifecycle Stages
Clearly define the stages a contact progresses through in your CRM. This provides a standardized framework for tracking and managing interactions.
Here are some common lifecycle stage examples:
- Lead
- Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
- Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
- Opportunity
- Investor
- Vendor
2. Leverage Meeting Outcomes
Ensure your investor relations team (or the team responsible for meetings) consistently updates the "Meeting Outcome" field in your CRM after each meeting. This provides valuable insights into the status of each interaction and facilitates effective follow-up. Common meeting outcome statuses include:
- Completed
- No Show
- Cancelled
- Rescheduled
3. Define and Maintain Your Pipeline
- Opportunity Creation: Only create an opportunity in your CRM when a meeting has been scheduled. This ensures that your pipeline accurately reflects active deals and prevents clutter.
- Pipeline Stages: Ensure your pipeline stages align with your specific sales process. This provides a clear visual representation of the deal flow and helps track progress at each stage.
- Pipeline Hygiene: Regularly review your pipeline and remove opportunities that lack defined next steps. This keeps your pipeline clean and focused on actionable deals.
4. Set Up Closed/Lost Reasons
- Detailed Reasons: Create specific and informative "Closed/Lost" reasons in your CRM. This allows you to analyze why deals are not progressing and identify areas for improvement in your sales process. Examples of Closed/Lost reasons include:
- Not Interested in Asset Class
- Timing
- Liquidity
- Required Field: Make the "Closed/Lost Reason" field a required field in your CRM. This ensures that your team consistently captures this critical information.
- Follow-Up Tasks: If the "Closed/Lost Reason" is "Timing," set a follow-up task or a date-specific field at the contact level to schedule a future check-in. This ensures that you stay in touch with potentially valuable leads.