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Stage Definition

Stages with written exit criteria — not just stage names, but the specific evidence required to move the deal forward. “Discovery complete” means MEDDIC fields populated (metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identified pain, champion), demo delivered, and a confirmed next-step meeting on the calendar. Without exit criteria, reps slide deals forward to look productive and the forecast becomes fiction. Document criteria in a stage description visible on the deal sidebar so reps see them while editing.

Product Line Items

Products on deals enable accurate revenue forecasting. The Products module in Freshsales lets you build a SKU catalog with list price, cost, and category. Price books per region or per market segment override list prices. Discounts apply at the line-item level (percent or absolute), so a deal with three products at different discount rates rolls up to a clean total. Required for ASC 606 / IFRS 15 revenue recognition workflows because the line-item structure feeds downstream billing systems cleanly.

// Add a product line item to a deal
fetch(`https://${domain}.myfreshworks.com/crm/sales/api/deals/${dealId}/products`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { Authorization: `Token token=${apiKey}`, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    product: {
      product_id: 12345,
      quantity: 25,
      list_price: 99,
      discount: 10,
      currency: 'USD'
    }
  })
});

Forecast Categories

Commit, Best Case, Pipeline, Omitted. Reps assign each open deal a category that expresses confidence beyond stage probability. Commit means “I will close this in the period or it’s a miss.” Best Case means “highly likely but not guaranteed.” Pipeline is “in the funnel but timing or amount uncertain.” The forecast roll-up uses category, not weighted pipeline math, because rep intent beats algorithmic probability for short-horizon forecasts. Configure under Admin -> Pipelines -> Forecast Categories and require category at the Negotiation stage entry.

Team Selling

Multiple users on a deal with assigned roles: Owner, Co-owner, Executive Sponsor, Solutions Engineer, Customer Success contact. Each role has visibility and edit rights configured in Admin. Activity (calls, emails, meetings) attributed by user but visible to the whole deal team. The pattern that matters: assign the SE explicitly so technical conversation history flows back to the SE pool for forecasting capacity, and assign the exec sponsor for high-ACV deals so executive-to-executive emails get logged on the deal not in the CEO’s personal inbox.

Collaboration

Conversations feed (chatter-style) on each deal record. @mention stakeholders to pull them in. The feed integrates with Freshworks Cliq if you use it, or with Slack via the Marketplace integration. For complex deals — six-figure ACV, multi-stakeholder, multi-month — create a deal-specific Slack channel auto-named deal-{deal_id}-{account_name} via webhook on stage transition to Proposal. The channel becomes the running conversation hub and archives cleanly when the deal closes.

Common Failure Modes

Three patterns. First, deal close dates that get pushed every Friday — the rep moves the date one week out rather than admitting the deal is at risk; build a report on close-date push frequency and coach the chronically pushing reps. Second, products added at the last minute as a single “Custom” line — defeats the catalog discipline and breaks downstream billing; require named SKUs at Proposal stage. Third, exec sponsors assigned at Negotiation stage rather than at deal creation; by then the deal has too much momentum to absorb new exec input usefully.

Implementation Sequence

Set up the product catalog before requiring line items. Set up forecast categories before training reps to use them. Set up team selling roles before assigning SEs. Each prerequisite missed creates a “the system is broken” objection from reps that actually means “we skipped a step.”

What to do this week

Pull the close-date push report — count of times each open deal has had its close date moved. Top 10% of pushers are your at-risk pipeline regardless of stage. Walk those deals in the next 1:1 with the rep.

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