Using CRM Data to Improve Sales Strategies

I met a sales team that tracks 27 different metrics. But none of them matter. They measure: - Calls made - Emails sent - Meetings booked - Demos delivered - Talk-to-listen ratio - Response time - Pipeline coverage But they all miss the most important number: How often prospects share your content with others. This hit me yesterday. We analyzed our last 200 deals: Won deals: Champion shared content with 5+ stakeholders Lost deals: Champion shared with fewer than 2 people It wasn't about our: - Product demos - Discovery questions - Pricing strategy - Negotiation skills It was about whether our champion could effectively sell for us. Think about your current pipeline: Do you know how many people have seen your proposal? Do you know which slides your champion shared internally? Do you know who viewed your pricing? Most sales leaders have no idea. They're optimizing metrics that don't drive decisions. Look at your CRM right now. I bet it tracks: ✅ When YOU last emailed a prospect ❌ When THEY last shared your content ✅ How many calls YOU made ❌ How many stakeholders viewed your materials ✅ When YOU sent a proposal ❌ How much time they spent reviewing it We've built dashboards to measure everything except what actually matters. The real sales metric that predicts closed deals: Internal Sharing Velocity (ISV) How quickly and widely your champion distributes your content to other stakeholders. High ISV = Deals close Low ISV = Deals stall We completely rebuilt our sales process around this insight: - Redesigned all content to be shareable, not just readable - Created spaces where champions could easily distribute information - Built analytics to measure exactly who engaged with what - Trained reps to optimize for sharing, not for responses Result? Win rates up 35%. Sales cycles shortened by 42%. Forecasting accuracy improved by 60%. Stop obsessing over your activity metrics. Start measuring how effectively your champions sell for you. If your CRM can't tell you how often your content is shared internally, you're operating in the dark. And that's why your forecasts are always wrong. Your move.

Sales reps don’t lose deals because they skip steps. They lose because they stop thinking. Sales processes create consistency. But let’s be honest...they’re also a crutch. Too many reps focus on moving deals from Stage 2 to Stage 3 instead of understanding why the deal should move at all. They ask questions to check boxes, not uncover insights. They run demos because “that’s next,” not because the buyer is ready. Then they wonder why deals stall - or celebrate advancing a deal that’s DOA. The problem? Sales processes are linear. Buyers aren’t. So how do you fix it? Stop managing the process. Start managing curiosity. 1. Replace process adherence with insight benchmarks Instead of “Did the rep schedule the demo?” ask, “What critical insight justified the demo?” Add a “Discovery Debrief” field in your CRM: What is the buyer’s internal trigger for change? Track Insight Discovery Rate (% of calls where new insights are uncovered). Low rates? Time for coaching. 2. Train reps to find the “pain behind the pain” Most reps stop at surface pain like “We need more efficiency.” That’s weak. The real pain is usually political or personal. Use the “5 Whys” Technique: - Why is efficiency a problem? -> Processes are slow. - Why? -> Outdated tools. - Why not upgrade? -> Budget cuts. - Why cuts? -> Revenue is down 20%. - Why is revenue down? ->Boom. Now you’ve found the real problem. 3. Reward qualifying OUT, not just advancing deals Reps hate killing pipeline. But bloated pipelines kill forecasting and waste resources. - Track “Deal Health” (pipeline velocity + win rates, not just size). - Offer an “Opportunity Kill” Bonus: Reward reps for disqualifying bad deals early. 4. Build deal progression checkpoints around buyer readiness, not rep actions Most CRM stages track seller activity (“Demo completed”) instead of buyer engagement (“Buyer defined success criteria”). - Shift stage gates to buyer actions: - Discovery Completed -> Buyer confirmed a business challenge + agreed on success criteria. - Proposal Sent -> Buyer agreed the solution meets success criteria + secured budget. Run Pipeline Audits: If deals are stuck, ask, “Was the buyer truly ready for the next step?” The Result? - Fewer ghosted deals. - Faster cycles...because reps only advance when buyers are bought in. - A healthier pipeline that reflects real revenue potential. Sales isn’t about process adherence. It’s about curiosity-fueled conversations that uncover real urgency. Curiosity, not checklists.