I was talking with a VP the other day about his lead management philosophy and he dropped this great phrase on me: “Log it or lose it”.

“Whoa, what was that?” I asked.

Come to find out, he had created a culture across his entire sales team that included the following:

• Every prospect that a sales executive met must be logged into the CRM with full contact information.
• Every prospect entry must show a history of follow-up—and it had to be current.
• If either of these were missing, that prospect was fair game for any other sales executive.

Think about that for a second. If you didn’t show effort, anyone could browse your prospects and try to sell them a home. Now, lazy people might freak out about this—because it’s forcing them to get moving—but the hustlers out there get it!

I know another company where the VP of sales will fire a sales executive if they don’t register a prospect. That’s right. If they shop their sales team and they fail to log the prospect, it is a fireable offense.

You might look at this as extreme, but consider what it costs to get someone dial your number, fill out a form, or walk in the door. It may cost hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars for this to happen. If someone fails to register the prospect, I personally think that is a form of stealing. If they choose not to provide a basic level of follow-up, it’s like putting a match to those marketing dollars and watching them go up in flames.

I know some of you are saying “but Mike, these people aren’t going to buy”. Well, no one is asking you to sell 100% of your prospects, but you must be willing protect your company brand. And nothing is worse than bad follow-up.

So, log it or lose it, folks!