Whether you are using FunnelFLARE as a stand-alone CRM or if you are using FunnelFLARE with an external CRM, engaging with Deals/Opportunities is part of every sales person's day.
One of the more common use cases of automation is to trigger automation when deals are changed within your CRM. Whether you are using FunnelFLARE as a CRM or if you are connecting to an external CRM, FunnelFLARE will maintain the state of deals. When a deal is detected in your CRM, FunnelFLARE will create a 'shadow deal' within FunnelFLARE. This deal object that is created within your FunnelFLARE account will be used to trigger automation within FunnelFLARE. When the deal changes in your external CRM, the FunnelFLARE deal object is updated in your account.
The FunnelFLARE Pipeline Object
Each deal belongs to a Pipeline. A pipeline is a set of stages and statuses that define a deal. FunnelFLARE will automatically set up pipelines based on incoming deals from your CRM as the deals come in. If you want to pre-configure Pipelines, you will require admin permissions. Browse to Administration->Account Settings -> Pipelines in your account settings.
Pipeline Edit:
- Pipeline Name
- Pipeline Description
- Pipeline Deal Stages (these can be re-ordered by dragging)
- Pipeline Deal Statuses
- Status can be one of [Open, Closed-Won, Closed-Lost]
When a deal is changed to any status that is 'Closed', the actual closed date is set. If you set a deal to 'Closed-Won', a won-deal history item is created on the timeline of the primary contact. If you delete a deal in your CRM, the deal will be deleted in FunnelFLARE. You can reorder any of the deal stages or status elements by dragging them in the UI. As well, you can have as many closed-lost status items.
The FunnelFLARE Deal Object
The FunnelFLARE Deal object is described by a set of standard fields and custom fields.
Deal Fields
- Estimated Close date
- Name
- Description
- Pipeline (Funnel)
- Stage
- Status
- Value
- Probability
- A set of Custom Fields
- Deal Connections
Deal Connections
A deal has associated connections to Contacts and Organizations
- Connected Contact
- Primary contact (can only be one)
- Connected Organization
For the most part, the majority of the settings are created automatically when you integrate with your CRM. The exception being Deal Custom fields, these will need to be created by your account administrator (seeManaging Custom Fields).
Integrating with an External CRM
The FunnelFLARE Deal Objects are created when FunnelFLARE detects a deal has been created in your CRM if you have mapped the deal fields in your CRM Contact Update setup(Contacts->CRM Contact Updates).If you do not map to the FunnelFLARE standard deal fields, FunnelFLARE will not create deal objects.
If you map your external CRM Deal fields to FunnelFLARE Contact custom fields, the deal objects will NOT be created.
If you have mapped the fields correctly, FunnelFLARE will automatically create the deal stages, deal statuses, and deal pipelines as it detects incoming deals. As well FunnelFLARE will automatically detect contact connections to the deals.
Viewing Deals
Deal Changes in FunnelFLARE are not automatically pushed to the CRM
If you make changes to an FunnelFLARE deal object (either manually or using automation), these changes will not be automatically pushed to your CRM. The CRM is viewed as the data master, thus the deal changes must be made in your CRM. If you make changes to the deal object in FunnelFLARE, these changes will be overwritten by the CRM when a Contact, Account, or Deal changes in the CRM. If you need to use automation to change the CRM deal object, use the CRM-specific Post To CRM workflow action.
The deals that are created as a result of a deal being created in your CRM, there are several places that you can interact with the deals in your FunnelFLARE account.
Interacting with Deals On Your Dashboard
There is a deal Kanban dashboard widget that will allow you to view and interact with the deals within the associated account.
This widget will provide a card-based interface for viewing and interacting with Deal objects
Interacting with Deals on the Contact Record
On every Contact record, there is a deals tab. You will be able to interact with the deals associated with that specific contact
Interacting with Deals on the Organization Record
Similarly, there is a deals tab on the Organization records that shows all deals that are either directly associated with the company or any deals that are associated with employees of the company
Interacting with deals in workflows
Typically the deals are created automatically from the source CRM. You can trigger campaigns using the deal-changed starting step:
If the campaign is triggered using this starting step, the FunnelFLARE deal object can be acted on within that campaign directly. You can set custom fields on the deal using the
workflow action. Or you can update the FunnelFLARE deal object using the
FunnelFLARE will NOT update the deals in your CRM automatically
When updating deal statuses using automation, you MUST interact with the CRM's version of the deal, not FunnelFLARE's version of the deal. Any changes to the deal within FunnelFLARE are not reflected in the deal in the CRM. Thus any changes that are made to the Deal in FunnelFLARE will NOT be reflected in the external CRM. Any changes to the deals in your CRM will overwrite the changes you have made to deals in FunnelFLARE. Thus if you are updating a deal, use the CRM workflow action to update the external deal, let the CRM update the deal in FunnelFLARE.
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