Reverting opportunities back to leads

[Becky238]

Hi all, in our current lead management framework, we have a system whereby a deal gets created at opportunity stage. This is then cascaded from the company level down to all the contacts associated to it so that sales and marketing would know to not reach out to the people not associated to the deal.

This has caused issues where say if the deal is closed lost, it would impact reporting if the Opportunity contacts that wasn't associated to the deal themselves stay at that lifecycle. For these contacts, we currently revert them back to the contact lifecycle Lead stage, but this isn't accurate either if they were never one to begin with so that would also impact on reporting. There also doesn't seem to be an easy way to revert these contacts back to their original lifecycles so was wondering if there was anyone here that had a solution for this problem.

[Becky238]

Is there perhaps another way of doing this? Just wanting to find out the list of possibilities so that I can compare the pros and cons of each.

[Josh]

@Becky238,

That is correct.

Your list may need to be updated a bit though. If the deal closes there would still be an associated deal, but in closed status. You would want to reflect that the deal is in one of the open stages. You can apply more filters, or create a company-based list first, then use the company list membership as the filter for your contact list. 

[Josh · Accepted solution]

Hi @Becky238,

My approach would be slightly different as I would not change the other contacts at the company to an opportunity if this is presenting reporting problems. I would have all contacts associated with a company that is associated with a deal added to a specific list such as "DO NOT SEND MARKETING EMAILS". This list would be excluded from all marketing comms. Once the deal is closed, those individuals could be removed from the list. I would make it an active list so these additions and removals are automatic. 

There are probably a few ways to accomplish what you're hoping to do, but this would be my approach. Hope it helps!

[Becky238]

Hi Josh,

This is great thanks! So would you suggest that only the lifecycles of the contacts directly involved with the deal get updated, and no other contact in the same company as them? Their lifecycles should stay the same right?

Also, is the list criteria below good for identifying these contacts?