1. Pipeline - Indicates the deal is still in pipeline and is yet to be finalized. These deals will be counted when a forecast is drawn for open deals.
   
2. Closed - Indicates the deal is won and will be taken into account for forecast on closed deals.
   
3. Omitted - Indicates the deal is lost and thus won't be considered for forecast calculation. 
   

Note 

1. For a better sales pipeline analysis assign different probabilities to sales stage values.
   
2. For each stage assign probability in the range of 0 to 100.
   
3. You may consider using probability value as 100 when the deal is closed-won and 0 for deal closed-lost.

Working with the Deals Details page

Once you have created a deal, you can view the details of the deal in the record's details page. The details page of a deal presents information related to the deal - for example, accounts and contacts related to the deal, activities, notes, events, emails and so on - in a single location.

To view the accounts details page

1. Click the Deals module.
   
2. Click the desired deal from the Deals list view.
   
3. You will see the details page of the deal.
   

Here is a quick-tour of the Deal's details page:

1. Switch between the Info and Timeline views.
   

• Info - Displays related lists and links assoicated the the deal
  
• Timeline - Displays a history of actions performed on the deal's details page (in the last six months).
  

• Edit - Allows you to edit the record.
  
• More icon - Displays further options that you can perform for the account.
  
• Business card view: View top 5 fields related to the account. You can customize the business card view  a deal.
  
• Related Lists Section- Navigate to the desired related list from this section. You can add a new related list as well as add new entries to an exisiting related list from this section.
  
  
  
• Quick stage-update section - Update the Stage and Closing date of a deal quickly using the quick stage-update section.
  
• View related information such as Next Action and Contact details.
  

Filter deals based on deal category

You can filter the deals that are open, won or lost by using filters like "stage is won", "stage is lost" or "stage is open" options to find them quickly.

For example, the negotiation/review, proposal/price quote stages are marked under the open deal category, therefore using the "stage is open" you can filter and see the deals that are won.

Associate Deals with Other Records

You can create a 360-degrees view of the deal to display all the associated details, such as open activities, history of the completed activities, contacts, products, sales stage history, attachments, and notes.

In the Deal Details page, you can update the following:

• Sales Stage History: To view the history of the sales stage
  
• Competitors: To associate competitors
  
• Attachments: To attach documents
  
• Notes: To add notes
  
• Open Activities: To create tasks and events
  
• Closed Activities: To display the completed tasks and events
  
• Products: To add products
  
• Quotes: To create quote for the deals
  
• Sales Orders: To create sales orders for the deal
  
• Contact Roles : To select contacts associated
  
• Emails: To send emails to the primary contact of deal
  
• Cases: To create cases
  

Associate Competitors with Deal

Most companies prefer to purchase products after analyzing different vendors. If you are working within a highly competitive market, where your competitors are directly competing with you in being awarded the deal, it is always better to know their strengths and weaknesses well in advance so that you can propose your offering in a better way.

This feature enables you to add the competitor's strengths and weaknesses.

To associate competitors with deals

1. Click the Deals tab.
   
2. In the Deals Home page, select the required deal.
   
3. In the  Deal Details page, the competitor details, if any, are displayed.
   
   • Click Competitor Name, Website, Strengths, or Weaknesses links to sort the display order of the records.
     
   • Click the relevant Edit or Del link to modify or delete the record respectively.
     
4. Click  New and do the following:
   
   • Enter the Competitor Name.
     
   • Enter the competitor's Website.
     
   • Enter the Strengths and Weaknesses in the respective text boxes.
     
5. Click Save.
   

Map Contact Roles

While prospecting, you may need to contact different people (contacts) to finalize the sales deal. It is always better to know the contact's role in your prospecting organization, so that you always have the correct discussion with the right person. For example, explaining about product price and discounts is always better with the Financial Manager, whereas explaining product features is better with the Product Manager. This kind of approach helps you to negotiate with the prospecting organization in a better way and minimize the sales lead-time.

To map contact roles

1. Click the Deals tab.
   
2. In the Deals Home page, select the required deal.
   
3. In the  Deals Details page, the contact details, if any, are displayed under  Contact Roles section.
   
   • Click Contact Name , Phone , Email , or Role Name links to sort the display order of the records.
     
   • Click the relevant Remove link to delete the record.
     
4. Click Add Contact Role.
   
5. In the Contact Roles Mapping page, for each contact select the role from the Contact Role drop-down list.
   
6. Select the check box(es) of the contacts that you want to add.
   
   To associate all the contacts , select the  select all check box.
   
7. Click Save.
   

Set up Big Deal Alert

You can use the Big-deal Alert to notify your management or colleagues about a chance of being awarded a big deal that you would like to share with them. Sometimes, executive board members may be interested in knowing all of the Big-deal information well in advance. You can send the Big-deal alert as an e-mail notification to all the Zoho CRM users or to the selected users and colleagues not registered as Zoho CRM users. By default, there is a Big Deal Alert in Zoho CRM that you can modify and use.

To configure big deal alert

1. Click Settings > Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules.
   
2. In the Workflow Rules page, select Deals from the List of Rules drop-down list.
   
3. Click Big Deal Rule from the list of rules.
   
4. In the Rule Details page, the default criteria is " Amount >= 1000 and the probability = 100 ".
   
5. Click Edit to modify the Rule Details.
   
6. Under  Actions >  Instant Actions the  Related Alerts, Tasks and Field Updates are listed.
   
   You can change them as per your requirements.
   
7. Click Save.
   

Configure Sales Stage Picklist

To add or modify pick list value

1. Click Setup > Customization > Fields > Deals.
   
2. From the list of deal fields, click the Edit link corresponding to the Stage field.
   
3. Modify the existing details, and then click Save.