The minimal structure: one pipeline, records, three fields

The temptation, when setting up a CRM, is to plan a field for everything: source, sector, size, score, probability, follow-up date, campaign origin… Each field looks useful. Their sum makes the tool unlivable.

The rule

A required field must pass this test: someone makes a decision with it, every week. Otherwise it is optional, or it goes.

The five-stage pipeline

Contact received → conversation ongoing → quote sent → agreed → cash collected. Five stages everyone understands with no training. The nuances (“second follow-up”, “waiting for internal sign-off”) live in the notes, not in the stages: an eleven-column pipeline is no longer a work tool, it is a landscape.

Note the last stage: cash collected, not “won”. A sale is only finished when the money is in, and that single choice of word changes what the team watches.

The three required fields

1. The next step: “follow up Thursday”, “wait for Ms X's reply”. A file with no next step is a file that dies.
2. The date of the next step: it is what feeds the follow-ups.
3. The amount: even approximate. Without it, nobody knows what the pipeline weighs.

Everything else (source, sector, notes) is welcome but optional. A file with three filled fields beats twelve empty ones.

This week: count the required fields in your current CRM. Run each one through the weekly-decision test. Remove the requirement wherever the test fails.