Hey fam 👋 I'm helping out a sales organization (saas company) these days to put together their tech stack. I have two questions: Do you use Contacts or Leads on your CRM? If both, in which circumstances? What Contact/Lead and Account statuses do you use? I used the search bar to see if this topic was discussed, couldn't find anything so hopefully not a repetition and thank you in advance

ADK

VC Associate

Account and Contact/Lead Statuses

Hey fam 👋 I'm helping out a sales organization (saas company) these days to put together their tech stack. I have two questions:

Do you use Contacts or Leads on your CRM? If both, in which circumstances?
What Contact/Lead and Account statuses do you use?

I used the search bar to see if this topic was discussed, couldn't find anything so hopefully not a repetition and thank you in advance

👑 Sales Strategy

🤓 Sales Tech

21 comment

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Notmyrealname

Politicker

Any org where I've used salesforce has kept them as a lead until they are part of a qualified opportunity and the moved them to contacts associated with the opp.

Statuses should mirror your sales process IMO.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

That was how I learned it, but my current company converts prospectt contacts to opportunities, and it took a good deal of time for me to grasp this. It's not optimal.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

Yeah I had one organization who was into that converting logic whereas the other one wasn't = both SaaS sales. logic is not very straightforward at all times

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Nope, definitely a learning curve for sure. I'd not do it the contact-to-opportunity method. Instead, I'd set up a lead, tie the contacts and account to it, and convert that to an opportunity.

Notmyrealname

Politicker

How does your revops cope with this madness? 😂

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I have no clue. It was this way when I got here and was a little offputting at first. It's counter to everything else I've ever done.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

SFDC has been used differently at every company I've worked. We use the account tab for prospects, add the contacts to the account, and have a drop down of where they are in the process of becoming a customer.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

What CRM are they using?

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

Good question, it's not a decided yet. Most of my experience is with Salesforce. If we assumed that it was Hubspot, do you know if it is possible to working with contacts vs leads and their statuses on Hubspot as well? Do you have another/better experience with a CRM that is not Salesforce/Hubspot ?

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I couldn't in good conscience recommend any other CRM than those two. SFDC is great but overkill for my current organization, so we're on HubSpot.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

I agree. Does Hubspot allow for similar customization on lead/contact level as Salesforce do btw? Thank you again

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Do they have a CRM already, or is that part of what you're evaluating?

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

Part of the evaluation. Do you have another/better experience with a CRM that is not Salesforce when it comes to working with contacts vs leads and customizing their statuses for essentially better workflows/reporting?

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

No, to be honest, in my 25 years of selling, it's only been SFDC.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

Same here and thank you again 🍻

Rallier

Politicker

SDR Manager and Consultant

Lead until it's involved in an opp, then contact.

Sort of unrelated, but if you want to use Salesloft or outreach then I'd recommend Salesforce. Hubspot is a paint to integrate with anything.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

This was a very good advice which is what I found out yesterday as well. Integration with Salesforce seems to be more complete, thank you for confirming

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

i have done this are 4 different early stage saas companies now.

anyone that gets added to the CRM by MARKETING, should be a lead. if you add ppl to the CRM from your prospecting, make it a contact.

it will be MUCH easier to run reports and create call lists this way.

and how ever your process is set up that is what the statuses / stages should be.

when it comes to opportunities, what i have found to be the most helpful is to have an "entrance and exit" criteria listed in the CRM so everyone knows what has HAD to happen to get their, and what has to happen for that opp to leave that stage.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

thank you mate, this makes a lot of sense and seems to be in line with everything I read today when it comes to most preferred (salesforce) setups 🙏

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Leads are considered potential customers but have not been involved in any buying cycle. Contacts work for or have been involved with a company who has met with us

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I'm still fairly new to using SF and am figuring it out daily. I just know where to find people and to submit the deals for the most part haha

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ADK

Account and Contact/Lead Statuses

21 comment

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