Dividing business opportunities into preliminary communication, plans and closing is just the beginning. If employees understand the stages differently, the funnel managers see will be mixed with many unconfirmed opportunities.

Difficulties in actual use

Set entry and exit conditions for stages, requiring recording of customer needs, key contacts and next actions; allow exit or suspension, retain reasons, and do not force all opportunities to move forward.

How to arrange functions and responsibilities

For example, before entering the quotation stage, the scope and budget discussion need to be confirmed; when the customer has not yet clearly defined their needs, it is not appropriate to automatically upgrade to the stage even if the company introduction has been sent.

Scenario example

Spot check whether the business opportunities in the stage can find the corresponding basis, observe the dwell time and the reasons for lost orders; the report should distinguish between active, suspended and ended, to avoid using a summary table to obscure the actual progress.

Check the processing results item by item

  • Phase definition needs to be discussed by sales and delivery together, because the commitment formed during the program phase will affect subsequent implementation.
  • Each change can require filling in a key basis, but it is not appropriate to accumulate a large number of required fields that have no practical purpose.
  • Stage dwell time is just an observation signal, and customers with a long procurement process should not be directly identified as stagnant.
  • Salespeople can record known obstacles and next confirmation times, allowing managers to see what is currently missing.
  • The historical stage changes the retention time and operator, so that the report can compare new additions, advancements and exits.
  • The stage settings should also be reviewed regularly. If two stages are never distinguishable, it is more reasonable to merge and improve the conditions than to continue to maintain empty names.

Verification and Continuous Maintenance

Record the reasons when a business opportunity is returned to the previous stage, such as the scope needs to be re-confirmed. Reverting a stage does not automatically mean failure. The report should maintain the original change track to facilitate the team to understand the new situation that emerged during the discussion.