Complete Guide to Deal Tracking and Management
Overview
The Deals module is a powerful sales pipeline management system that helps you track opportunities from initial contact through closing. This comprehensive training guide will walk you through setting up and using deals to organize your sales process, automate follow-ups, and track your business performance.
Key Benefits:
- Visual pipeline management with customizable stages
- Automated workflows triggered by stage progression
- Revenue tracking and forecasting capabilities
- Team collaboration with deal assignments and sharing
- Detailed reporting and analytics
- Integration with contacts, appointments, and email automation
Understanding how to effectively use deals will help you maintain organized sales processes, never miss follow-up opportunities, and gain valuable insights into your business performance. Whether you're managing a few deals or hundreds, this system scales to meet your needs.
Deal Tracking and Management: Video
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Access Deal Settings
Navigate to Deals, then click Deal Settings to begin configuring your deal tracking system.
2. Set Up Deal Types
Configure different Deal Types to match your various business processes. For example, you might have separate deal types for:
- Sales opportunities
- Consulting projects
- Service agreements
- Product sales
3. Configure Deal Stages
Click Configure in the Deal Stages section for each deal type. Create stages that reflect your actual sales process, such as:
- Initial Contact
- Needs Assessment
- Proposal Sent
- Negotiation
- Closed Won/Lost
4. Add Workflow Automation (Optional)
Click the pencil icon to edit any stage where you want automation. Enable Triggers Workflow to automatically:
- Send follow-up emails
- Create tasks and appointments
- Update contact information
- Notify team members
Choose whether workflows run for the Primary Contact or All Related Contacts based on your needs.
5. Create Your First Deal
From the main Deals section, click Add Deal and enter:
- Deal name and description
- Associated contact(s)
- Deal value/amount
- Expected close date
- Current stage
6. Manage Deal Progression
Move deals through stages by:
- Clicking and dragging in pipeline view
- Using dropdown menus in list view
- Updating from individual deal records
7. Track Related Information
For each deal, you can manage:
- Related Contacts (multiple people involved in the deal)
- Notes and communication history
- Appointments and follow-up tasks
- Attachments and relevant documents
Important Notes
Deal Types and Stages: Each deal type can have its own unique set of stages. This allows you to customize the pipeline for different types of business processes while keeping everything organized.
Workflow Automation: When you add workflows to deal stages, they trigger automatically when a deal is moved into that stage. The magic wand icon indicates which stages have workflows attached.
Team Collaboration: Deals can be shared with team members based on your account permissions. Different team member types (Administrator, Team Player, Independent User, Power User) have different levels of access to deals.
Reporting and Analytics: Use the deal reporting features to track:
- Pipeline value by stage
- Win/loss ratios
- Average deal size
- Time to close
- Individual and team performance
Deal Tracking and Management: Questions and Answers
Q: How many deal types can I create?
A: You can create multiple deal types to match different business processes. Each can have its own customized stages and workflows.
Q: Can I change the stages after I've created deals?
A: Yes, you can modify deal stages at any time. Existing deals will remain in their current stages, and you can move them to new stages as needed.
Q: What happens when a workflow is triggered by moving a deal to a new stage?
A: The workflow runs automatically and can perform actions like sending emails, creating tasks, or updating contact information. Workflows run once per entry into each stage.
Q: Can multiple people be associated with the same deal?
A: Yes, you can add multiple related contacts to any deal. Choose whether workflows run for just the primary contact or all related contacts.
Q: How do I track the value of my deals?
A: Enter the deal amount when creating deals, and use the reporting features to see total pipeline value, average deal size, and revenue forecasts.
Q: Can I assign deals to specific team members?
A: Yes, deals can be assigned to team members. Access levels depend on your team member permissions and sharing settings.
Q: What's the difference between Related Contacts in deals versus Related Contacts on contact cards?
A: Related Contacts in deals are specific to that particular deal only, while Related Contacts on contact cards show ongoing relationships between contacts across all interactions.
Q: How do I delete or archive old deals?
A: You can delete deals from the deal record, or move them to a "Closed" or "Lost" or stage to keep them for reporting purposes without cluttering your active pipeline.
Q: How do I see all deals for a specific contact?
A: From any contact record, you can view the Deals tab to see all deals associated with that person, including their current stages and values.
Video Transcript
In this video we’re going to learn how to set up Deals.
The screen you’re looking at right now, is an example of a mortgage deal that has already been set up.
Here in the top section you’ll find fields such as Deal Name, Amount, Status and so on. These are fixed fields and are the same for all deals regardless of deal type.
You have almost 50 fields to work with to create your own custom deal screen.
These fields can be text fields, drop down lists, check boxes, and the list goes on.
Down in this lower section you can have notes, appointments, attachments and your related contacts will show up here.
But if those things don’t apply to your Deal Types, you don’t have to show them at all.
To build these screens go to ‘Deals’ and then ‘Deal Settings'.
Let’s build a new Deal Type from scratch.
Let’s add a text field, a checkbox and a currency field.
Now here are the rest of the fields… You can change the order as they will appear on your deals screen by moving them around – like this.
If you wanted to make any changes, or you didn’t like the way something looked, you would go back to ‘Deals’ and and then ‘Deal Settings’ to make the appropriate changes.