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Pipeline Categorization
1. Interested
INTERESTED
When a new prospect or an existing client consents to having a meeting to explore a specific need.
An opportunity can stay in INTERESTED until the salesperson believes there is a real deal worthy of pursuit. It may require a number of meetings to attain enough information to decide to promote the deal to DISCOVERED.
2. Discovered
DISCOVERED
When the sales person has gained enough information for an Opportunity and has decided that there is a real deal worth pursuing.
However the deal is still in the qualifying process and thus does not yet belong in QUALIFIED.
The activity required at this stage is:
• thorough needs assessment
• qualifying questioning
• the creation of a proposal
Close date and revenue value, should be noted.
3. Qualified
QUALIFIED
When the sales person has or understands:
• the business pain
• met all decision makers
• the decision criteria
• the project requirements
• the project budget
• the timeline (close date)
• who you are competing with
• the proposal has been presented
• is on the short list
Should any of the required information be missing, the deal MUST stay in DISCOVERED.
Must have close date and revenue amount.
4. Selected
SELECTED
The sales person must firstly qualify the deal and be given a clear indication that the deal is going to be awarded to them. A letter of intent, or verbal confirmation from a SENIOR decision maker would qualify as a clear indication when working with a NEW account.
When working with an EXISTING account, the SELECTED criteria can be verbal from other members of the decision team. However this is not a time for the sales person to calculate commission, as it is now theirs to lose.
Must have close date and revenue amount.
5. Closed
CLOSED
When the sales person receives complete commitment from the prospect or client. This can come in the form of a written purchase order, a signed agreement or retainer cheque from a new customer. In the case of an existing account this can be a written purchase order, email or even trusted verbal agreement.
Must have close date and revenue amount.
Deals can be left in CLOSED until a written letter of reference is asked for by the sales person and received sometime after the deal has been completed.