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2026-07-02·6 minCRMSales ops
CRM that sales actually uses: no orphan leads
If the CRM is a graveyard of half-updated rows, you don't have a CRM problem — you have an ownership problem.
Define stages in language sales uses: New → Contacted → Qualified → Booked → Won/Lost. Drop vanity stages.
Every new lead needs an owner in under 60 seconds (human or AI). Unassigned = unpaid marketing.
SLAs: first touch < 5 min on paid; follow-up tasks auto-created when stage changes.
Report weekly: leads in, contact rate, qualified rate, show rate, win rate. Fire the vanity dashboard.