One essential component of CRM is tracking the sales process. When you create a deal with a contact, you can start tracking the different stages of the deal to know if the deal is more likely to be won or to be lost.
Every CRM has deal stages built-in by default. In Sendinblue, the default deal stages are New > Qualifying > Demo scheduled > Pending commitment > In negotiation > Won / Lost. You'll find the description of each deal stage below.
🆕 New
This is the very first step of the sales process. You've acquired new prospects from different sources: a form on your website, emails, phone calls, events, etc.
You've added these new prospects as contacts in the Sales CRM and are about to qualify them to determine if there's a chance you can work together.
🧐 Qualifying
During this stage, your team will analyze the prospect’s needs based on the first contact you had with them and will determine if your companies are a good fit for each other.
As not all leads are worth your sales team’s time and effort, it's important to have efficient and operational lead acquisition and qualification processes.
🧑💻 Demo scheduled
Let’s recap: you’ve identified a potential new customer, initiated contact, and qualified the lead. It’s now time to present what you have to offer.
This is the most crucial stage in the sales cycle and requires the most preparation. Be ready to demonstrate how using your product will improve daily operations for your customer and how your company achieves this better than anyone else.
The win probability, by default in Sendinblue, moves up to 25 percent.
⏱ Pending Commitment
The lead has taken the demo of the proposed solution and the quotes. Now, he is yet to get back if he would be willing to try/buy the proposed solution.
✍️ In negotiation
Your job at this point in the sales cycle is to manage and overcome any remark from the prospect. Some prospects can have hesitations or objections—the price is too high, they think the product is missing an important feature, etc.
The important thing is to listen to what the client has to say and be understanding about their concerns. Then reframe your pitch to acknowledge and overcome those concerns.
The possible scenarios are :
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The lead declines to purchase since he feels it doesn't meet his needs or is very expensive => Lost stage
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The lead has concerns and they are resolved by the sales team => Negotiation
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The lead has concerns and they are resolved by offering a free/paid trial => Negotiation
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The lead feels confident that it will work for him and wants to discuss it on commercial terms. => Negotiation
🤝 Won
If after all these steps the customer is happy with the product and buys it, congrats—you can mark this deal “Closed Won” and start onboarding your new client. 🎉
❌ Lost
At any point during the process above, you can lose a deal. Maybe during the qualification, you find that your organization isn’t the right fit; perhaps the prospect doesn’t have enough budget left for the year. No matter the reason, at this point, the deal should be marked “Closed Lost.”
We recommend you mark the deal as Closed Lost and not delete it to keep track of all the actions that we made on the deal.
⏩ What's next?
- Customize the deal stages in your pipeline
- Forecast your expected sales using a weighted pipeline
- Mark a deal as Won or Lost
🤔 Have a question?
If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.