Engagements
An engagement is the arrangement you have with a company. A sale is one kind. Buying from a supplier, a partnership and anything else you want to track are the others. Each engagement belongs to one company and moves through the same five stages.
| Type | Means | Money |
|---|---|---|
sale |
You are paid for work | Money in. Counts in the pipeline and in won totals |
purchase |
You pay a supplier | Money out. Shows as commitments on the company profile, never in the pipeline |
partnership |
A working arrangement with a partner | A value is optional and never adds to any total |
other |
Anything else you want to track | A value is optional and never adds to any total |
When you add an engagement and do not say which type it is, the CRM chooses from the company’s relationship. A supplier gives purchase, a partner gives partnership, and every other relationship gives sale. Claude tells you when the type came from the relationship, so you can correct it.
A company you only coordinate with can have no engagements at all, and the CRM does not treat that as a gap.
Stages
Section titled “Stages”| Stage | Meaning |
|---|---|
lead |
An early enquiry or possibility |
proposal |
A proposal has gone out, or come in |
negotiation |
Terms are under discussion |
won |
Agreed |
lost |
Not going ahead |
The stages read the same in every type once you know the direction. On a sale you send the proposal, and on a purchase you receive it. Won means agreed either way. A new engagement starts at lead unless you give another stage.
What an Engagement Holds
Section titled “What an Engagement Holds”| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Company | The company the engagement is with. Required |
| Name | A short name for the engagement. Required |
| Type | sale, purchase, partnership or other |
| Stage | One of the five stages above |
| Contact | The person you deal with on it |
| Value | The amount |
| Currency | A three-letter currency code. The default is EUR |
| Probability | Your estimate, from 0 to 100, that a sale will close |
| Expected close | The date you expect it to close |
| Won date and lost date | The dates it was agreed or lost |
| Lost reason | Why it did not go ahead |
| Project | The ID of the project it belongs to, such as P012 |
| Source category, detail and date | The channel that prompted this enquiry |
| Notes | Free text |
The source fields take the same values as a contact’s source category, listed in Contacts. They describe this enquiry, which can differ from the channel that first brought the person to you.
Adding an Engagement
Section titled “Adding an Engagement”Tell Claude about the work and the figure from the document that states it.
Sent Harbour Design Studio a proposal for the Spring Workshop, €4,500.Expected to close by the end of the month.Claude adds a sale engagement at proposal stage with that value. The CRM never needs a value, so leave it out when no document states one.
Moving Through Stages
Section titled “Moving Through Stages”Tell Claude what happened, and it moves the engagement.
Harbour Design Studio accepted the Spring Workshop proposal.When an engagement reaches won or lost, the CRM sets the won date or lost date to today. If it was agreed or lost on an earlier date, give that date, and the CRM uses it. An engagement you add directly at won or lost also gets today’s date unless you give one, which matters when you record past work.
Three stage changes come with a prompt from Claude.
| New stage | What Claude asks |
|---|---|
proposal, on a sale |
Whether to draft a proposal for the company |
won |
Which project to link, when no project is linked yet |
lost |
The reason, when none is recorded |
Moving a sale to won does not change the company’s status. Ask Claude to set the company to active as well when the work starts.
The Sales Pipeline
Section titled “The Sales Pipeline”Ask for the pipeline, and Claude shows the figures for sales only.
Show me the sales pipeline.| Figure | How the CRM works it out |
|---|---|
| Stage breakdown | The count and total value of sales at each stage, leaving out lost sales unless you ask for them |
| Weighted pipeline | For each open sale with both a value and a probability, the value multiplied by the probability, added up |
| Closing this month | Open sales with an expected close between today and the end of the month |
| Won this year | The number and total value of sales won since 1 January |
Purchases, partnerships and other engagements never appear in these figures.
Commitments
Section titled “Commitments”Purchases add up as commitments on the company profile. The profile shows two figures, the value still open and the value agreed, and leaves out lost purchases. The CRM summary also reports a commitments total across all suppliers.
What You Cannot Do
Section titled “What You Cannot Do”PRIMA CRM 1.6.1 has no action that deletes an engagement. To close one you no longer want, move it to lost and record the reason.