Meet the Assistant

After this lesson you'll be able to use the assistant for common CRM work: finding records, summarizing accounts, checking missing fields, drafting notes, pulling numbers, and getting to the records behind a report.

Why it matters here: ANC's account base spans thousands of organizations — teams, venues, sponsors, athletic departments — and years of deal history behind them. Nobody navigates that by memory. The assistant is how one person answers account questions at the speed the business moves: before a client call, mid-meeting when someone asks "what have we done with them?", or at the end of the week when the pipeline needs a scrub.

Five minutes before the call

Situation

You are about to join a call with an NHL arena client you have never spoken to. The account has years of history across displays, service, and a sponsorship deal.

Goal

Walk in knowing the open opportunities, the primary contact, the last meaningful activity, and any open issues — assembled in one ask, not dozens of clicks.

Proof

You reference the current state of the relationship on the call and nothing surprises you.

What to ask Scout

If

You need to find something

Then

Ask it to open the Company, opportunity, person, ticket, or view.

If

You need to clean data

Then

Ask it to find missing owners, stale deals, duplicate Companies, or incomplete notes.

If

You need a number

Then

Ask for the number and the records behind it.

If

You need to change a record

Then

Ask clearly, then verify the record changed.

The big idea

The CRM has a built-in assistant called Scout. Here's the only thing you need to believe:

If you can send a text message, you can use it.

You don't learn commands. You don't memorize anything. You type what you want in plain English, the way you'd ask a colleague — and it does it.

Where it is

Look for the Ask AI button (top of the screen). Click it, type your request, hit enter.

What the assistant is best at

Use the assistant when you want speed across the CRM:

• "Open the Knicks account."
• "Create an opportunity for the Phoenix Suns."
• "What's due this week?"
• "Move this deal to won."
• "How much have we won this quarter?"
• "Show me my open opportunities."
• "Make me a report of closed-won deals this month."
• "Find accounts with missing owners."
• "Summarize the last activity on this account."
• "Show me the deals behind this forecast number."

It opens the record, makes the change, or pulls the number — right there in the sidebar.

Pre-call account brief

Summarize this account for me before a client call: open opportunities, primary contact, last activity, and anything overdue.Copy

Click to enlarge

The one rule to remember

Anything you can click, you can also just ask. Throughout the rest of the course, every lesson shows you both ways. Over time you'll find you reach for the assistant first — it's faster, and it's the same wherever you are, even on your phone.

Ask better questions

Good prompts include the record, the action, and the output you want. Compare:

Weak: "Show me pipeline."

Better — scoped pipeline ask

Show me my open Technology opportunities closing this quarter, grouped by stage, and list any missing close dates.Copy

Weak: "Clean this account."

Better — specific cleanup ask

Review this account for duplicate companies, missing contacts, stale opportunities, missing owner fields, and notes without next steps.Copy

The pattern behind both: name the scope (mine, this quarter, this account), the object (opportunities, contacts, notes), and the output (grouped by stage, a list of gaps). Vague in, vague out — specific in, done.

And you can keep going. The assistant holds context inside a conversation, so follow-ups work naturally: "now just the ones over a million", "who owns the ones with no close date?", "draft a note on the first one." You refine, it narrows.

Use it for quality control

The assistant is not only for shortcuts. It is also a second set of eyes.

Try these checks:

• "What important fields are missing on this opportunity?"
• "Does this account have duplicate contacts?"
• "Which of my deals have no next step?"
• "Which opportunities changed stage this week?"
• "Find closed-won deals with missing contract value."
• "Summarize this account for a leadership review."

Run one of these at the end of each week and your records stay at the Working Standard without a dedicated cleanup day.

Use it for numbers, then verify

For reporting, use this pattern:

1. Ask for the number.
2. Ask which records were included.
3. Open the source records.
4. Check dates, amount, status, and business unit.
5. Only then send or present the number.

Number plus its evidence

How much Technology revenue is booked this year, and show me the opportunities included in that total.Copy

Common mistakes

What good looks like

You've got this lesson when: you reach for Ask AI for anything that would take more than three clicks; your prompts name the scope, object, and output; you ask for the records behind any number before quoting it; and you verify record changes after asking for them. That's the whole discipline — speed from the assistant, confidence from the check.

Now you try →

Open the assistant and ask it five things: one search, one summary, one missing-field check, one dashboard/reporting question, and one note draft.

👉 Open the CRM

Related lessons: Finding Anything Fast · Asking the CRM for Numbers · Cleaning Up Accounts

When you're comfortable here, continue to What's Possible or head to your vertical: Technology, Venue Services, Media & Sponsorship, or Leadership.

Key takeaways

• Scout lives behind the Ask AI button — plain English in, work done in the sidebar.
• Anything you can click, you can ask. Learn both; reach for the faster one.
• Good prompts name scope, object, and output; follow-ups refine the answer.
• For important numbers: ask, see the records behind it, verify, then share.

Check yourself

The assistant gives you a quarterly revenue figure you are about to paste into a leadership update. What is the missing step?

ANothing — the assistant pulls from live dataBAsk which records were included and check them before sharingCRound the number so precision does not matter