How to best handle variable And unknown ‘Deal Value’ amounts in Pipedrive

Mark Gatty Saunt
Mark Gatty Saunt Member Posts: 7
edited July 2022 in Sales CRM #1

Are there any members of the Pipedrive community that have products or services with variable and unknown deal values? And if so, do you have any suggestions how to best handle this when creating a new deal, or marking a deal as ’won’ (for forecasting and revenue statistics)?

We operate a content marketplace platform, where users can purchase fully licensed content (words, images, video, music and data products), on a ongoing pay-per-use basis (along with other package, or fixed subscription based models). 

So when we add a new Content Marketplace Deal deal to Pipedrive, we have no clue about the size of the deal, especially where the lead will be buying content items over time on a pay-per-use basis.

This obviously makes pipeline forecasting, revenue goals, revenue statistics etc. Impossible to track.

Thank you in advance for any guidance or workarounds.

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Comments

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,087 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
    First Anniversary 5 Insightfuls 5 Likes 5 LOLs
    edited February 2022 #2

    @Robert Luna and @Bernd Auer if I'm not mistaken you've both mentioned having worked with similar use cases in the past right? Perhaps any good insights to share here :) 

  • Bernd Auer
    Bernd Auer Member Posts: 344
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    edited February 2022 #3

    Yes, our customers deal with it in several ways (which can be a combination as well):

    When the deal is won,...

    1. ...you use an estimation or an average deal value.
    2. ...you leave it on 0 and correct it every month in the same deal.
    3. ...you add the correct amount by the end of the month and set it on won then. This triggers an automation, which copies the deal with a new estimated closing date 1 month later. At the end of the next month you will in the correct amount again and everything start all over again. 

    And if you use your API you even could add products to existing customers/open deals, as soon as your customer buys something.

    Does this make sense to you?

  • Robert Luna
    Robert Luna Member Posts: 45
    First Comment
    edited March 2020 #4

    Yes, our customers deal with it in several ways (which can be a combination as well):

    When the deal is won,...

    1. ...you use an estimation or an average deal value.
    2. ...you leave it on 0 and correct it every month in the same deal.
    3. ...you add the correct amount by the end of the month and set it on won then. This triggers an automation, which copies the deal with a new estimated closing date 1 month later. At the end of the next month you will in the correct amount again and everything start all over again. 

    And if you use your API you even could add products to existing customers/open deals, as soon as your customer buys something.

    Does this make sense to you?

    yes, pretty much the same

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,087 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
    First Anniversary 5 Insightfuls 5 Likes 5 LOLs
    edited March 2020 #5

    Yes, our customers deal with it in several ways (which can be a combination as well):

    When the deal is won,...

    1. ...you use an estimation or an average deal value.
    2. ...you leave it on 0 and correct it every month in the same deal.
    3. ...you add the correct amount by the end of the month and set it on won then. This triggers an automation, which copies the deal with a new estimated closing date 1 month later. At the end of the next month you will in the correct amount again and everything start all over again. 

    And if you use your API you even could add products to existing customers/open deals, as soon as your customer buys something.

    Does this make sense to you?

    @Mark Gatty Saunt 

  • Jose Supico
    Jose Supico Member Posts: 1
    edited May 2020 #6

    @Robert Luna and @Bernd Auer if I'm not mistaken you've both mentioned having worked with similar use cases in the past right? Perhaps any good insights to share here :) 

    @Mike van der Valk what amount do you recommend to fill in the 'Deal Value' field? ACV? LTV?

    Thanks!!

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,087 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
    First Anniversary 5 Insightfuls 5 Likes 5 LOLs
    edited May 2020 #7

    @Robert Luna and @Bernd Auer if I'm not mistaken you've both mentioned having worked with similar use cases in the past right? Perhaps any good insights to share here :) 

    It really depends on your process @Jose Supico however, check out one of our recent updates. Now you can add recurring revenue in your deals and show this in your reports. So perhaps add the monthly/annual value and set up the right subscription in your deal.

  • Mark Gatty Saunt
    Mark Gatty Saunt Member Posts: 7
    edited May 2020 #8

    @Robert Luna and @Bernd Auer if I'm not mistaken you've both mentioned having worked with similar use cases in the past right? Perhaps any good insights to share here :) 

    Hello Mike, thank you ever so much for this. I had no clue that there was a recurring revenue feature in Piprdrive. Our core business revolves around clients paying monthly fees to us, so this is extremely useful. Pipedrive just go that much better for us!

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Pipedrive Team Posts: 3,087 PIPEDRIVE TEAM
    First Anniversary 5 Insightfuls 5 Likes 5 LOLs
    edited May 2020 #9

    @Robert Luna and @Bernd Auer if I'm not mistaken you've both mentioned having worked with similar use cases in the past right? Perhaps any good insights to share here :) 

    That's awesome. It's pretty new still and we're keen on improving it even further, keep an eye on this topic and start following it to stay up to date with recent feature updates: https://community.pipedrive.com/feed/whats-new