Sales pipeline
Sales pipeline helps the team see which sales are in progress, which customer is each involved and how likely it is to close.
The stages
- Lead: initial commercial opportunity.
- Qualified: has confirmed real interest and need.
- Proposal: has been sent a specific proposal.
- Negotiation: terms, price or timetable are discussed.
- Won: the deal was won.
- Lost: the deal was lost and the reason is recorded.
What are we recording?
Each deal is necessarily linked to a company and optionally to a specific contact and responsible seller. It includes value, currency, probability of success and expected closure date.
In value we declare the VAT rate and whether the amount we typed is net or already includes VAT. The system shows separate net value, VAT and final total. Sales forecasts use the net value because VAT is not the income of the company.
Pipeline value is the whole open opportunity. Weighted forecast multiplies the value of each deal with its probability and gives a more conservative prediction. It is not an accounting or guaranteed revenue forecast.
Daily use
- We create a deal once a real sale probability is identified.
- We update stage, probability and close date after any meaningful communication. The deal can be moved by drag and drop from the handle icon or from the Stage field.
- We only transfer the deal to Won when there is a clear agreement.
- In Lost we record the real reason for improving the trade process.