The best sales persons are able to identify prospects with the highest potential out of a list of leads and are expert at concentrating their efforts on these. CRM Systems attempt to suport the process and allow some kind of customer/prospect valuation, but in most cases offer little more than an estimate of potential turnover or an A/B/C-rating.

Surprisingly, one smaller german CRM supplier has approached this problem and integrated an methodology developed by Walter Zimmermann and has included a field “Potential”. This misses two essential factors. Firstly, the fact that a customer has the means to buy my product does not in any mean that I have real potential – an iPhone fan is most unlikely to buy a Blackberry. Secondly, the valuation is only true for a limited period. Things change, and who is going to keep the CRM-Date up to date? Here is some scope for improvement.