In my years helping businesses optimise their sales functions, I've noticed one glaring missed opportunity that plagues organisations of all sizes, the wealth of sales intelligence locked away in people's heads. This customer IP is a massive untapped resource that can transform business outcomes.
Most businesses invest heavily in supporting their sales teams. Sales professionals are typically among the highest-paid employees in an organisation - and for good reason. They drive revenue and maintain crucial customer relationships.
But here's the problem: if you ask most business owners how they can access useful information about their customers, they'll quickly realise it's not readily shareable. Critical insights about customer preferences, pain points, and buying patterns remain trapped in the minds of individual salespeople or buried in personal email threads.
As a business owner or leader, you should be building this knowledge as a valuable asset. We meticulously track and maintain our machinery and equipment, yet we don't apply the same rigour to customer information.
This disconnect hasn't persisted because people don't understand its importance. The challenge has been practical implementation. Traditional CRM systems create a productivity paradox - documenting customer insights takes time away from actual selling.
Salespeople face a choice: spend time updating systems or spend time with customers. No surprise which option wins.
The intelligent solution is tapping into activities already happening. Your team's emails, phone calls, and calendar appointments contain a goldmine of customer intelligence. By using technology to automatically capture and analyse these interactions, you create a low-productivity-drag, high-return system.
Think about your business assets:
1. People
2. Machinery and equipment
3. Customer knowledge
While most businesses understand the value of the first two, that third asset remains criminally undervalued. Yet in today's market, customer IP is becoming one of the most valuable assets any business can possess.
The key is using technology to capture the human side of sales. This reduces admin work while preserving critical insights. It frees your sales team to focus on what they do best - engaging with people and building relationships.
By capturing customer IP, you transform individual knowledge into institutional knowledge. When a salesperson leaves, their insights don't walk out the door with them. When new team members join, they get up to speed faster. And when you need to make strategic decisions, you have real insights to guide you.
