The Deals module is the central hub of your business development activities and will comprise qualified leads from new and existing customers.
The records in this module will make up your sales pipeline, and the way that you set up and use this module will have a significant impact on the future growth of your business.
The topics covered in this chapter include the following:
So, let's begin, first and foremost, with probably the single most important objective in Zoho CRM itself – defining your sales process within the CRM.
The most important and first aspect to consider in the Deals module is mapping your sales process. Once this has been defined, it will pave the way for the future growth of your business. The stages of the Deals module with supporting functionality (explained later in this chapter) will have a bigger impact on your business growth than any other field in the system. In Chapter 1, The Foundation Modules – The Building Blocks of Success, you saw an example sales process. You subsequently listed the stages of your sales process that, when followed, will provide the most effective way to process a potential deal until your prospect has agreed to purchase your products/services or otherwise.
If your business provides multiple services where the current sales process has different stages and terminology or you are struggling for inspiration, then you might be encouraged by the following use case.
One UK-based non-profit company with over 1,200 employees and 12 completely different business functions (divisions) made the decision to implement Zoho CRM across the whole organization.
One of the key deliverables was for the board and senior management team to be able to report on the volume and value of work and projects in the pipeline across the whole business. So, the implementation team stripped the processes down to basics and came up with a process that could be used by every single business development manager within each business unit.
The resulting stages were as follows:
With the exception of Pre-Mobilization, which is often named Negotiation, it's fair to say that the other stages could be used by many businesses around the world.
So, the moral of this story is that any organization that has multiple divisions and processes right now can consolidate them into one and thus simply report on and automate their workflows later.
Let's have a detailed look at how to set up the aforementioned stages:
It is important to set Forecast Type, Forecast Category, and Probability (%) as they tie in with some of the standard reports and views of records and core functionality. These options are as follows:
Forecast Type: Options include Open, Closed Won, and Closed Lost.
Forecast Category: Select from Pipeline, Closed, and Omitted.
Probability %: Add your typical Win Rate value for each stage.
In addition to pipeline reporting, there is a Forecasting module in Zoho CRM that may add further value. Further details are available at https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/sales-force-automation/forecasts.
The stage names you create here will dictate how you measure your sales pipeline. You will measure the volume and value of deals at each stage of your funnel, an example of which can be seen here:
Visualize your funnel as per the preceding example. Each of the labels will represent a key milestone stage within your sales process. Best practice includes making sure the stage names are clear, jargon-free, and intuitive. Ask yourself the following questions:
If you answer Yes to both of those questions, then your stages will most likely be good ones.
Once you have set up your stages, the following is a screenshot that shows how these milestone stages will appear when a user views a deal record:
Once these stages have been set, it is time to add additional fields that will help your team further clarify the customer's needs.
When accessing the Deals module for the first time, for the same reasons as in the previous chapter, we must review and remove any of the standard (pre-existing) fields that we do not need.
A list of these standard fields can be found here: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/customize-crm-account/customizing-fields/articles/standard-modules-fields#Deals.
The following is a list of the fields you should keep along with the reason(s) why:
Probability: Used to specify the probability of closing a deal (linked to Probability % from the stage).
Once you have reviewed the standard fields and removed the ones you do not need, it is time to add some custom fields that will allow the sales team to further detail the customer requirements.
The first stage of our deal process stage is often called Discovery, Needs Analysis, or Design.
Depending on the type of services and goods you are selling, your sales team will need to be asking questions to ascertain the exact requirements of your client. These questions, ideally, should be fields within the Deals module.
Consider these examples:
Tip
List all the questions your salesperson will need to ask to obtain all the requirements of your prospective customer or client.
Once you have listed these questions, for each one, consider the data type of the field required in the CRM. Ideally, the fields to capture these requirements will be a mixture of Picklist and Number data types to make sure your team is quantifying correctly. You should avoid Single Line and Multiline text fields unless it is to capture any non-standard or additional requirements.
Now create all these required fields in the CRM, ideally locating them within a new, suitably titled section, such as Discovery, Requirements, or Needs Analysis.
Refer to https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/customize-crm-account/customizing-fields/articles/use-custom-fields#Custom_Fields for additional information on adding custom fields.
Note also that the fields that you mapped from leads as described in Chapter 2, Leads – Getting It Right the First Time, will also be present in Deals, so your layout will need to include these also. It is recommended that you position these fields toward the top of the deal form within a section named Deal Details or Requirements.
Tip
Organize all the fields in Deals in suitably named sections. Ideally, aiming for 10–12 fields maximum per section will keep our Deals records easy to read and intuitive.
Layout rules in Zoho CRM are one of the best features to make your system intuitive and user-friendly and to ensure that users always capture all the relevant details at the right time.
In the Deals module, we can, and should, use layout rules at most if not all stages of the sales process. Let's consider one of the examples cited earlier: IT services at the Discovery stage.
Example 1 – IT Services: One of the questions may be to find out the number of office workstations to be supported. This will be followed by a question asking whether laptops will also be supported (Yes/No). If the answer is Yes, then we can create a layout rule that shows and makes mandatory a couple of additional questions to find out the number of laptops (Number data type) and what type of operating software is installed (Multipicklist).
This layout rule can be set up as follows:
Example 2 – CRM Consultancy: A salesperson may ask the prospect if any integrations to third-party systems are required (picklist Yes/No). If the answer is Yes, then we can create a layout rule that will show and make mandatory further fields that present the user with a multi-picklist of possible systems to integrate with – for example, Office 365, Xero, Google, and Sage.
Tip
List all the conditional questions that need to be asked of the salesperson based on the values of previous responses. This will keep your system streamlined and intuitive as well as help the sales team enjoy using the system. Create layout rules for each one.
Most of the value in using layout rules in Deals is gained when they are triggered by a user updating the stage of a deal. As each stage is a milestone within our sales process, it follows that when these milestones are reached, we need to capture specific information.
Details recorded here should either validate that we have achieved a specific milestone or contain information to report on or share with other business functions.
The following table provides a few examples:
The examples provided in the preceding table are by no means an exhaustive list, so use these as a guideline and review your own process to identify which ones will add value to you and your team.
A subform is a secondary form or table where we can associate multiple items to a single record. In the Deals module, this can be very useful as it will allow us to record additional information about the product or service we are providing to our customers all within a single deal record. This will help keep our CRM user-friendly, effective, and efficient.
For example, let's consider a company that supplies mobile telephones and contracts to businesses and consumers. The deal record will hold information at the top level, including the customer name, contact, and the stage we are up to in the sales process. The requirement may be to supply multiple handsets on varying tariffs, each potentially with a unique serial number or IMEI, as it is known in the industry. To try and manage this in the usual way with sections and fields only could be time-consuming and potentially limiting, as we may not have enough custom fields/layout rules to manage it.
Here are the instructions for creating a subform to manage this scenario:
a) Click on +Add Aggregate Field, then in the popup that appears, set Field Label, set Aggregate Function (choosing from Sum, Average, Max, and Min), confirm the field to aggregate, and then click Done:
For additional information on subforms, please refer to https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/customize-crm-account/managing-subforms/articles/build-subforms.
If you do not identify a need for a subform within your Deals module, this is not uncommon, so simply do not create one at this time.
So far in this chapter, we have provided guidance on what you need to, why, and how. However, there are also a few other tips and suggestions that may help improve the setup of the Deals module.
By following the guidance detailed in this chapter, you are well on your way to having a powerful, intuitive, and successful Deals module. However, here are a few more suggestions that may enhance performance even more:
In this chapter, you have learned how to set up and optimize your Deals module effectively to create the perfect pipeline for your business.
You have gained confidence from the example of the business with over 1,200 employees across 12 divisions. If they can successfully adopt a sales process with just 6 stages that will work for all their sales teams, then it is achievable for all Zoho users to have a streamlined common process.
You should now have an understanding of the important standard fields and should have learned how to use layout rules to ensure that we capture the correct information at the right time. You should understand that doing so will help improve the discipline of the sales team and enforce consistency. You will be also aware of best practices to keep this module lean, streamlined, and intuitive.
Finally, you should have an understanding of the most common pitfalls that you should avoid when setting up this module.
In the next chapter, you will learn how to best set up your Accounts and Contacts modules, which will conclude the remaining foundation modules and also Section 1, Laying the Foundation, of this book.
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