The halloween CRM admin and sales fails contest

The halloween CRM admin and sales fails contest



This Halloween, we're trading scary sales stories. Keeping with the good ol' Halloween theme, let's discuss the biggest fails we've come across in sales. We're talking the lowest of the lows, the horror of horrors you've come across, or those that you somehow managed to brave and make it to the other side.

For trick or treat, we're ditching the candy this season and offering five gift cards instead. The top five most interesting answers will get the following gift cards. 

$100 BestBuy Gift Card
$50 BestBuy Gift Card
$50 Amazon Gift Card 
$25 BestBuy Gift Card 
$25 Amazon Gift Card 

(All gift cards will be sent before Black Friday. If BestBuy cards do not apply in your region, we will send you an Amazon gift voucher instead)

You can include in your answer (post as a comment below), a few of these points:


 1. Horror: A telling of one of your most bizarre experiences with a potential client. We have all had some pretty bad luck with some deals. Strange, hilarious, or outright nerve-racking, some are just too hard of a nut to crack. Or, just any CRM admin nightmare story of your choosing. 


2. Trick: What you do to work around those tough corners and which Zoho feature has helped get you through it. 

3. Treat: A tip to help peers grow their business, something that you carried from this experience, that has always helped you stay ahead of the game! 

As I clearly can't divulge stories of one of our sales, GDPR and all, for an example here's one I heard from a buddy of mine who'd gotten flooded with deal closures last season.  


"It happened in the initial years of my sales career. I was passionate and opportunistic. I was enjoying converting our vending machines into dollars, and meeting the sales targets. Once, my manager even gave me a congratulatory hug. Which was so rare that I savored the moment too long and he had to push me away after a while.

However, the last quarter that year started slow. I was under pressure to close my targets, not just for the OTE but for that warm, long, and awkward hug too. Anyway, December approached and I was at the 40% mark. This was bad because December sales are always low, thanks to all the merry-making. I was getting desperate and started calling all the warm leads in my bucket, who were gradually drifting to the colder zone. 

One gentleman showed interest in meeting me on the 24th of December but was obvious on the call that there would be no order before January. Nevertheless, I decided to meet him in his office and see if there’s a slight chance of making the deal before New Year. I went to his office, we got into a room to discuss his vending machine requirements, but it did not go as I expected. He was too rude, to say the least. He had a grudge against his old supplier and he took it all out on me. Apparently, his previous supplier didn’t provide a good after-sale service when the machine broke down. He was irate and called out the entire salesmanship as an act of fraud. I tried to explain that we have an excellent service and that our clients are very happy, but nothing worked for him. One thing was sure though, he was not happy with his current supplier and wanted to return all the machines. So, there was a definite requirement. I grabbed this opportunity to show him our service. I asked him to take me to one of the broken machines. I took a look, called my engineer over phone, cooked up some Tony Stark stuff, and finally was able to restore the machine to working condition. I could not tell whether the client was impressed, so I took another shot: I offered to take back all the old machines he had and gave a 50% discount on the new ones ordered from us, plus free one-year service. Still, he had a poker face. I can’t do more than this, I thought, and packed my bags. I left my brochure, list of customer references, my business card, and a glimmer of hope in his office. 

​Next morning, while I was lying on my couch watching a re-run of The Office at home, I got this message over an email: “Hello, we had a meeting last night over the vending machines and looks like we can manage the budget for the price offered by you. It is to re-iterate that although you’ve offered free service, we would not appreciate any lag in the response. Also, the delivery should be completed by 31st Decemeber without delay. Merry Christmas!”

A few terms and conditions: 

1. The contest has no geographic restrictions. 

2. Zoho partners are welcome to participate but won't be eligible to win prizes. 

3. Language should be civil and not offend any member of the community. 

    • Sticky Posts

    • The halloween CRM admin and sales fails contest

      This Halloween, we're trading scary sales stories. Keeping with the good ol' Halloween theme, let's discuss the biggest fails we've come across in sales. We're talking the lowest of the lows, the horror of horrors you've come across, or those that you somehow managed to brave and make it to the other side. For trick or treat, we're ditching the candy this season and offering five gift cards instead. The top five most interesting answers will get the following gift cards.  $100 BestBuy Gift Card $50
    • Recent Topics

    • Apply Advance option not shown in report

      We are facing an issue in Zoho Expenses. While approving an Expense Report, the "Apply Advance" option is not appearing under the three dots (More Options). Details: Module: Expense Reports Issue: "Apply Advance" option not visible Status of Report: Awaiting
    • Introducing Assemblies and Kits in Zoho Inventory

      Hello customers, We’re excited to share a major revamp to Zoho Inventory that brings both clarity and flexibility to your inventory management experience! Presenting Assemblies and Kits We’re thrilled to introduce Assemblies and Kits, which replaces the
    • Auto Capitalize First Letter of Words

      Hi I am completely new to ZOHO and am trying to build a database. How can i make it when a address is entered into a form field like this: main st it automatically changes is to show: Main St Thank You
    • Follow-up emails via Workflow Automation not staying in the same thread

      Dear Zoho Support Team, I am currently using Workflow Automation in Zoho Campaigns to send follow-up emails. In my test case, I noticed the following behavior: All emails in the automation have the same subject line. If the follow-up email is sent within
    • Client Script refuses to set an initial value in Subform field

      I tried a very simple, 1 line client script to set a default value in a custom subform field when the "Add Row" button is clicked and the user is entering data. It does not work - can someone tell me why? ZDK documentation suggests this should be doable.
    • Formatting of Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Reports

      The default format of the Balance Sheet and P&L Reports are based on the Account Types and then the individual accounts within the Chart of Accounts. These are then ordered alphabetically under these sub-headings and one is unable to re-order these or
    • Pourquoi dans zohobooks version gratuite on ne peut ajouter notre stock d'ouverture??

      Pourquoi dans zohobooks version gratuite on ne peut ajouter notre stock d'ouverture ??
    • Emails Are Not Being Delivered to My Inbox

      Hello Zoho Support Team, I am experiencing an issue with my Zoho Mail account. The most important problem is that emails are not being delivered to my inbox. Details: My Zoho Mail address: info@coreforcelife.com What happens: I am not receiving any incoming
    • Help Center IFrame Issue

      I have had a working Help Center on my website using an iframe for a while. But now for some reason the sign in page gets a refused to connect error. Can someone please help. If I go to the url manually it works correclty
    • Staff rules

      Hi! Do you people know what are the default staff rules when a new booking is created? We have two staff members in my team (me as the admin, and my employee). As we share the same services, I'm wondering how Zoho will pick the staff for new apointments.
    • Comment Templates

      Is it possible to add a template option for comments? We have some agents in the process who's responses require a pre-formatted layout. It would be incredibly handy to have a template for them where they can insert the template and then add their responses
    • [ZohoDesk] Improve Status View with a new editeble kanban view

      A kanban view with more information about the ticket and the contact who created the ticket would be valueble. I would like to edit the fields with the ones i like to see at one glance. Like in CRM where you can edit the canvas view, i would like to edit
    • Adding Markdown text using Zoho Desk API into the Knowledge Base

      Hi Zoho Community members, We currently maintain the documentation of out company in its website. This documentation is written in markdown text format and we would like to add it in Zoho Knowledge Base. Do you know if there is REST API functionality
    • An Exclusive Session for Zoho Desk Users: AI in Zoho Desk

      A Zoho Community Learning Initiative Hello everyone! This is an announcement for Zoho Desk users and anyone exploring Zoho Desk. With every nook and corner buzzing, "AI's here, AI's there," it's the right time for us to take a closer look at how the AI
    • Shared values: From classroom lessons to teaching moments in customer service

      While the world observes Teachers’ Day on October 5, in India, we celebrate a month earlier, on September 5, to mark the birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a great teacher, renowned scholar, educationist, and advocate for empowerment.
    • Export to excel stored amounts as text instead of numbers or accounting

      Good Afternoon, We have a quarterly billing report that we generate from our Requests. It exports to excel. However if we need to add a formula (something as simple as a sum of the column), it doesn't read the dollar amounts because the export stores
    • Create a list of customers who participated in specific Zoho Backstage events and send them an email via Zoho CRM

      How to create a list of customers who participated in specific Zoho Backstage events and send them an email via Zoho CRM? I was able to do a view in CRM based on customer that registered to an event, but I don't seems to be able to include the filter
    • Zoho Desk blank page

      1. Click Access zoho desk on https://www.zoho.com/desk/ 2. It redirects to https://desk.zoho.com/agent?action=CreatePortal and the page is blank. Edge browser Version 131.0.2903.112 (Official build) (arm64) on MacOS
    • I hate the new user UI with the bar on the left

      How can I reverse this?
    • Constant color of a legend value

      It would be nice if we can set a constant color/pattern to a value when creating a chart. We would often use the same value in different graph options and I always have to copy the color that we've set to a certain value from a previous graph to make
    • Question regarding import of previous deals...

      Good afternoon, I'm working on importing some older deal records from an external sheet into the CRM; however, when I manually click "Add New Deal" and enter the pertinent information, the deal isn't appearing when I look at the "Deals" bar on the account's
    • Client Script also planned for Zoho Desk?

      Hello there, I modified something in Zoho CRM the other day and was amazed at the possibilities offered by the "Client Script" feature in conjunction with the ZDK. You can lock any fields on the screen, edit them, you can react to various events (field
    • One person/cell phone to manage multiple accounts

      Hi. I have a personal Free account to keep my own domain/emails. Now I need to create a Business account to my company's own domain, but I have only one mobile phone number I use to everything. How do I do to manage this? Can I manage a Free domain and
    • Tracking KPIs, Goals etc in People

      How are Zoho People users tracking employee targets in People? For example, my marketing assistant has a target of "Collect 10 new customer testimonials every month". I want to record attainment for this target on a monthly basis, then add it to their
    • Zoho Desk: Ticket Owner Agents vs Teams

      Hi Zoho, We would like to explore the possibility of hiding the ‘Agents’ section within the Ticket Owner dropdown, so that we can fully utilise the ‘Teams’ dropdown when assigning tickets. This request comes from the fact that only certain agents and
    • Can not Use Attachment Button on Android Widget

      this always pops up when I touch the attach button on android widget. going to settings, there is no storage permission to be enabled. if I open the app, and access the attach feature there, I can access my storage and upload normally.
    • Zoho Notebook Sync problem

      I'm facing a problem with syncing of notebook on android app. It's not syncing. Sometimes it syncs after a day or two.  I created some notes on web notebook but it's not syncing on mobile app. Please help!!!!
    • Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

      Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if
    • Announcing new features in Trident for Mac (1.24.0)

      Hello everyone! Trident for macOS (v.1.24.0) is here with interesting features and thoughtful enhancements to redefine the way you plan and manage your calendar events. Here's a quick look at what's new. Create calendar events from emails. In addition
    • Need Easy Way to Update Item Prices in Bulk

      Hello Everyone, In Zoho Books, updating selling prices is taking too much time. Right now we have to either edit items one by one or do Excel export/import. It will be very useful if Zoho gives a simple option to: Select multiple items and update prices
    • Vendor Master Enhancements for Faster Purchase Entry

      I’d like to suggest a few features that will improve accuracy and speed during purchase voucher entry: Automated Item Tax Preference in Vendor Master Add an option to define item tax preference in the vendor master. Once set, this preference should automatically
    • Mass Mail Statistics - Number of unsent emails

      How do I find out which emails were not sent?
    • Button to add product to cart

      Is there a way to have a button on a page, that when clicked, will add Qty 1 of a product to the cart?
    • Est-il possible d'annuler l'envoi d'un mail automatique ?

      Bonjour, Lorsque je refuse un candidat, il reçois un mail dans les 24h pour l'informer que sa candidature n'est pas retenue. J'ai rejeté un candidat par erreur. Savez-vous s'il possible d'annuler l'envoi de ce mail ? Merci d'avance pour votre aide.
    • Can't change form's original name in URL

      Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new
    • New in Cadences: Option to Resume or Restart follow-ups when re-enrolling records into a Cadence, and specify custom un-enrollment criteria

      Managing follow-ups effectively involves understanding the appropriate timing for reaching out, as well as knowing when to take a break and resume later, or deciding if it's necessary to start the follow-up process anew. With two significant enhancements
    • embed a form in an email

      Hello, how to embed a form in an email that populates Zoho CRM cases? I would like to send emails to a selected audience offering something. In the same email the recipients - if interested - instead of replying to can fill in a Zoho CRM form that creates
    • Zoho Bookings - Reserve with Google

      Does Zoho Bookings plan to to integrate with Reserve with Google?
    • How to add Zoho demo site page designs to my Zoho Sites website

      Hi, I would like to add the design from the following demo URLs into my current Zoho website. I have already created two new pages on my site, named “Menu2” and “Menu3.” For the “Menu2” page, I want to use the design from this demo: https://naturestjuice-demo.zohosites.com/menu
    • Digest Août - Un résumé de ce qui s'est passé le mois dernier sur Community

      Bonjour chère communauté ! Voici le résumé tant attendu de tout ce qui a marqué Zoho le mois dernier : contenus utiles, échanges inspirants et moments forts. 🎉 Découvrez Zoho Backstage 3.0 : une version repensée pour offrir encore plus de flexibilité,
    • Next Page