Playbook & gates
Your sales process, enforced by the CRM
Define your stages and what has to be true before a deal can leave each one. ainocrm checks those requirements against the data — so a deal in Negotiation really is in Negotiation, and your forecast can rely on it.
€92k · closes Jun 24 · Dana Nguyen
To reach Negotiation
Stages that look like your process
Nothing in ainocrm assumes a particular set of stage names. Your playbook is yours: add, rename and reorder stages, decide which stage-to-stage moves are allowed, and attach the requirements that matter to your team. An admin can do this in Settings, in chat ("Add a stage called Negotiation after Proposal"), or by pasting the process as plain text and letting ainocrm turn it into a proposed set of changes to review and approve.
Add a stage called Negotiation after Proposal
Two things per stage
Gates and guidance
Gates
Measurable, always
Things ainocrm can check itself: the deal has a value, an expected close date, products attached, a contact tagged as the decision-maker, or a named document signed ("require a signed NDA before Negotiation" — met when the e-signature confirmation arrives by email, or when the rep says the customer signed). You satisfy these by doing the thing — setting the amount, tagging the right person — never by ticking a box that says you did. There is no "confirm" button to click past, and ainocrm won't let an admin add a gate it can't measure.
- Deal value set
- Expected close date
- Products attached
- Decision-maker tagged
- NDA signed
Guidance
How to work the stage
Things only a human knows — "confirm the need", "get the security review started" — belong in the stage's guidance. Reps and Aino see it; it never blocks a move.
Confirm the need
Get the security review started
Shown to reps and Aino. Never blocks a move.
Enforcement
Gates move the deal
No entry until the gates are met
It moves on its own
Unmet? The rep is told why
Coaching, not policing
Because the requirements are explicit, ainocrm can turn them into next steps. The deal page shows what is still needed for the current stage and the next one, with a hint on how to provide each. Contacts tagged as decision-maker or influencer feed a suggestion of who to be talking to at this point in the deal. "What should I do next on Northwind?" always has an answer, and it comes from your process, not a generic checklist.
What should I do next on Northwind?
Products and pricing, inside the playbook
A product catalog sits alongside the stages: names, optional SKUs, list prices or quote-only, and pricing models. A deal's value is either a rough estimate the rep gives it or the total of the products attached, with recurring prices annualised (a €1,000/month subscription counts as €12,000). Discounts are applied in chat — "give them 10% off" — and removed the same way. An admin can add AI guidance to the catalog, so Aino knows not to assume the most common plan just because it is the most common.
After the decision
The process doesn't stop at the signature
After-sale steps and renewals
Losing is part of the process too
Why this makes the forecast honest
Stage probabilities only mean something if being in a stage means something. Gate coverage — the share of deals that actually satisfy the requirements of the stage they are in — is one of the validity checks on the forecast, and it is only measurable because the gates are data. See Forecast.
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