Leveraging The Opportunity & Project Workflow in Daylite

Quick Tips / August 8, 2014 / Kristie

In every business there is a sales cycle that is relatively the same. Whether you are a photographer, lawyer, consultant, owner of a bakery, or a travelling salesman you are in the business of selling either a product or a service and you follow the same process.

sales cycle

 

The details and the steps may be different, but the cycle can be broken down into 5 stages:


The Sales Cycle:
1. Establish Relationship
2. Need Recognition
3. Formulate Solution
4. Close the Sale
5. Deliver and Evaluate

The important thing to keep in mind is that this is a cycle, not a linear process. This means that when you’re in the “Close” or “Delivery” stage of the cycle, you still need to be planning ahead to the next “Establish Relationship” stage so you have continued business coming in. This could be business with the same client or establishing relationships with new prospects.

For this reason, it’s a good idea to keep your prospects and your confirmed sales separate so that you can mentally balance the work you have currently with the work you have coming up. Daylite allows you to keep your focus on both your leads and your current deliverables by establishing an Opportunity and Project workflow.

How It Works
In Daylite, you can create an opportunity for each prospective client. You can then assign a pipeline to track your process through the stages of “Needs Recognition” and “Formulate Solution”. Once you reach the “Close Sale” stage of the pipeline, you can convert the opportunity into a project. This separates your business on the table, from your confirmed deliverables. When you convert an opportunity into a project in Daylite, all the important details are pulled so you have the information you need to continue to the “Deliver and Evaluate” stage. You can use a project pipeline here to track your process until completion.

Benefit of This Process
By following this workflow, you maintain a clear view of who you need to go after in order to close the sale, as well as a separate focus list of what goals you need to accomplish to deliver on your promises. This workflow ensures that you have a balance on the present and the future so you still have business coming in to keep you moving forward.

No matter how busy you get working on current projects, you will be aware of what’s coming next.

Watch this video to learn how to convert an opportunity to a project, and follow along with this video to learn how to create and customize pipelines for your own process.

 

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