Revenue Visibility with Simplified CRM Stages
We wrote before around ways to give finance additional visibility for forecasting purposes in our article From Bookings to Recognized Revenue in Technology Services (https://alten.capital/blog/from-bookings-to-recognized-revenue-in-technology-services), and we also shared best practices to align the sales team with the rest of the organization and advancing deals in our Closing More with Weekly Pipeline Reviews post (https://alten.capital/blog/closing-more-with-weekly-pipeline-reviews).
One way to achieve this alignment and simplify CRM sales ops management is to have fewer CRM stages, enough to guide the sales and account management teams while giving the finance group and delivery teams tools for forecasting purposes.
Simplified CRM stages example below:
- 20% - Qualification (having initial calls)
- 40% - Assessment (discussing project scope)
- 60% - Proposal (presenting proposals and quotes)
- 80% - Negotiation (sending agreements)
Initially, fewer stages with clear probabilities linked to each stage will reduce complexity for revenue-generating teams and other groups in the business. From here, each company and team can adapt to its specific circumstances.
Lastly, losing or winning the opportunity will result in one of these stages:
- 0% - Closed Lost (no longer a valid opportunity)
- 100% - Closed Won (opportunity won)