India
Quick answer
A CRM should record only what someone will act on: who the customer is and where they came from, what they want, where the deal is (stage, owner, next action date), the dated history of conversations and documents, and what happens after the sale. Keep required fields to five or six at entry, put everything else in notes or fill it in later, and leave out data you have no purpose for.
Key takeaways
- Add a field only if you can name who will act on it and how; otherwise it becomes a box nobody fills.
- Five groups: who they are, what they want, where the deal is, the history, after the sale.
- Fields are for filtering and reminders; notes are for the next conversation. Keep fields few and notes easy.
- Five or six required fields at entry; the record grows with the relationship.
Once you have your sales stages written down, the next question every CRM asks is: what do you want to record about each customer?
The tempting answer is “everything”. That is the answer that kills CRMs. Every field you add is a box someone on your team has to fill in, on every customer, on a busy afternoon. Add thirty and the team stops filling any of them.
The right answer is smaller than you think.
The Rule: Only What Someone Will Act On
Before adding any field, ask one question: who will look at this, and what will they do differently because of it?
“Source” passes, because the owner will spend more on the channel that brings buyers. “Next action date” passes, because the CRM will remind someone. “Number of employees at the customer’s company” usually fails for a small business, because nobody does anything with it.
If you cannot name the person and the action, leave the field out. You can always add it later. You can rarely get a team to fill in a field they have learnt to ignore.
The Five Groups Every Record Needs
Whatever the industry, a useful customer record has the same five parts.
- Who they are. Name, company, phone or WhatsApp, email, city, and where the enquiry came from. The source field is the one most businesses skip and most regret skipping.
- What they want. The requirement in one line, in the customer’s own words, plus budget, timeline and who makes the decision.
- Where the deal is. Stage, owner, next action with a date, last contact date, and a lost reason if it is lost. This group is what turns a list into a pipeline.
- The history. Dated notes per conversation, documents, quotes sent. This is what lets a colleague take over.
- After the sale. Purchase date, renewal or repeat date, service requests, referrals. The part most CRMs are never set up for and most profit comes from.
Group three is the one to protect. If your team only ever fills in stage, owner and next action date, the CRM still works. If they fill in everything except those three, it does not.
Fields Versus Notes
A common mistake is making a field for everything that might be said. “Objection”, “Competitor mentioned”, “Preferred call time”, “Mood of the call”.
A simple test tells you which to use:
Fields are for the system. Notes are for people. A good CRM has few of the first and makes the second effortless to add, ideally in one line with the date filled in automatically.
What a Good Record Looks Like
Here is a manufacturing distributor’s record for one dealer, with only the fields that passed the test:
Sharma Hardware, Ludhiana ā Source: trade fair ā Wants: 200 units/month of the 12mm range, budget ā¹4 lakh/month ā Stage: Sample sent ā Owner: Vikram ā Next: call for sample feedback, 24 Oct ā Last contact: 17 Oct
Notes: 17 Oct, V: owner’s son handles purchasing, prefers WhatsApp. Current supplier late on deliveries, that is the real pain.
Twelve pieces of information. A new colleague could call Sharma Hardware tomorrow and sound like they had been on every previous call. Nothing on the record is there because it was possible to collect.
Industry Fields: Add Them, Sparingly
Every industry has a few fields the generic list does not cover. They are usually the reason a generic CRM feels wrong.
Apply the same rule to each: who will act on it, and how? “Site visit outcome” passes, because it decides whether the next step is negotiation or a second visit. “Floor preference” is a note.
What Not to Collect
Three kinds of information should stay out of the CRM, or go in only with a clear reason.
- Data you have no use for. Date of birth, if you never send birthday greetings. Full address, if you never post anything.
- Sensitive data without a purpose. ID numbers, bank details, health information. If your process genuinely needs them (immigration does need passport details), store them with restricted access and say so to the customer.
- Opinions about the customer. Keep notes factual. Customers can ask what you hold about them, and a note written in frustration reads badly later.
The principle is the same one India’s data protection law is built on: collect what you need for a purpose you could explain to the person, and nothing more. Module 4 covers the rules properly. For now, the habit matters more than the law.
Required at Entry, Everything Else Later
One more decision makes the difference between a CRM the team uses and one they resent: which fields are required when a new enquiry is added?
Keep it to five or six. Name, phone, source, requirement in one line, owner, next action. Everything else can be filled in as the conversation develops. The record grows with the relationship, instead of demanding the whole story on day one.
Fewer required fields means more enquiries actually make it into the system.
Write Your Own List
The checklist below has the five groups with the common fields in each, a column to tick what you need, and space for your industry’s own rows. Fill it in next to your sales stages page. The two together describe your CRM better than any demo, and they are the first two things anyone building a CRM around your business will ask for.
Next lesson: how enquiries get into those records from the website, WhatsApp and the phone without anyone retyping them.
Check what you learned
3 quick questions. Pick an answer and see why.
Which of these should be a field rather than a note?
The team fills in every field except stage, owner and next action date. What happens?
How many fields should be required when a new enquiry is entered?
You finished Lesson 2
Up next Ā· Lesson 3 Capturing Enquiries From Website, WhatsApp and Phone in One Place Read the next lesson Previous: Lesson 1 Ā· Map Your Sales Process Before You Pick a CRM
Planning a CRM for your business?
We design and build CRMs around the way your team already works. Tell us about your process and we will suggest the simplest setup that fits.
