What should happen to trigger opportunity stage advancement? We define and describe each opportunity stage here and provide some narrative in this article on when you should consider advancing opportunity stage based on your interactions with your customer.
It’s important to identify key signals and triggers to prompt opportunity creation and stage movement and it is even more important to standardize those signals and triggers with your organization’s sales team to maintain good data hygiene. You want all members of the sales team to manage their opportunities based on the same metrics.
Opportunities with clean, well-maintained data contribute to a healthy sales funnel which rolls into accurate business forecasting.
TekStack makes it easy to move through the sales journey with Opportunity stages. We even recommend what data should be included on the opportunity to trigger stage advancement. You can see these suggestions as fields within each opportunity stage in the business process flow:
| Opportunity Stage | Triggers for Stage | Details to Include | Why? |
| Discover | You've received buying signals and information from the customer that trigger you to create an opportunity, such as a request for a demo. You should have an idea on what the customer is looking for and what the deal is worth. You have a rough idea on scope, and you've profiled the stakeholders to be involved in the deal. If this is a brand-new customer, you’ve researched their organization and determined they would be a good fit. | 1. Estimates of one time and/or re-occurring amounts. 2. Meaningful attribution details. 3. Preliminary business impact details - at this stage it might just be quick notes and lists on current situation and customer need. | Estimated prices to guide in conversations with the customer. Attribution details play into business forecasting by helping you determine where your deals are coming from. Keeping accurate business impact details provide important information about the customer's sale journey. |
| Qualify | You've had some great conversations with the customer and have presented a demo. The customer indicated that they want to move forward with next steps. You have a clear vision of the customer's current situation and what they need. You've identified competitors and you've started flushing out risks and challenges. You have a date on when the deal should close. | 1. Business Impact - flushed out details on situation and need. 2. Competitors have been added to the opportunity. 3. A close date has been entered. 4. Forecast category could be updated to "Committed" | Adding competitors plays into business forecasting and allows you to better predict if you'll secure a deal or not. What competitors do we tend to outshine? Which ones do we often lose deals to? Does it make sense for us to pursue this deal based on the competition? How can we improve our products and services to put us in a more favorable position? Close date gives you a target for completion. Forecast category will help you determine which deals you're likely to win and when to allow for revenue forecasting. |
| Propose | You have a detailed picture of the proposed solution and how it helps the customer. You have specific products/services to propose. You've presented a detailed demo and have done a proposal presentation or have one scheduled. Stakeholders understand the decision-making process and timeline and there may have been discussions about the implementation approach. | 1. Products and services have been added. This will override the original estimates added during the discover stage. The products contain detailed descriptions. 2. A New Reality narrative has been included under Business Impact. 3. Slide decks, Word documents, and any other artifacts produced have been attached. 4. You could adjust the forecast category to best case. Use your best judgment based on interactions with the customer. | Adding products and services plays an integral role in understanding what products are contributing positively to your sales funnel, and what products aren't doing as well. It will also help you determine sales trends across industries, organization size, demographic, etc. Adding details to the Business Impact fields and attaching artifacts in the Documents tab provides insight into the customer’s sales journey. |
| Win | You have received verbal confirmation that you've won the deal or are very confident that you will win. Perhaps the customer has asked for references. It's time to finalize a SOW and prepare the contract for the customer to sign. | 1. The signed contract has been attached. It’s best to close the loop with the customer and have the signed contract in your possession before closing the opportunity as won. TekStack allows for an opportunity to be saved in the Win stage before it is officially closed as won. | Attaching the signed contract to the opportunity seals the deal and is your trigger to close the opportunity as won! When winning an opportunity, it's important to include the decision factors that contributed to the won deal such as "price" or "team knowledge." This is another reportable metric that can help sales managers determine what the team/org is doing well and areas that can be improved. |