-- If you prefer a video walk through, check out this video.
Contacts enter your sales pipeline when they raise their hand and say "I am interested in learning more about your product." BenchmarkONE allows you to customize your deal stages and create custom fields to house information useful to your business. This guide will show you how to do that, as well as creating deals for contacts manually or through automation.
Customizing your Deal Pipeline Stages
Navigate to Account Settings > Customization > Deal Stages
To add a new stage, click the blue Edit Stages button. You will then see the Add Stage and Merge Stages buttons.
Add Stage Button
When you choose this button, a new blank row will appear at the bottom of your current stage list:
Name the stage to reflect your business. You can be as creative or as generic as you would like.
Choose a general status for the stage. This is not displayed in your pipeline, but it helps our database organize the information correctly and is used in reporting.
Choose a default close probability. This is used to set the new probability when advancing a deal to this stage. It is optional. If you choose not to select a default close probability then 0% will be show for that stage.
Re-order your stages by clicking the 3 lines icon to the left of the stage name and dragging it to the appropriate spot in your pipeline.
Merge Stages Button
When you choose this button, a modal box will appear to allow you to select the deal stages you would like to merge:
Merge this stage is the one you want to "remove," and
With this stage is where it's data will go.
Click the merge deal button to complete the merge and you will be brought back to your deal stage list.
Using Deal Custom Fields
Deal custom fields are used to store additional information on the deal record that is useful to your business.
Head to Account Settings > Customizations > Custom Fields > Click into the Deals tab
Creating a Deal for a Single Contact - Manual
Navigate to the Contact Record of the person who has expressed interest in your product/service.
Click on the Deals tab within the contact's record and then + Create a new deal:
You will see this screen when creating a new deal:
Required fields include:
Name - Use a specific name for this deal so you can reference it in reports and in your Deals tab
Sales Rep - This will default to the user logged in. If you are creating a deal for someone else, select the appropriate sales rep from the list.
Stage - You will chose from a list of the stages in your pipeline
Value - Enter a value for this deal. There is no right or wrong here. Some customers use an average value, a specific value if they know the service of the deal, or use a "0" until they can discover more information.
Close Date - Enter a date for when you expect this deal to close. This date can always be updated later, so if you are unsure just use an average close date (i.e. 30 days).
Other fields:
Win Probability - If you entered this when creating the deal stages, the probability will populate based on the stage selected. This can always be adjusted upon the creation of the deal as well. Win probability is used to report the expected revenue over a certain period of time.
Lead Source - This is one of the most helpful reports for determining ROI on your marketing efforts. How did this contact enter your sales pipeline?
Custom Fields - Any custom fields created in account settings will fall under this header.
Choose Add Deal to complete the deal creation for the contact. The deal will now appear in the Deals tab in the contact record and in the Deals Tab.
Creating a Deal for Multiple Contacts - Manual
Create one deal for multiple contacts at once.
From the Contacts List View
Select which contacts should be added to this deal
Click the Actions dropdown > Create New Deal
Follow all the same steps as above but NOTE:
You need to choose a primary contact for this deal as one will not auto-populate.
The contact's sales rep will not auto-populate, so be sure to add which rep this deal should be tied to.
Creating a Deal from the Deals Tab - Manual
Head to the Deals Tab and use the + $ Add button
Follow the same steps as above in "Creating a Deal for a Single Contact - Manual"
Creating a Deal through Automation
When you choose to Create a Deal from the automation menus, you will see this screen:
Required fields include:
Name - Choose a name for all your Deals that come through this specific source. You can use the "Personalize" fields to pull information from the contact's record.
Sales Rep - Choose to either assign it to the sales rep assigned to the specific contact, or assign it to a specific user.
Stage - You will chose from a list of the stages in your pipeline. Everyone who has this deal created automatically will all begin in the same stage.
Value - Enter a value for this deal. There is no right or wrong here. Some customers use an average value, a specific value if they know the service of the deal, or use a "0" until they can discover more information.
Forecasted Days Until Close - Enter a number of days that you expect this deal to close. This date can always be updated later, so if you are unsure just use an average number (i.e. 30 days).
Win Probability - If you entered this when creating the deal stages, the probability will populate based on the deal stage selected. Win probability is used to report the expected revenue over a certain period of time.
Other fields:
Lead Source - This is one of the most helpful reports for determining ROI on your marketing efforts. How did this contact enter your sales pipeline?
Description - This is internal to your company and can be used as needed.
Custom Fields - Any custom fields created in account settings will be listed.
** You can also choose to only run this the first time they fill out the form to prevent duplicates.
Tip: Make sure to also add a Notification or Task to trigger so your sales reps are notified of these new deals and prospects don't slip through the cracks!