The TekStack account-centric customer lifecycle has the nine stages shown in your accounts: Targeted, Detected, Engaged, Prioritized, Qualified, Pipeline, Implement, Expand, and Advocate. See Learn the Stages of the TekStack Customer Lifecyle.
An integral part of that cycle is the opportunity process. It has four stages of its own: Discover, Qualify, Propose, and Win.
The TekStack system suggests a minimum amount of effort be applied to document an opportunity, particularly for larger deals. It gives you the fields to complete at each step so you can add important information about the customer, their needs and the proposed solution.
When you Set up a New Opportunity, it starts at:
Discover
This is an introductory stage where you learn more about the customer and the opportunity. What the customer is looking for? How much is the deal worth? Click Discover to be prompted by a form asking for information to progress the sale to the next stage.
Note: The forms in the step flow show the minimum suggested information. TekStack believes it is reasonable to ask a buyer for a rough estimate of the deal size, understanding that at this stage, it’s an estimate.
The name of this step, Discover, can be customize in the Configure area. Only this step can be customized.
When you enter the amounts, you can click Next Stage to move the Opportunity along.
Qualify
This is where you will spend more time qualifying the opportunity. The more you know about the customer, stakeholders, and competition, the more likely you will win this business.
To say a deal is qualified, you as the seller should know when it’s closing, how big it is, the current situation of the customer, what their needs are, who else the customer is considering, and which contacts are in the buying group.
A larger deal at this step will change the forms to include Stakeholders and Competitors allowing you to add more information about the participants in the buying decision.
As you provide information on the form, the system will automatically mark the section as Complete.
Propose
In this stage, you will develop a specific proposal to meet the customer’s needs. You should have a very detailed picture of the proposed solution and how it will help the customer. On the opportunity form, you should add the required products and services. See Add a Product to an Opportunity for more information. You should document the proposed solution and intended benefits in the New Reality field.
As you add products and update the New Reality on the form, the system will automatically mark the sections as Complete.
Win
In this stage, you have received verbal confirmation that you have won, or you have confidence that you will win. Now you need to finalize the sale with a signed contract. Depending on the solution and the customer, this process can be quick or quite slow. In larger organizations or, for larger deals, it can involve many stakeholders including Legal, Procurement, Information Security and IT.
When the contract is signed, attach it to the opportunity (go to the Related tab and click Documents) and update the field to mark the step Complete. The system does not automatically detect a signed contract--this step is manual.
Congratulations, you have a signed contract! Now you just need to mark the opportunity as won, either by clicking Finished on the Win step drop down or using Close as Won from the form ribbon.
Learn more about the Opportunity Record and all related information in Set Up a New Opportunity.