The job this category serves
The team cannot reliably answer who owns the relationship, what happened or what should happen next. Establish the shared record before adding acquisition tools. A well-maintained spreadsheet may be a sufficient first version.
What needs to exist first
- An agreed definition of account, person, enquiry and next action.
- A record owner and access rules for the people doing the work.
- Duplicate handling, source fields and a review or deletion process.
Where this category stops
A CRM does not automatically supply a relevant target market or fix a weak offer. A database product can have record features without covering your complete relationship workflow.
A useful acceptance test
Ask two operators to work from the same five records. Can both identify the source, status, responsible person and next action without checking private notes? Test a duplicate and an ownership change.
Track records without owners, overdue actions, duplicates and time spent reconstructing history. These measures expose whether the record is serving the team.
Illustrative situation
A founder and contractor both follow up with the same buyer. The first fix is a single owner and shared history; another outreach tool can make the duplication worse.
Capabilities to put in the requirements brief
Scroll horizontally to read all columns.
| Capability | Evidence to ask for | Exception to test |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | One account or enquiry identifier and its source | A duplicate or uncertain match needs review |
| Responsibility | One owner and a dated next action | Ownership changes without an acknowledged handoff |
| History | What happened, what was promised and the current status | Private notes contain context the next operator cannot see |
A worked planning example
A founder and contractor use a shared sheet for twenty active opportunities. They agree on an account key, source, owner, status and next-action date. This can be a complete starting record. A CRM investigation becomes more useful when history, permissions or related records can no longer be maintained reliably in that sheet.
Set up a limited pilot
- Define the minimum record and which copy is authoritative.
- Assign someone to correct duplicates and review records without a next action.
- Ask a second operator to reconstruct five items using only the shared record.
- Rehearse an export and ownership change before migrating any active workflow.
How to approach a product shortlist
The fit finder can return CRM when there is no shared record. This means establishing the relationship record; it is not an instruction to purchase a CRM subscription. The current research list does not attempt a full survey of CRM vendors.