Custom Fields or Properties: What Are They And Why Are They Important?

Custom Fields (also referred to as custom properties) are variables used to capture and store data. The difference between custom fields and fields is simple in concept, but complex in reality. Fields are commonly found data points such as first_name, last_name, email, phone. Most CRM's have a common list of fields that are automatically loaded into every new account. Custom fields are fields created to capture the information relevant to each companies unique sales process.

Sounds Simple Enough Right? Wrong.

No one holds up a sign and tells you how critical custom fields are to all operations of a company. If your custom fields are not optimized, you're essentially shooting yourself in the foot as you start a marathon.

Customer, Client and Team Segmentation

I'm going to do my best to make this example simple to best illustrate the importance of custom fields. We have a list of 100 contacts. We'd like to break the list up between customers, clients and team. At first, you're probably thinking, "aren't customers and clients the same?" The answer is no, but they could be.

For this example, we're going to classify customers as individuals (or businesses) who buy a one-off service. Clients are under contract and contribute to our companies MRR (monthly recurring revenue). Team classifies anyone who works in house or hired help.

OK, I hope you're still with me.

Create a drop-down single select custom field called "General Classification". Other options for fields exist to fit specifications such as multiple-select Boolean where you'd be able to select more than one choice. We don't want that field for this example.

Now, we create a form with first_name, last_name, email, and our custom field general_classification. Next, embed the form on a landing page. Then, email the list of 100 contacts with the CTA (Call To Action) of clicking the link and filling out the form.

Are you still with me?

In case you're lost, I'm going to recap what we're doing. We've created a process for our contacts to automatically segment themselves in our CRM using our custom field titled General Classification.

OK, So What's The Point?

Before you get into all the fun parts of automation, focus on creating effective lists. You may ask, "well why, I'm not spending all this money on a great CRM to create simple lists."

Automation Is Triggered By Behavior

If you're taking action to send a message to prospects or someone fills out a simple form on your website, everything comes back to behavior. Custom fields are how you distinguish behavior and classify everyone and every business within your CRM.

If you have a proven and clear sales process, then you'll know that leads will partake in certain behavior that qualifies them to become a prospect. Next, they'll display a different behavior that allows you to classify them as a qualified or unqualified prospect.

Systems refer to this process as lead scoring, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Effective lead scoring relies on effective custom fields that match your sales process and effectively segment all contacts.

Custom Fields Should Not Be Stagnant

Processes within any organization evolve over time - heck if you don't continuously improve, the company is not going to last. Your organization may have effective sale process framework, and this is a great place to start. When it comes to the bottom line of converting sales, what works changes fast.

If you capture and base decisions from high quality data, the benefits are astronomical. If it's budgets, marketing, development, or operations; data should back any company decision. When you do this, revenue growth follows.