ABCABC CompanyRevScoreboard · the ten things
ABC Company is fictional. Figures come from a real sales organization; every name has been changed.
01 of 10 · The Scan

CRM Hygiene

Seven rules per open deal, scored weekly, fixed by Friday.

1The question

Can you trust what your CRM says right now?

2Why it matters

Every company tells salespeople to keep the CRM updated. Almost nobody says exactly what that means, measures it, and holds to it. A vague standard is an optional standard.

Hygiene isn't tidiness. Every other analysis on this site depends on these seven fields. If they're blank or stale, every report built on them is wrong in ways nobody can see.

The fix is a list, not a lecture: each seller gets the specific records to fix and exactly what is wrong with each one, privately, every Friday.

What the research says

Data quality is more than accuracy. Data consumers judge it on intrinsic, contextual, representational and accessibility dimensions, which include completeness and timeliness. The seven rules turn those dimensions into checks.

Wang & Strong (1996), Journal of Management Information Systems 12(4), 5–33 · doi.org/10.1080/07421222.1996.11518099

Across 607 effect sizes, feedback improved performance on average (d = .41), but over one third of feedback interventions made performance worse. Feedback helps most when it keeps attention on the task. Our application: the Friday list is private and names records, not people.

Kluger & DeNisi (1996), Psychological Bulletin 119(2), 254–284 · doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.254

“The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures.” A hygiene score is never a ranking.

Campbell (1979), Evaluation and Program Planning 2(1), 67–90 · doi.org/10.1016/0149-7189(79)90048-X
AEvidence grade A. Proven across many studies: a meta-analysis or a finding replicated again and again. The grade rests on the data-quality dimensions and the feedback research. The specific seven-rule set is our engineering.
What it doesn't settle. Wang and Strong studied data consumers in general, not sales teams. The specific seven rules are our application of their framework, not a finding from it.

3What to collect, every time

Input A number the CRM can't give you: the plan, quotas, working weeks, spend.Field Does the field exist, is it required, and who fills it in?Definition Your own definition of a thing we then compute against.Prediction Your answer now, in writing, checked against the record later.
Field
Next step and its dateRule 1. Text without a date can't be checked.
Field
Close dateRule 2. A past close date on an open deal is a forecasting problem wearing an admin costume.
Field
Date the deal entered its current stageRule 3. Without it you can report where a deal is, not how long it has sat.
Field
Last activity dateRule 4.
Field
Amount, lead source, primary contactRules 5–7. Required at creation, or they stay blank.
Input
Who owns the Friday sendA list that belongs to nobody is a report, and reports go stale.
Input
A clean-slate dateEverything before it is forgiven. Everything after it is measured.
Prediction
What share of open deals have a next step? Say a number.Checked against the export.

4How it's computed

  1. Take every open opportunity in the export.
  2. Check each one against the seven rules. The stage-age limit is your own: the 75th percentile of how long your won deals took.
  3. A deal is healthy only if it passes every rule. Health % = healthy deals ÷ open deals.
  4. Group the failures by seller. Each seller gets their own records and the exact fix for each, every Friday morning.

5What ABC's record shows

Friday hygiene report

Open deals as of 2026-07-23
Open deals
267
Healthy
10.9%
29 pass all seven rules
Need an update
238
Fixes needed
655
220 of 267 open deals (82%) fail “a next step is scheduled, dated today or later.” Four days earlier, on 2026-07-19, health was 16.9% across 248 open deals.
Open deals failing each rule
Dated next step
220
Activity in 30 days
147
Amount filled
132
Primary contact
69
≤ 45 days in stage
52
Close date ahead
32
Lead source filled
3
Health by seller (private in real life)
SellerOpenHealthyFixes
Cove Abernathy585%180
Onyx Gutierrez580%160
Val Rasmussen3421%72
Emery Kettering215%52
Oakley Delacroix2020%31
Marlo Eberhardt1911%40
Cyd Northcote1729%27
Greer Quintero176%49
Tatum Ingram1638%23
Casey Montague50%14
Sample Friday list · Cove Abernathy · 8 of 55 records to fix
Boulder Fitness1 · Connect · no amount · close 2026-07-01
  • Book the next step and date it
  • Move the close date to a real date, or close it
  • Advance it or close it: past 45 days in stage
  • Log the last real touch, or reach out
  • Add the amount
Canyon Title & Escrow1 · Connect · no amount · close 2026-10-01
  • Book the next step and date it
  • Advance it or close it: past 45 days in stage
  • Log the last real touch, or reach out
  • Add the amount
  • Name the primary contact
Blue Spruce Accounting1 · Connect · no amount · close 2026-07-05
  • Book the next step and date it
  • Move the close date to a real date, or close it
  • Advance it or close it: past 45 days in stage
  • Add the amount
  • Name the primary contact
Sagebrush Roofing1 · Connect · no amount · close 2026-10-01
  • Book the next step and date it
  • Advance it or close it: past 45 days in stage
  • Log the last real touch, or reach out
  • Add the amount
  • Name the primary contact
Maple Leaf Plumbing1 · Connect · no amount · close 2026-07-06
  • Book the next step and date it
  • Move the close date to a real date, or close it
  • Advance it or close it: past 45 days in stage
  • Log the last real touch, or reach out
  • Add the amount
Boulder Roofing1 · Connect · no amount · close 2026-07-06
  • Book the next step and date it
  • Move the close date to a real date, or close it
  • Advance it or close it: past 45 days in stage
  • Log the last real touch, or reach out
  • Add the amount
Highland Coffee Co.1 · Connect · no amount · close 2026-07-06
  • Book the next step and date it
  • Move the close date to a real date, or close it
  • Advance it or close it: past 45 days in stage
  • Log the last real touch, or reach out
  • Add the amount
Clearwater Pediatrics1 · Connect · no amount · close 2026-07-06
  • Book the next step and date it
  • Move the close date to a real date, or close it
  • Advance it or close it: past 45 days in stage
  • Log the last real touch, or reach out
  • Add the amount
The clean slate. On 2026-06-07, 3,588 open opportunities, some created as far back as 2011, were closed in one bulk update with the reason “Too Long In Stage.” That's what an amnesty looks like after the fact. Pick the date in advance and the backlog never builds again.

6What a sales leader does Monday

  • Pick the clean-slate date and announce it.
  • Name one owner for the Friday list.
  • Send the first private fix lists this Friday. Target: 90%+ healthy every Monday.

7The founder version

Building your first CRM? Do this now, so you can answer the question in a year.

  • Make next step, close date, amount and lead source required when a deal is created.
  • Turn on stage history (date entered each stage) now. It can't be recovered backward.
  • Run the seven rules on your own pipeline every Friday, even if the team is just you.