Set up a B2B sales team

This guide is for a team that sells to other businesses: a software team, a distributor, a manufacturer's reps or a small agency with a sales process. You end with companies and contacts in Fifi, a pipeline whose stages mean something, email on each record, a lead form, and reports for your pipeline and win rate. Your workspace uses the standard words Contacts and Deals. This guide doesn't cover quoting or invoicing. Turn on Invoicing if you bill from Fifi.

Is this the right guide?

• Business type: B2B sales.
• At the end you'll have: your accounts and the people at them, every open deal in the right stage, your mailbox connected with open tracking decided, and three reports pinned.
• Time: about 25 minutes, not counting your lists.
• Plan: Pro covers everything here. Free covers the pipeline, email and reports. During the beta every workspace has every module. See Modules, business types and plans.
• No sample for this type. The IT consultant sample at /try/consulting shows the same pipeline, companies and reports.

New to Fifi? Do Your first hour with Fifi first.

Create the workspace

1. On Create your workspace, type your company's name and click Continue.
2. Under What kind of business is this?, choose B2B sales.
3. Pick a color scheme and click Create workspace.

What you'll see: Contacts, Companies, Deals and Calendar in the menu. B2B sales starts with Deals, Email, Campaigns, Reports and Ask Fifi on.

Turn on what you need

Open Settings → Modules. Who can do it: owners and admins.

Ask Fifi shows Coming soon until its service is set up, and it has its own switch in Settings → Workspace.

Business details

1. Open Settings → Workspace.
2. Click Upload logo.
3. Under Business address, type your address and click Save address. Campaign emails need it in the footer.
4. Pick Colors and click Save colors.

See Set up your logo, colors and business details.

Your team and hours

1. Open Settings → Members. Under Invite a teammate, type each person's Email, choose a Role and click Invite. Sales reps can be Members. A sales manager is usually an Admin.
2. Each person opens Settings → Profile and chooses their Timezone. Fifi uses it for "today" and "overdue" on tasks and for the daily digest.
3. Decide who owns each account. A record's owner gets its reminders.

Members can create, edit and move any deal. They can delete only the ones they own. See Roles and permissions and Set up your team.

Companies, contacts and deals

Work in this order: companies first, then the people, then the deals.

Add a company and its people

1. Click Companies, then New company. Type the Name and the Email domain so email can find it. Click Create company.
2. Click Contacts, then New contact. Fill in First name, Last name, Email, Job title and Company. Click Create contact.

Create a deal

1. Click Deals, then New deal.
2. Type a Deal name, for example "Annual plan, 50 seats".
3. Set Value (USD), Stage and Expected close.
4. Choose the Company. Under Contacts, click Add contact to attach 1 to 20 people, then Done.
5. Choose the Owner and click Create deal.

What you'll see: the deal on the board. Drag it across the columns as it moves. When it ends, mark it Won, or Lost with a reason. See Deals and the pipeline.

Pipeline and naming

The four stages never change, so agree what each one means. A rule that anyone can check keeps your numbers honest:

Name every deal "Company: what they're buying", for example "Acme: 50 seats, annual". Pipeline totals are unweighted, so a Lead and a Negotiation count at full value. Win rate is won ÷ (won + lost) by count, this month.

Custom fields worth adding

Open Settings → Custom fields, choose a tab and click Add field. Free allows 5 fields per record type and Pro allows 25.

See Custom fields and reminders.

Tags to start with

In Settings → Tags, click New tag.

• Prospect
• Customer
• Partner
• Decision maker
• Champion
• Newsletter

Forms and automations to start with

A lead form

1. Open Settings → Forms and click New form.
2. Type a Name ("Talk to sales") and a Page address.
3. Set Company to required and Message to optional.
4. Choose a tag to add, write a Thank-you message, tick Taking submissions and save.

Three automations

In Settings → Automations, click New automation.

Automations create tasks. They never email customers. See Forms and Automations.

Bring in your customers

Import companies first.

1. Export your accounts from your old CRM or a spreadsheet. Fifi understands Name, Email domain, Industry, Phone, Address and Notes for companies.
2. Open Companies, click Import, choose the file, match the columns, click Preview import and import.
3. Export your people. Fifi understands First name, Last name, Email, Phone, Address, Job title, Lead status and Source for contacts, plus your custom fields.
4. Open Contacts, click Import, choose the file and click Continue. Match the columns, choose Skip it (keep what's in Fifi) for duplicates, click Preview import and import.

Contacts link to a company when their email domain matches. Imports don't start automations. Deals can't be imported, so add open deals by hand. See Import, export and Trash and Bring in your existing customers.

Email and texting

1. Open Settings → Email and click Connect Gmail on the Gmail card. Outlook shows Coming soon until Fifi's Microsoft connection is set up.
2. Wait for Up to date. The last 90 days of email with people and companies in Fifi appear on their pages and in your Inbox.
3. Decide on open tracking. In Settings → Workspace, the Open tracking switch controls whether emails you send from Fifi are tracked. A contact marked Don't track email is never tracked.

Emails show Opened, Opened (unconfirmed) or Not opened yet. Some mail apps load images by themselves, so an unconfirmed open isn't proof. Your Inbox shows conversations that Need reply and Awaiting reply. B2B sales doesn't start with Texting. See Connecting your email and Sending email and tracking.

Invoicing for this business

Invoicing is off for B2B sales. If you bill customers, turn it on in Settings → Modules (it's on Pro), then open Settings → Invoicing to set numbering, terms and tax. You can start an invoice from a deal's Invoices card with New invoice. See Choose how you'll invoice.

Your first campaign

Send a short update to customers. You need your business address saved and a mailbox connected.

1. Open Marketing and click New campaign.
2. Choose contacts with the Customer tag.
3. Write it, or ask Ask Fifi for a draft ("Draft a short update email to all contacts"). Send a test.
4. Send.

See Campaigns and Send your first campaign.

Reports and the dashboard

Pin these three from Reports:

• Pipeline by stage: what is open and what it's worth.
• Win rate by owner: who is winning.
• Won deals by month: what closed.

Your dashboard shows Open pipeline, Won in the month and Win rate. Ask Fifi's first questions are "How many deals did we win this month, and what were they worth?" and "Which open deals over $10k close this quarter?" See Know your numbers.

Your first week

• To do: Your accounts and contacts are imported.
• To do: Every open deal is on the board with a value, an owner and an expected close date.
• To do: Everyone agrees what each stage means.
• To do: Your mailbox shows Up to date.
• To do: You decided on open tracking.
• To do: The lead form is live and tested.
• To do: A company has a renewal date with a reminder.
• To do: You moved one deal to Won and one to Lost with a reason.
• To do: Three reports are pinned.
• To do: You sent one campaign to a small list.

What Fifi doesn't do for this business yet

• Your own stage names or several pipelines. The four stages and one pipeline are fixed.
• Weighted forecasts. Pipeline totals are unweighted.
• Quotes and contracts. Fifi doesn't write or sign them.
• Sequences. Fifi doesn't send timed series of emails. Use tasks and campaigns.
• Importing deals. A CSV imports contacts and companies, not deals.
• Other currencies. Values are in US dollars.

Troubleshooting and related

Still stuck?

Contact Fifi support with your workspace name, what you clicked and the exact message you saw. The troubleshooting guide covers the common ones.

Related: Deals and the pipeline, Reports, Ask Fifi, Roles and permissions.

Next: Know your numbers, then Send your first campaign.