Basic CRM Terminology

Does everyone on your team have a common language for CRM and sales concepts?

Opportunity: This is what selling is all about

Any sales deal you are working on is an opportunity. You can’t close sales without opportunities, but not every opportunity turns into an actual sale.

Selling is all about finding new opportunities and winning them.

Sales Process: How You Convert Opportunities into Wins

The sales process is a sequence of events choreographed to convert opportunities into wins.

Every sales process consists of distinct stages. Opportunities move from one stage of the sales process to the next as they progress. Identifying the ideal sequence of stages is essential to get the most out of your CRM.

Quote: Putting Your Offer into Writing

In the later stages of the sales process, the buyer may ask you to produce a document that details your offer. This document is called a quote.

Important: By the time a quote is requested, the sales process is already well underway. Don’t rely on quotes to manage the sales process. Quotes are just documents. You may have to quote multiple times for a single opportunity, and sometimes you may even win opportunities without quoting at all. Focus on managing the sales process and the opportunities in it.

Nevertheless, quoting is an essential and time-consuming part of the sales process. TeamGram can make it easier.

Order

An order is a document issued by a buyer who has accepted your offer. It shows what they have agreed to buy and the terms and conditions they have agreed to.

You will receive an order towards the very end of the sales process, so you can’t rely on orders to manage everything that happens until then. If you focus only on orders, you may easily overlook details that can improve your sales performance.

In most cases, the final order will be different from what you expected to sell when you first started working on the opportunity. Be sure to update the opportunity when you receive an order. Also, remember that you may receive multiple orders as part of the same opportunity.

You can use TeamGram to keep track of orders throughout the fulfillment process.

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