Prospecting can be a difficult business. Although I primarily use the "activity" feature to organize my accounts and do not rely on the list itself, there are certain accounts that I've called on that I don't want to have on my list anymore. These are the ones where the potential advertiser has sounded demonic on the phone, or angry, or whatever. However, I don't want to DELETE the account because the notes that I've taken on the account could help some other soul bravely go where many have gone before, or, more wisely, avoid. On the same token of allowing AE's to pass up on accounts and submitting them to a "house account" or "difficult leads" bucket, it would be nice to be able to pick up accounts from said buckets without waiting for a sales manager to approve. For instance, this week both managers are out and during my prospecting I've encountered a number of accounts in the "inactive" and "house account" buckets. Unfortunately, though these accounts are up for grabs to whomever might be interested, I can't see any history of the account, except for the "last billed". I also can't enter any notes.
I've spoken with another AE on the usability of Matrix, and he is convinced that you must keep your prospect list very short to manage everything, because its VERY difficult to get accounts moved. I believe that this problem leads to another problem, and that is not having notes or history on accounts that have been prospected, which is essential information for a new account executive or person attempting to cold call. If it were easier to put in a note and send the account into "no-mans-land", I believe we'd have a richer database of information. Instead, I believe AE's simply delete accounts that they don't have success with (unless they have spent money, in which case I think there is more care taken with them). It's a lost of knowledge that is untenable.
Prospecting can be a difficult business. Although I primarily use the "activity" feature to organize my accounts and do not rely on the list itself, there are certain accounts that I've called on that I don't want to have on my list anymore. These are the ones where the potential advertiser has sounded demonic on the phone, or angry, or whatever. However, I don't want to DELETE the account because the notes that I've taken on the account could help some other soul bravely go where many have gone before, or, more wisely, avoid. On the same token of allowing AE's to pass up on accounts and submitting them to a "house account" or "difficult leads" bucket, it would be nice to be able to pick up accounts from said buckets without waiting for a sales manager to approve. For instance, this week both managers are out and during my prospecting I've encountered a number of accounts in the "inactive" and "house account" buckets. Unfortunately, though these accounts are up for grabs to whomever might be interested, I can't see any history of the account, except for the "last billed". I also can't enter any notes.
I've spoken with another AE on the usability of Matrix, and he is convinced that you must keep your prospect list very short to manage everything, because its VERY difficult to get accounts moved. I believe that this problem leads to another problem, and that is not having notes or history on accounts that have been prospected, which is essential information for a new account executive or person attempting to cold call. If it were easier to put in a note and send the account into "no-mans-land", I believe we'd have a richer database of information. Instead, I believe AE's simply delete accounts that they don't have success with (unless they have spent money, in which case I think there is more care taken with them). It's a lost of knowledge that is untenable.