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Quick Tip: Associating Contacts, Companies, and Deals - A Case Study in Lemonade
SOLVEJun 7, 2017 8:50 AM - edited Nov 12, 2019 2:08 PM
Hi there,
My name is Jenny Sowyrda and I am a Community Manager for the HubSpot Community.
One way to think of contacts, companies and deals in terms of the simplest business model there is: the lemonade stand.
- Contacts
In general, contacts are the human connections you are making for all elements of your business. A deal is pitched to a human, a company is run by a human, your emails are read and answered by humans.
In my lemonade stand business, the contacts are the potential customers I have. Drivers passing by, children out riding bikes, parents out jogging-they are all the contacts in my CRM because they are my potential customers. They are my contacts.
- Companies
Companies are more than where your contact works. A company defines your contact’s budget, resources, and ultimately whether your contact will be able to buy your product.
For my lemonade stand, the neighborhoods that I market my lemonade to are the companies. If I set up a lemonade stand in a neighborhood that no one drives or walks through, or a neighborhood that has six other lemonade stands, I am not going to sell my lemonade. These neighborhoods would not be the right companies for me to market to. And just like companies can have multiple contacts, neighborhoods can have multiple individuals eagerly lining up for my lemonade.
An important note—just like an individual cannot live in two neighborhoods at the same time, a contact in HubSpot cannot be associated with multiple companies at the same time.
- Deals
Generally speaking, deals are the business transactions that are associated with a contact or a company.
For my lemonade stand, a deal is when I begin to pitch my lemonade to a customer. While not everyone who stops by my stand will purchase lemonade, my deals are each transaction. And just like one customer can purchase two cups of lemonade, a contact can be associated with two deals.
While contacts, companies and deals can all act independently in a CRM, using them together makes every deal as sweet as selling lemonade.
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Accepted Solutions
Jun 8, 2017 3:52 PM
Hi @AngelaHicks,
Are referring to moving a deal to closed/lost? I often struggle as well with when a deal is truly lost, as there is always (hopefully) the potential to bring that deal back. I think the lemonade stand analogy makes it a bit easier to see this because if a child is in the middle of purchasing his or her lemonade when their parent picks them up for soccer practice, that may be an analogy of a deal being lost. I hope that child comes back to purchase lemonade, but that deal may not be for an hour, a day, or even a week. As I don't know when, or if, that potential revenue will come back, I would consider that first loss of a sale a lost deal that is marked as "closed lost". Would you agree?
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Jun 12, 2017 8:23 AM
Hi all, not sure I can see what the question is here, but I would suggest creating some bespoke deal stages that align with your sales process. Some examples may be - 'No Decision', 'Repeat/Renewal Deal' or 'GPCT Stage' - this last one is having a conversation with you customer to understand what the real opportunity here (or isn't!); e.g. are they buying lemonade just for themselves, their team or their whole company!
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