Assign Sales Stages

The fastest (and easiest!) way to activate the power of your database is to assign a Sales Stage to all of your contacts.

What Are Sales Stages

Sales Stages represent where your contact is at, in the relationship life cycle.

You can take advantage of ready-to-use Sales Stages provided in Prospects, or create your own customized Sales Stages.

Why Sales Stages Are Important

Sales Stages are not just a handy way to categorize your database. They also do the following:

• allow you to easily see and understand your sales pipeline, eg: raw leads, qualified leads, active buyers and sellers, and past clients
• dictate how often you want to be in touch, allowing your Dashboard Virtual Assistant to prompt you to take actions such as scheduling a call or appointment, sending an email, or putting the contact on an action plan or drip email campaign
• trigger automated workflows, for example incoming leads can automatically be assigned a sales stage, a keyword, and an action plan

Ready-to-use Stages

The following Sales Stages are pre-configured in Prospects. 

New Leads [2 days]	Active Buyers [14 days]
Qualified Hot Leads [2 days]	Active Sellers [30 days]
Qualified Warm Leads [14 days]	Active Buyers/Sellers [14 days]
Qualified Cool Leads [30 days]	Past Clients [90 days]
	Not Followed

When to Assign Stages

Here are some best practices for assigning Sales Stages.

1.	New Leads	New Leads are raw & unqualified. They may come from a variety of sources such as Zillow or Facebook Ads or when someone downloads your Prospects Mobile or MLS-Touch app. Once a new lead is "accepted" a contact record is created and assigned a Sales Stage of "New Leads". You can take it one step further and automatically assign a keyword (eg: Zillow Lead) and put them on an action plan or drip email campaign to ensure a rapid, professional response.
2.	Qualified Leads	Qualified Leads can be categorized as hot, warm, or cool depending on their motivation and ability to transact. If you've been able to connect with the lead and have some understanding of their real estate needs, you should assign the contact a "Qualified Leads" status.
3.	Active Buyers and Sellers	When you sign a listing agreement with a seller or you're actively working with a buyer, you should assign the contact a Sales Stage of "Active Buyers" or "Active Sellers".
4.	Past Clients	30 days past closing, buyer and seller clients should be assigned a Sales Stage of "Past Clients".
5.	Not Followed	Use this sales stage for service providers such as home inspectors, lawyers and moving companies.

Be sure to review and accept your incoming leads quickly! Once accepted, a new contact record is automatically created and assigned a "New Leads" Sales Stage. If you've created an action plan (your own custom to-do list including emails) for your new leads, you can dictate the workflow for your New Leads by going to Configuration Settings -> Leads and designating an action plan / email campaign that you want to trigger when a new lead comes in. 

Add a Sales Stage to a Contact Record

Select Contacts from the top menu bar and open up the Contact Record. Use the drop down pick-list to select a Sales Stage. Click Save and Close and you're done!

Did you know that you can also add a sales stage to a contact record when you're on the go - using your MLS-Touch app! Learn more HERE!

Add a Sales Stage to Multiple Contacts

Read our article on how to Edit Contacts In Bulk.

Customize Your Own Sales Stages

Read our article on how to Customize Sales Stages. 

Need a Little Help?   

If you’d like a little extra assistance with any of the Prospects CRM features, our Customer Support team is ready to help. Contact us at [e-mail].