Backup

A backup is the colleague who covers a seller while they are away: on vacation, sick, or in a long meeting. They answer new inquiries, reply to customers and keep the next steps on time. The deals stay with the original owner. The customer still gets an answer on time, from someone who knows the case.

A backup is set before it is needed. In a CRM it can be a profile field or a routing rule that switches during absence. A shared calendar note also works. In the team routine it is one line: who covers whom, and from when.

For example, while one seller is on vacation, a named colleague answers their new inquiries and keeps next steps on time.

The head of sales checks backups at the weekly review, when the team looks at the coming week. Who is away, who covers, and which deals have a next step during the absence. A short check prevents a week of silence toward customers.

A backup changes how you plan load. A seller who covers a colleague has less time for their own deals, so their targets for that week may shift. If the same person covers everyone, they become the bottleneck. Spread backup duty across the team.

The backup keeps the response standard while the lead owner is away. They do not take over the deal: that needs a full handover. Tasks from the owner's open deals go to the backup for the period and come back on return.

• Naming the backup only in a chat message. The message gets lost, and the inquiry waits for the absent seller. Put the backup into the routing rule or the CRM, with start and end dates.
• Giving the backup no context. They see a deal but not what was promised. Before leaving, the seller writes one line per active deal: status and next step.
• Letting the backup quietly keep the deals. The customer gets two contacts and the owner returns to a changed pipeline. Agree that deals return on the first day back, with a short note on what happened.
• Having no backup for the head of sales. Decisions on discounts and escalations stop while you are away. Name a colleague who may decide, and write down the limits of what they may decide.

By Friday, the head of sales writes a backup table: each seller, their backup, and how absence is announced. Check the calendar for absences in the next month. For each one, set the routing switch and ask the seller to add one line per active deal before leaving.

A weekly meeting on stuck deals that ends with a decision and an owner for each.