So funktioniert effektives Deal Management

Was versteht man unter Deal Management?

Beim Deal Management wird ein systematischer Ansatz verfolgt, um Vertriebsmöglichkeiten von Anfang an nachzuverfolgen und zu optimieren. Ziel ist der erfolgreiche Geschäftsabschluss. Es handelt sich dabei um einen vielschichtigen Vorgang, zu dem das Organisieren, das Nachverfolgen und die Pflege potenzieller Kund:innen gehören. Diese sollen so zu langjährigen Kund:innen werden.

Deal Management zielt auf langfristige Vorteile für alle Beteiligten ab. Hierzu gehört manchmal auch, einen Kompromiss zwischen den Anforderungen auf Nachfrage- und Angebotsseite zu finden. Hierbei muss jedoch immer gewährleistet bleiben, dass beide Seiten mit dem Resultat zufrieden sind.

Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen, dass effektives Deal Management in Sachen Umsatzwachstum und Geschäftsausbau unverzichtbar ist.

Wie funktioniert Deal Management?

Als Geschäftsinhaber:in oder Vertriebsprofi ist es unerlässlich, ein genaues Verständnis der verschiedenen Phasen im Deal Management zu haben. Im Deal Management beruht ein effektiver Prozess auf mehreren Grundprinzipien:

Leadgenerierung und -qualifizierung

Der Lebenszyklus eines Deals beginnt mit der Leadgenerierung, d. h. wenn potenzielle Kund:innen Interesse an Ihren Produkten oder Dienstleistungen zeigen. Freshsales vereinheitlicht diesen Vorgang mit Tools zur Gewinnung von Leads aus verschiedenen Quellen, darunter Web-Formulare, E-Mail-Kampagnen und Interaktionen auf den sozialen Medien.

Sobald die Leads einmal gewonnen sind, lautet der nächste Schritt Qualifizierung. Mit Freshsales wird die Priorisierung von Leads ein Leichtes. Dabei werden Kriterien wie demografische Daten, Engagement und die Übereinstimmung mit Ihrem Zielkundenprofil herangezogen. So wird sichergestellt, dass Ihr Team sich auf die vielversprechendsten Leads konzentriert, was wiederum Ihre Effizienz steigert.

Individuell ausrichtbare Vertriebspipelines

Individuelle Anpassbarkeit gehört zum Kern eines effektiven Deal Managements. Mit Freshsales können Sie individuell ausgerichtete Deal-Pipelines erstellen, die ganz auf Ihre Vertriebsprozesse abgestimmt sind. Jede Pipeline umfasst dabei mehrere Vertriebsphasen, die die unterschiedlichen Phasen Ihres Vertriebszyklus abbilden. Diese können Sie je nach Ihren individuellen Geschäftsanforderungen flexibel anpassen, um einfachen ebenso wie komplexen Vertriebsprozessen gleichfalls gerecht zu werden.

Dadurch arbeitet Ihr Team innerhalb einer Struktur, die ihren Arbeitsabläufen entspricht. Auch wird so sichergestellt, dass es den jeweiligen Arbeitsansatz immer an den verschiedenen Deal-Typen und Kundeninteraktionen ausrichten kann, während das Pipeline-Management an sich immer weiter verfeinert wird.

Deal-Fortschritt und -Tracking

Verfolgen Sie den Status Ihrer Deals auf ihrem Weg durch die Pipeline – in Echtzeit. Freshsales bietet mehrere visuelle Darstellungsformen für Deals, darunter Tabellen, Listen und Kanban-Boards, wodurch Sie einen umfassenden Überblick über Ihre Vertriebspipeline erhalten. Jeder Deal wird einer bestimmten Vertriebsphase zugeordnet. So ist immer ersichtlich, wie sich die Deals zu einem gegebenen Zeitpunkt auf die verschiedenen Phasen verteilen.

Die Flexibilität, Deals in verschiedenen Formaten betrachten und verwalten zu können, ermöglicht es Ihren Mitarbeitenden, ihren Ansatz immer auf die jeweiligen Anforderungen abzustimmen – egal ob es sich dabei um eine eingehende Analyse oder einen allgemeinen Überblick handelt.

Automatisierung von Arbeitsabläufen

Das richtige Maß an Automatisierung ist für effizientes Deal Management von entscheidender Bedeutung. Freshsales bietet robuste Tools zur Automatisierung von Arbeitsabläufen, die Routineaufgaben für Sie übernehmen. Dazu zählen zum Beispiel der Versand von Follow-up-E-Mails, die Zuweisung von Aufgaben und die Aktualisierung der einzelnen Deal-Phasen. Über Benachrichtigungen hat Ihr Team immer alle wichtigen Entwicklungen auf dem Schirm. So können Sie sich darauf verlassen, dass immer zeitnah auf Kund:innen eingegangen wird.

Durch die Automatisierung repetitiver Aufgaben spart Ihr Team wertvolle Zeit und kann sich auf Aufgaben konzentrieren, die menschliche Eigenschaften voraussetzen, wie den Aufbau von Beziehungen und das Aushandeln von Deals. Diese Funktionen verbessern somit nicht nur die Effizienz, sondern auch die Customer Experience.

Deal-Einblicke mit Freddy AI

Mit den KI-gestützten Insights von Freddy AI als Teil der Freshsales-Software erschließt sich Ihnen eine ganz neue Ebene in Sachen Deal Management. Freddy AI analysiert historische Vertriebsdaten, Engagement-Kennzahlen und Aktivitäten und erstellt daraus aussagekräftige Deal-Prognosen. Diese bieten wertvolle Erkenntnisse zur Wahrscheinlichkeit eines Geschäftsabschlusses, wodurch Ihr Vertrieb Deals mit hoher Abschlusswahrscheinlichkeit Vorrang einräumen kann.

Dadurch profitiert Ihr Team von datengestützten Empfehlungen und kann seine Energie auf Deals mit dem höchsten Konversionspotenzial konzentrieren, was sich in höheren Erfolgsquoten und Umsatzsteigerungen niederschlägt.

Dokumentation und Zusammenarbeit

Zusammenarbeit ist das Schlüsselwort, wenn es um den Abschluss komplexer Deals geht. Genau hier setzt Freshsales an: Mitarbeitende können zum einen Dokumente wie Rechnungen und Angebote anhand benutzerspezifischer Vorlagen zentral erstellen und nachverfolgen. Zum anderen werden durch die Einbindung der Messaging-App Slack der Austausch zwischen Teammitgliedern und somit die effektive Zusammenarbeit gefördert.

Dadurch, dass Dokumentenverwaltung und Teamwork unter einem CRM-Dach vereint sind, wird sichergestellt, dass alle, die an einem Deal arbeiten, jederzeit Zugang zu den neuesten Informationen und Dokumenten haben. Ferner wird so auch das Risiko von Fehlkommunikation verringert und der Vertriebszyklus gestärkt.

Additional benefits of deal management:

Properly executed deal management can offer a plethora of advantages to its users, including enhanced consistency, efficiency, and visibility.

1. Create consistency

Deal management establishes clear guidelines and workflows for deal processes. These standardized procedures help streamline execution by providing a roadmap for teams to follow, ensuring that all necessary steps are taken and no critical tasks are overlooked.

Additionally, it facilitates centralized collaboration among stakeholders, including sales representatives, legal teams, and finance departments. Through unified repositories and communication platforms integrated into deal management software, all relevant parties can access up-to-date information and collaborate seamlessly throughout the deal lifecycle. This enables real-time visibility into deal progress and ensures that team members are always working towards a common goal. 

2. Improve sales efficiency

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Deal management provides visibility into deal pipelines and sales performance metrics. Consolidated dashboards and reporting tools empower sales managers to monitor deal progress, track KPIs, and identify areas of inefficiency. This enables them to allot resources more effectively, such as assigning more experienced sales personnel to high-value deals to improve the likelihood of conversion.

Deal management further empowers sales teams with access to comprehensive customer insights, enabling them to personalize their interactions with prospects. By centralizing user information, deal management enables sales representatives to understand customer needs, anticipate objections, and tailor their approach accordingly. 

3. Price optimization

Utilizing sound deal management practices empowers companies to adopt dynamic pricing mechanisms that respond in real time to changes. Integrating pricing optimization algorithms allows businesses to forecast demand fluctuations, assess price elasticity, and identify optimal price points. Furthermore, deal management enables the implementation of strategies such as value-based pricing, tiered pricing, and promotional pricing in order to appeal to a wider range of potential clients.

Centralized deal repositories and CRM systems can also aggregate crucial data points such as historical pricing, customer preferences, and competitive intelligence. By analyzing this array of information, businesses can gain a comprehensive understanding of marketplace dynamics to identify trends that influence pricing decisions. 

4. Increased visibility

Deal management can organize critical data points such as deal status, stage progression, and sales activities. This centralized approach allows collaborators to access up-to-date information on deal progress from anywhere at any time. By providing a comprehensive overview of the sales pipeline, deal management enhances transparency in ongoing sales activities for all parties involved.

Visibility is further enhanced by providing timely alerts to stakeholders. Deal management platforms can send notifications to collaborators when key events occur, such as changes in deal status, upcoming deadlines, or new interactions with customers. Simply predefine the criteria that will trigger these alerts, and team members will be instantaneously notified to ensure a swift reaction to important occurrences.

Stages of deal management

Deals typically progress through a series of stages from initial awareness through conversion. The time this requires depends on several factors such as readiness to buy, barriers to purchase, and how effectively sales reps can alleviate potential concerns that a lead may have.

Introduction

The introduction stage marks the initial phase of the sales process, where the relationship between the seller and the potential customer begins. Here, the focus is on establishing contact with the prospect and building credibility. Teams typically identify and qualify leads through marketing campaigns, referrals, networking events, or cold outreach. The goal is to gain the prospect's interest in an offering by highlighting the unique value proposition (UVP) and relevance to the challenges prospects are facing.

Lead qualification

Following initial awareness, sales teams assess the potential of a lead to determine whether they have the characteristics to become a qualified prospect. During this stage, representatives delve deeper into understanding the lead’s budget, authority, needs, and timeline (often referred to as BANT criteria). Through a series of questions, agents aim to gather comprehensive information to evaluate the level of interest and readiness to move forward with the sales process.

Negotiation

Once the quality is confirmed, sales reps will begin to engage prospects in discussions to reach mutually agreeable terms for the proposed deal. During this stage, both parties seek to address any concerns, clarify expectations, and discuss conditions related to pricing, delivery, or contractual obligations. Negotiations often involve a series of back-and-forth exchanges aimed at reaching a win-win outcome that satisfies the interests of both the seller and the buyer.

Closing

The closing stage marks the culmination of the sales process, where the agreement between the seller and the prospect is finalized. During this phase, sales agents aim to secure a commitment from the lead to move forward with the purchase. The closing stage typically involves addressing any remaining concerns, reiterating the UVP, and providing reassurance to the prospect about their decision.

What can you achieve with deal management?

Sound deal management processes allow businesses to capitalize on all relevant opportunities, while not wasting time or resources on efforts that offer little chance of success. Make sure that you’re actively monitoring insights gained to pick up on indicators of both high- and low-quality leads.

1. Focus on the right deals

Deal management facilitates ongoing deal tracking of deal pipelines, enabling sales teams to focus on opportunities that are most likely to result in successful outcomes.

By leveraging data analytics tools, representatives can identify patterns and areas for improvement. This information-driven approach empowers teams to make informed decisions about where to allocate their time and effort, ensuring that they’re investing resources in deals that offer the greatest probability of closure.

Organizations that properly employ lead scoring strategies experience, on average, a 77% increase in ROI over businesses that don’t engage in scoring.

2. Manage deal incentives

Deal management facilitates the automation of incentive calculations, streamlining administrative processes and reducing the risk of discrepancies. With incentive management functionalities, organizations can automate the calculation of commissions based on predefined criteria. This eliminates the need for manual calculations while ensuring accuracy in incentive payouts.

Companies can further enhance structures by aligning incentives with strategic objectives and sales priorities. By leveraging data analytics, businesses can identify KPIs that drive sales and customer success and design incentive programs that reward behaviors aligned with these metrics.

Well-structured incentive programs have been estimated to increase employee productivity by 44%, meaning that refining processes can benefit team members and companies. 

3. Identify rotten deals

Through comprehensive tracking, deal management enables sales teams to monitor deal progression, engagement levels, and potential red flags that may indicate a lack of viability. This data-driven approach can help identify warning signs early on and empower teams to take proactive measures to mitigate risks or disengage from unprofitable opportunities.

Deal management also allows for continuous refinement of strategies through post-mortem analysis and feedback mechanisms. By conducting thorough reviews of unsuccessful deals, teams can extract valuable lessons learned and apply them to future opportunities. AI can further help fine-tune approaches by analyzing historical data and identifying patterns associated with rotten deals.

Deal management best practices

To maximize the benefits of your deal management system, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with its abilities to ensure you’re utilizing it to its full potential. Here’s a brief rundown of practices you can employ to make sure you’re getting the most out of your approach.

1. Utilize data to make informed decisions

Ensure that you’re continually leveraging user data to tailor offerings to individual needs. By tracking customer interactions across various touchpoints, including emails, phone calls, and website visits, organizations can gain insights into preferences, behaviors, and pain points. This information enables sales teams to segment effectively and deliver targeted messaging that addresses specific customer challenges.

Moreover, analyzing deal pipelines and KPIs empowers businesses to identify high-value opportunities and allocate resources accordingly. This data-driven approach ensures that teams focus their efforts on deals with the greatest potential for customer success.

2. Multi-threaded relationships

It’s also essential to identify key decision-makers, influencers, and stakeholders involved in the buying process within the client business. By understanding the organizational structure, sales teams can strategically target personnel who hold sway over purchasing decisions and cultivate relationships with them.

Effective communication is critical for nurturing relationships with these individuals. Representatives should use various channels, including phone calls, emails, meetings, and social media, to maintain regular contact throughout the sales process. It's critical to tailor these interactions to suit the preferences of unique stakeholders, ensuring that messages are relevant, timely, and personalized.

3. Establish a timeline

Don’t forget to define clear deadlines for each stage of the deal, from initial contact to final closure. By breaking down the sales process into more manageable steps, sales teams can create a roadmap for guiding their activities and ensuring that deals stay on track.

Employing automation techniques can further enhance efficiency in establishing and adhering to timelines. Implementing a centralized deal management platform that integrates with existing systems can improve real-time visibility, automate routine tasks, and send automated reminders about upcoming deadlines. Employing workflow automation tools can also aid in ensuring consistency in deal execution, reducing the likelihood of delays or errors.

4. Pricing and procurement

Conduct thorough market research to establish pricing strategies that are competitive yet profitable. This involves analyzing trends, understanding customer value propositions, and benchmarking against competitors. Also consider factors such as product differentiation, customer segmentation, and value-based pricing to ensure that strategies align with business objectives.

Sound procurement practices assist in securing favorable terms and conditions from suppliers while minimizing costs and risks. Teams should establish strategic partnerships with suppliers, negotiate contracts, and implement robust supplier management processes. By leveraging data analytics and supplier scorecards, organizations can evaluate performance, identify opportunities for cost savings, and mitigate supply chain disruptions or quality issues.