Separate companies, contacts and opportunities
A company is the organisation you do business with. A contact is a person you work with. An opportunity represents a particular potential deal. One company can have several opportunities in progress, involving different people.
The buying group consists of the roles involved in a purchase decision. It may include business specialists, procurement, IT and the people responsible for financial approval. Organisations use different roles, and one person can hold several. Record whether a role is confirmed, assumed or still unknown.
Connect people to the relevant opportunity. A technical contact might lead the evaluation for one project and simply need updates on another. A permanent “decision-maker” label on the contact record does not adequately capture that difference.
Product documentation also demonstrates the distinction between companies, people and relationships. Salesforce, for example, documents contacts associated with multiple accounts and separate internal account teams. This is a specific data model, not a requirement for every CRM. Salesforce Trailhead: account and contact relationships.
| Level | Illustrative entry | Question to resolve |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Example Business North | Which entity will place the order? |
| Opportunity | Standardise the service workflow | What scope is being considered? |
| Business contact | Head of service | Which requirements are confirmed? |
| Financial approval | Not yet known | Who approves the budget? |
Define sales stages through verifiable transitions
Stages should explain what is already known about a deal. “Proposal” might mean an internal draft exists, the customer has received it or the proposal has been discussed. Without shared definitions, records with the same label look more alike than they really are.
For each stage, define an entry condition and the evidence required to move forward. A consultative service business might use: need understood, scope agreed, decision prepared, and won or closed. These labels are a starting point and should be adapted to the actual sales process.
Do not require every detail at the first contact. Information requirements should grow as the conversation progresses. The person responsible for financial approval may initially be unknown. If your team needs that information to prepare a meaningful decision, the gap should become visible before that stage transition.
Allow justified exceptions to be documented too. An existing framework agreement may provide a different decision path. Rules should explain and support teamwork; they should not encourage people to invent values simply to move a record forward.
A next action needs more than “follow up”
A useful task identifies the intended outcome, its owner and a date. “Follow up” does not explain what needs to be discussed. “Ask the business contact who will approve the budget” addresses a particular unanswered question.
When recording an arrangement, distinguish a customer-confirmed commitment from an internal plan. An internal reminder is not a customer appointment. This distinction helps someone taking over the opportunity understand the situation correctly.
Each open opportunity should have a visible reason for remaining active. If no useful next step exists, deliberately pausing or closing it may be appropriate. Record the reason and, where relevant, the condition that would justify reopening it.
Example: the business need is clear, approval is unresolved
In this fictional example, a B2B service provider is discussing the operation of a customer's service process. Business requirements have been reviewed and a draft quotation exists. It is still unclear who can approve the scope financially. For this type of deal, the team has agreed to identify that role before moving to “decision prepared”.
- Need understood: The head of service confirms the problem and objective.
- Scope agreed: Services and open questions are recorded in the draft quotation.
- Transition pending: Financial approval remains unresolved. The sales owner arranges to clarify it with the business contact.
- Decision prepared: The responsible role and review process are confirmed; the next action is recorded.
The CRM needs to show the missing information, owner and agreed action together. Whether this uses a required field, warning or task rule is a design decision. Test the exception too: how is a different decision justified, and can the team still see that explanation?
After a deal is won, delivery or administration needs the agreed scope, accepted quotation version and any outstanding commitments. If an ERP record should be created automatically, the handover between CRM and ERP must cover these details and their mappings.
What a pipeline report actually tells you
Define metrics so everyone counts the same records. For a win rate, establish whether the calculation includes only opportunities closed in the period and how paused records are handled. Stage duration needs rules for deals that move backwards or reopen.
A large pipeline value is not committed revenue. Use a probability or expected close date only with an understandable basis. A percentage derived solely from the order of stages should not appear to be an empirically validated forecast.
An initial process review can focus on practical questions: which open opportunities have no next action? Where is an important role unknown? Which records have not been reviewed for a long time? After a change, observe whether these particular gaps decrease. A general increase in revenue cannot be attributed to that change without further investigation.
Complete the canvas and derive requirements
The canvas moves from target customers through participants and stages to next actions and handover. Complete it with the people who handle enquiries, prepare quotations and receive won business. Begin with a typical opportunity, then add an exception.
Download the process canvas as CSV · Download the worksheet as Markdown
The template includes prompts and empty working fields. Turn them into concrete tests: “A colleague covering for the owner can see which commitment is outstanding, who is resolving it and which quotation version applies.” You can check such statements in a product demonstration or prototype. A CRM requirements specification helps connect them to priorities and acceptance criteria.
A configurable standard CRM may already meet your needs. Assess an extension or custom development where important relationships, handovers or rules cannot otherwise be represented adequately. Your completed canvas gives SYNQ a concrete starting point for that discussion.