Deal pipeline-if quote is rejected, do we need to go backward to previous deal stage?
SOLVE
Hi, I am having issues find the right suitable workflow for my sales pipeline;
For instance, i have a stage : Formal offer
This stage ends by sending a quote (not using quote tool on hubspot). After this stage I have a stage called negociation that ends by the prospect accepting the quote.
However sometimes a prospect says no to a quote and the sales is reissuing a quote again with new conditions.
My question: how do you handle this type of issue: do you create a workflow that brings the deal to the previous stage (then the Sales recreate a new quote?) or it does not work backward as lifecycle stages or it's just not advised?
Or do you create after negociation a new stage: quote recreate; but if more than 2 quotes are created, I don't want to create X new stages for that.
Firstly, the deal stage doesn't work like a lifecycle stage, we can move the deals to any stage when required. And if you ask me, I would suggest creating a stage between sending a quote & negotiation that could be Changes requested on Quote. And will keep the deal in the stage when changes are being made, this way you will not need to create multiple stages if quotes get rejected multiple times. You can move the deal back and forth accordingly.
Hope this helps! If we were able to answer your query, kindly help the community by marking it as a solution. Thanks and Regards.
In my opinion, you're not gaining anything from having additional deal stages here. Even the deal stage "Negotation" could potentially be removed: You're saying that this is the stage where deals are moved when the quote is accepted. Essentially, that's "Closed won" (unless there is additional context that I'm missing).
If you have a "Formal offer" stage that includes all deals where a quote has been sent, I would simply keep deals here, even if a second, third, fourth offer are sent. The definition of the stage still holds true: The offer was sent.
Another reason to not use additional stages is that HubSpot wants deals to move through all stages. That's when reporting (e.g. funnel reports) work best. When deals skip stages, conversion rates cannot be calculated from one stage to another.
The main question that you'll want to answer in reporting is how deals spend in the quote stage. There is a report under Menu > Reports > Analytics Tools > Sales analytics > Time spent in deal stage. Additionally, you can create other reports to look at the "Formal offer" stage and see which deals are stuck in there.
Another question that you want to answer might be "How many quotes were needed for this customer?". If you're not working with HubSpot quotes, this could be tracked with a custom number property that sales reps +1 when they send a quote.
Hope this helps!
Karsten Köhler HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer
In my opinion, you're not gaining anything from having additional deal stages here. Even the deal stage "Negotation" could potentially be removed: You're saying that this is the stage where deals are moved when the quote is accepted. Essentially, that's "Closed won" (unless there is additional context that I'm missing).
If you have a "Formal offer" stage that includes all deals where a quote has been sent, I would simply keep deals here, even if a second, third, fourth offer are sent. The definition of the stage still holds true: The offer was sent.
Another reason to not use additional stages is that HubSpot wants deals to move through all stages. That's when reporting (e.g. funnel reports) work best. When deals skip stages, conversion rates cannot be calculated from one stage to another.
The main question that you'll want to answer in reporting is how deals spend in the quote stage. There is a report under Menu > Reports > Analytics Tools > Sales analytics > Time spent in deal stage. Additionally, you can create other reports to look at the "Formal offer" stage and see which deals are stuck in there.
Another question that you want to answer might be "How many quotes were needed for this customer?". If you're not working with HubSpot quotes, this could be tracked with a custom number property that sales reps +1 when they send a quote.
Hope this helps!
Karsten Köhler HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer
Firstly, the deal stage doesn't work like a lifecycle stage, we can move the deals to any stage when required. And if you ask me, I would suggest creating a stage between sending a quote & negotiation that could be Changes requested on Quote. And will keep the deal in the stage when changes are being made, this way you will not need to create multiple stages if quotes get rejected multiple times. You can move the deal back and forth accordingly.
Hope this helps! If we were able to answer your query, kindly help the community by marking it as a solution. Thanks and Regards.