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CRM-Taxonomy-Insights

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CRM Taxonomy Insights & Best Practices

Context

Research and strategic advice for Business Answers International (BAINTL) regarding Loxo CRM status workflows. Date: 2026-01-19 Focus: Optimizing status fields for a hybrid manual/automated recruiting workflow.

2026-02-01 Decision

All automation now leverages the standard Global Status field, replacing the custom “Hierarchy 23” field for better platform alignment.

🧠 Executive Summary

The most effective CRM taxonomies in recruiting balance Data Resolution (granular tracking) with User Experience (ease of entry). For a lean team like BAINTL, a “Flat Taxonomy” (one field for everything) often fails because it mixes Process Stages (e.g., “Outreach”) with Relationship States (e.g., “Customer”).

The Solution: A Hybrid Taxonomy that uses a single field but clearly distinguishes between “Human Entry Points” and “System States”.

🏆 Industry Best Practices (Recruiting/Staffing)

1. The “4-Bucket” Standard

Most successful agencies (and platforms like Bullhorn/Crelate) organize statuses into four logical buckets. This structure ensures every contact has a clear “home”:

  1. Sourcing (The “Pool”):
    • Statuses: New, Lead, Uncontacted, Enriching.
    • Goal: Data validation and qualification.
  2. Engagement (The “Chase”):
    • Statuses: Attempted to Contact, Contacted, Responded, Nurture.
    • Goal: Establishing a dialogue.
  3. Evaluation (The “Process”):
    • Statuses: Screened, Interviewing, Submitted.
    • Note: In Loxo, this often moves to the Job Pipeline, leaving the global status as “Active Candidate”.
  4. Closing/Post (The “Relationship”):
    • Statuses: Placed, Alumni, Former Client, Do Not Contact.
    • Goal: Long-term relationship management.

2. Status vs. Pipeline (The Loxo Distinction)

A critical distinction in Loxo (and modern CRMs) is separating Global Status from Job Pipeline Stage.

  • Global Status: Defines the person’s relationship to BAINTL (e.g., “Active Client”). This is permanent until the relationship changes.
  • Job Pipeline: Defines their progress in a specific search (e.g., “Interviewing at Dow”). This is temporary.
  • Best Practice: Never use global statuses for temporary stages (e.g., don’t have a global status called “Interviewing”).

3. The “Trigger-Ready” Rule

Every status should answer the question: “What happens next?”

  • Bad Status: “Review” (Vague - who reviews? when?)
  • Good Status: “Prospect” (Implies ready for outreach) or “Enrich” (Implies missing data).

⚙️ Automating the Flow (Loxo Best Practices)

Loxo excels at triggering campaigns from pipeline stages (e.g., “Move to Interview → Start Interview Prep Campaign”). However, it lacks native automation to update Global Status based on Campaign Activity (e.g., “Reply to Campaign → Change Status to Responded”).

The Solution: External Webhook Architecture (n8n)

To achieve the “Big 3” simplicity, we must automate the backend status changes using Loxo’s API/Webhooks.

graph TD
    A[Loxo Campaign] -->|Event: Reply| B(n8n Webhook)
    A -->|Event: Bounce| B
    B --> C{Router}
    C -->|Reply| D[Update Loxo Status: Responded]
    C -->|Bounce| E[Update Loxo Status: Do Not Contact]
    C -->|No Reply (Sequence End)| F[Update Loxo Status: Nurture]

Implementation Guide

  1. Triggers: Use Loxo’s “Outreach” webhooks (if available) or Gmail API triggers (via n8n) to detect replies.
  2. Actions: Use Loxo API (PUT /people/{id}) to update the status_id.
  3. Safety: Always add a “Human Review” step for “Responded” contacts before auto-enrolling them in a new sequence.

🔍 Analysis of BAINTL’s Workflow

The Challenge

Aaron and Dan need to manually add contacts (high friction) but want them to enter complex automated flows (high complexity).

  • Friction Point: Deciding between “Prospect”, “Lead”, “Contact”, “Customer” during rapid data entry.
  • Risk: “Analysis Paralysis” leads to default/wrong selections, breaking automation.

We are implementing a Simplified Entry / Complex Flow model. This aligns with “Data Hygiene at Source” principles.

1. Simplified Entry (The “Human Layer”)

Only 3 statuses matter for manual entry:

  • Outreach: “I don’t know them, but I want to.” (Triggers: Enrichment → Campaign)
  • Nurture: “I know them, but not right now.” (Triggers: Monthly Newsletter/MPC)
  • Active: “We are working together right now.” (Triggers: Quarterly Check-in)

2. Complex Flow (The “System Layer”)

The system handles the granularity that humans shouldn’t worry about:

  • Enrich [Auto]: “I’m fixing the data.”
  • Responded [Auto]: “They replied, look at me!”
  • Stale [Auto]: “They ghosted us, moving to Nurture.”

🚀 Future-Proofing & Scaling

When to Split Fields

As BAINTL grows, you may eventually need to split “Status” into two fields:

  1. Relationship Status: (Customer, Prospect, Partner) - Static
  2. Engagement Status: (In Sequence, Responded, DNC) - Dynamic

Current Recommendation: Stick to the single field for now to minimize click-fatigue, but use the [Auto] suffix to keep the data clean.

Data Hygiene “Health Checks”

  • Quarterly Audit: Search for contacts stuck in Prospect [Auto] for > 30 days (means automation failed or review is backed up).
  • Bounce Management: Ensure Do Not Contact is strictly enforced to protect domain reputation (mail.baintl.com).

📚 Recommended Reading

  • “The Robot-Proof Recruiter” by Katrina Collier (Focuses on human-centric recruiting supported by tech).
  • Loxo Academy: “Best Practices for Status Workflows” (Specific to platform constraints).

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