January 7, 2025
Defining your customers in your CRM is a critical first step in running customer success operations. While this may sound obvious, it’s not as straightforward as it seems.
For example, many companies offer free trials, which can lead to accounts in your CRM using your product without paying. Additionally, duplicates can arise, complicating the process.
Here are a few suggestions to help keep your customer records clean and accurate in your CRM:
In the past, I’ve seen accounts created directly through integrations with our software application. While this may seem efficient, especially with high-volume accounts, it often results in duplicated data that requires sifting and merging before we can accurately determine how many paying customers we have at a given time.
To solve this, we ensured customers are only created when an opportunity is marked as Closed Won, and we verified payment receipt before considering the customer closed.
Having well-maintained contract records is essential. It allows you to easily track active customers, see when their contract started and ends, and assess their current status. With accurate contract data, you can calculate Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) by customer at any time and track churn effectively.
This will also help ensure you’re capturing the right data when calculating customer metrics. To learn about this, checkout the Living eBook I created here: Guide to Renewal Architecture in Salesforce.
If you're just getting started, the easiest way to distinguish paying customers is by using a manually updated field. While this works temporarily, it doesn't solve the issue long-term. As your business grows, automation or procedural solutions will be necessary to maintain clean data and reduce manual work.
If your business handles a high volume of smaller subscriptions, it might make sense to rely on Stripe to manage payment statuses. In this case, you can focus CRM efforts on high-value customers and automate payment status updates through scripts or automation. This helps streamline the process and allows your CRM to focus on renewals and high-impact accounts.
Defining paying customers and maintaining clean CRM data can be complex. The best approach depends on your business model and current stage. While manual methods may suffice for smaller businesses or those just starting out, focusing on scalable and efficient processes will yield long-term benefits, particularly as your customer base expands.
How do you manage customers in your CRM after you get this sorted? Check out Gauge for Salesforce.
