Why your CRM forgets people

The incentives in most systems of record stop the moment the transaction does.

A woman in a wide-brimmed hat playing an electric guitar in a record shop

Records follow incentives

A pipeline is maintained because a forecast depends on it. Nobody updates a closed-won opportunity, and nobody updates the people attached to it either.

The part that was never yours

There is a second reason, and it is structural. A shared pipeline belongs to the company. It is designed to survive you leaving, which is exactly what makes it a poor home for the relationships you personally built.

A record organised around people you know is worth very little to anyone else and a great deal to you. That is the whole argument for keeping it separate.

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The company behind the contact

You remember the person perfectly well. What you have forgotten is the year their employer is having, and that is most of what the call is about.

A relationship file is not a sales pipeline

Most CRMs are organised around deals moving through stages. A record organised around the people you know is a different tool entirely.