Set up potential states and a required flow

States show where a potential is in your sales process, for example "First call", "Offer sent" or "Appointment booked". This article explains how to define states, how the required flow works, and how state alerts work.

Creating a state

1. Open the Definitions → Potential → Potential State page and click New.
2. Enter the state's Name and Description, and choose a Color.
3. If the state only applies to certain operations, select them in the Operation Type field. If you leave it empty, the state can be used for every potential.
4. For states that mean the customer has dropped out, turn on the Cancel State switch.
5. If you like, set up the required flow and the alert time (see below).
6. Click Create.

You can drag states in the list to reorder them. The switches in the same list assign four special roles:

• Start State: Every new potential starts in this state.
• Offer State: The record moves to this state when an offer is created for the potential.
• Appointment State: The record moves to this state when an appointment is created for the potential.
• End State: The last step of the process; the record can't move on from here.

Each role can be held by only one state.

Required flow

When you turn on the Forced Flow switch for a state, you also need to choose its Next State. A potential in this state can then move only to the defined next state or to a cancel state.

You can also attach tasks to states: in Definitions → Potential → State Task, type the task's name, choose the state, and turn on the Required switch if the task must not be skipped. When a potential enters that state, its tasks are listed on the record.

Changing a potential's state

1. Open the potential's details and switch to the Potential State tab.
2. Choose the new state, add a Description if needed, and click Update. If you choose a cancel state, you also choose a Potential Cancel Reason.
3. If the potential is in a state with a required flow, use the Next State button. If a required task isn't done, the move won't go through; click the tasks to mark them as completed.

The same tab shows the State History: you can see which state the record moved from and to, when, and who moved it. Use Go to previous state to return to an earlier state.

State alerts

Enter a time in days, hours and minutes in a state's Alert Minute field. Potentials that stay in this state longer than that appear in their owner's Potential → Own State Alerts list. The time is counted in calendar time; working hours aren't taken into account.

Frequently asked questions

Why didn't the state change when I created an offer?

If the potential is in a state with a required flow and that state's next step isn't the offer state, the automatic move doesn't happen. Your company also needs a state marked as the Offer State. The same rule applies to the appointment state.

Can a message go to the customer when the state changes?

In Definitions → Potential → Potential State Notification Rule, you can define the WhatsApp message that goes to the customer and the representative for a given state. The rules run when a state is changed manually. Contact our team to set them up.