Add an opportunity / deal to a prospect by clicking on the Deals tab (next to the Contacts tab in Prospect view).
In Deals, create a new Opportunity by clicking on the + icon.
The "Create deal" popup opens. Fill in:
- "Name" (it starts with the workspace's default deal name) and "Value".
- "Pipeline" and "Stage". The pipeline starts on the default deal pipeline. The stage starts on the first stage whose type fits the prospect's status: for example an opportunity stage for a prospect already "In Progress", so steps already done are not repeated.
- "Deal status": the choices depend on the stage's type (prospect stage: "Cold", "Warm", "Dead"; opportunity stage: "Open", "Try later", "Unqualified", "Lost"; deal stage: "Open", "Won", "Lost").
- "Date", "Owner" (a new deal is yours by default; pick any team member or "Prospect's owner") and "Primary deal".
- "Custom fields:" when your workspace has deal fields, then "Details:" with "Contacts" (the prospect's working contacts are picked to start with) and "Description".
Click "Save".
Auto-add a Deal
In "Sales coach" › "Settings", an admin can set a Deal to be auto-created when a certain Status is reached ("Automatically create deal at status" on the "Deal setup" card).
Typically this should be set to Status = NEW.
A freshly-added Prospect has its status set to NEW when you answer A, B or C on a decision in the bottom bar. Thus as soon as the new prospect has been categorized, a deal is created (once it has at least one contact). The automatic deal is marked as the primary deal and gets the prospect's working contacts.
The default Pipeline and Deal name are also set here.
By setting "Deal display first" to ON, Sales Coach is displayed instead of the prospect website whenever a deal exists. You can switch back by clicking the globe button at the top of the Sales Coach, or by closing the deal you opened.
Pipelines
Your Admin (or Consultant) will have set up one or more Pipelines that are custom tailored to your company’s specific sales process. Some ready-made Pipelines are provided too; they carry a "DEFAULT" tag.
A Pipeline includes a qualification questionnaire (which we call a “quiz” for short) and a defined set of sales process stages with a custom checklist assigned to each stage. Each checklist is composed of a series of steps with sales enablement documents (Resources) relevant for each step or for the whole stage. By selecting the Pipeline you are automatically selecting all these tools which are displayed in place of the prospect website when you click on the Deal tab.
Sales Coach displays when Deal is clicked. See progress, Resources, Qualify tabs.
Each step in each checklist may create a task in the relevant queue. When you tick the checklist step, its task is marked done and the task's own form opens (a call log for a call, the email form for an email), so the work is logged. A step can be set to auto-complete if certain conditions are met. When a step is completed the next step is initiated (creating a new task as appropriate). Some steps only appear under certain conditions, ensuring that only relevant steps are prompted or warnings are provided. At all times, sales enablement resources relevant to the current step and specific of the deal are available under the Resources tab.
Documents relevant to the specific step, and to the details of the deal (product, competition, etc) are shown in the Resources tab.
The sales process needs to be derived from the customer’s buying journey. Companies in different segments (for instance large enterprises vs small businesses) or considering different types of purchases (replenishing supplies vs change of internal systems) or in different sectors etc may have a significantly different buying processes.
Similarly, the qualification questions may be different for customers in a specific sector of for a sale of consultancy vs a product.
Consequently, you may have different Pipelines for different products / sectors. In general if your best-practice sales process is different in a certain common or repeatable scenario then you should define a different Pipeline for each scenario.
Each stage of the Pipeline should have a defined goal and a clear statement of how it’s various actions add value to the customer.
Pipelines and their components (documents, checklists, quizzes) as well as custom deal fields (competition, sector, product, etc) and custom contact fields and their related documents are created and managed by admins on the "Sales coach" page (the custom fields also in "Settings").
Deal Fields
In the Create Deal popup you can choose from the custom field options. For example, the custom fields might be Product and Competition: the workspace admin adds the options for these fields and links relevant sales enablement documents to each option.
Fill in the Create Deal form ensuring that all required fields are complete.
A Deal starts out as a “Prospect” and then becomes an “Opportunity”. Typically it is only at the last stage(s) of the sales process that it becomes classified as a “Deal”. The distinction is important for reporting and for the prospect's status (an open opportunity puts the prospect "In Progress", an open deal at "Open deal"). An Opportunity can be lost but not won – it must first become a Deal. The switch from Prospect to Opportunity to Deal is automatic and depends on the pipeline stage.
Progress, Probability
To progress an opportunity or deal, the checklist steps in each stage are completed (see Managing a Deal). The progress % is simply a measure of how far along the process you are. The contribution to overall progress of each stage is set in the pipeline definition.
The probability of winning any deal is calculated as result of the answers given to the qualification questionnaire (see Managing a Deal). Unanswered questions (and those answered “maybe”) could eventually be answered “yes” or “no” and the max/min probability scores are calculated accordingly. The Confidence score reaches 100% when the gap between max and min probability is zero.
Click the Qualify tab and answer the qualifying questions as honestly as possible!
As the deal progresses you will be able to answer more questions, and you should be continually adjusting your answers and thus the win probability.
Separate weightings are given to positive or negative answers to each question in the calculation of the win/loss probability. These weightings are recalculated from your workspace's own won and lost deals each time a deal is won or lost. As a result these weightings are finely tuned to your company's sales process, as ProspectSafari learns from your experience. Until enough deals have been closed with answers, every question counts the same.
This proprietary methodology is very powerful. After about 20 valid wins or losses (with at least half of the appropriate qualification questions answered each time) ProspectSafari’s probability predictions are more than twice as accurate than 2-day weather forecasts using the largest supercomputer and meteorological data facilities in the world!*
Forecasting with supercomputers. ProspectSafari is more accurate…
* comparison of Brier Skill Scores