Quarra's current Opportunity Stages reflect internal process steps rather than the client's buying journey. This mismatch reduces forecasting accuracy, hurts user adoption, and makes it difficult to extract meaningful pipeline reporting. The agreed path forward is to simplify and reframe the stages around the client's process, then leverage Salesforce's forecasting module once the stages are stable.
Lincoln Durham is leading this initiative and plans to consult with a former Turner Construction executive (one of the largest GCs in the country) to get an outside-in perspective on how stages should be defined.
"I want the stages to better reflect our clients' process, not an internal process."
— Lincoln Durham
Current issues:
- Too many stages, creating friction and inconsistent usage
- Stages map to Quarra's internal workflow rather than where the client is in their decision process
- Poor stage utilization means financial forecasting and pipeline reporting are unreliable
- The Salesforce forecasting module cannot be meaningfully activated until stages are rationalized
Fewer, clearer stages lower the cognitive load on sales reps and increase the likelihood of consistent updates.
Each stage should answer: "Where is the client in their process, and what does that mean for what Quarra needs to do right now?"
This is distinct from tracking Quarra's internal milestones (e.g., "proposal sent," "estimating"). The goal is to map Quarra's actions to the client's decision journey.
Once stages are defined, each stage can carry a "Guidance for Success" field — a prompt that tells the rep what action is most valuable at that point (e.g., "Get face-to-face," "Send samples," "Identify the key problem they need solved").
Accurate forecasting depends on reps actually moving opportunities through stages. Once the stages are simplified and intuitive, enforcement and reporting become viable.
With clean stages in place, Salesforce's native forecasting module can surface pipeline by stage, probability-weighted revenue, close dates, and imminent opportunities — giving the executive team actionable visibility.
"If you own an opportunity, you can edit it" — the recent permission fix ensures reps are no longer blocked from updating their own records, removing a key friction point.
Import contacts as Contacts, not Leads — this is a related but separate decision that reflects Quarra's broader de-emphasis of the Leads object. See [1] for context.