How Clear Are Your Deal Stages?

Everyone likes finding easy actions that result in BIG wins.

But sometimes, we overlook what these easy actions could actually be.

From reviving lost opportunities to writing follow-up emails, we’ve addressed it all, and now we’d like to highlight something you may not be giving enough attention to: the deal stages we use to build pipelines for clients (and ourselves).

Now, you’re probably thinking:

“Deal stages? So what? I already know how to structure my pipeline and use it.”

And you know what? I have no doubt that you do.

Here's how we do it, for reference:

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The real problem comes up when you hand the pipeline to your team.

This is where miscommunication and misdirection can mess up the entire process.

In our experience, many companies actually don’t have clear rules about moving from stage to stage.  

The founder (or whoever’s set up the pipeline) assumes their team will use the deal stages like they do. 

But, that’s not usually what happens.

And the effects of seemingly *small* little inconsistencies here will have a massive impact on your sales. 

Here’s why:

If different team members have different ideas of the milestones a deal will go through before reaching the point of closing, there won’t be any healthy communication between the team.

This will make it impossible to accurately analyze your team’s data. 

And if you can’t analyze the data reliably, you can’t:

Identify bottlenecks.

For example, you won’t be able to identify which salesperson is botching up the sales process.

Isolate problems.

For example, when multiple people have different ideas of what the deal stages are, it’s hard to identify a common problem and find a clear solution because of the uncertainty.

Double down on strengths. 

For example, if you can sit down with your team and break down the sales process in a cohesive way, it allows true strengths to be identified when the team works in synch and is on the same page.

How can you fix these problems?

Define the exit criteria for each stage. Our template above can help - want your own copy? Fill out the form below and get it delivered straight to your inbox:

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