Video Playbook: If You Care About Closing Deals, You Need to Care About Close Date
Good Close Dates on open Deals solve the "who will close this month" uncertainty.
In this Playbook:
How to check if you have a problem with lapsed Close Dates on your open Deals, the 4 things you need to do to maintain better Close Dates, and the tools you need to do it from views to reports to automations.
This is my first Video Playbook at the FranDev Lab Report. I’d love your feedback or to talk about the content to hear what you think and how to improve.
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Why Close Date Management Matters
HubSpot needs to work for you just like your systems work for your Franchisees. That includes telling you what Deals you expect to close this month. The only way to do that is if you use HubSpot like you’re supposed to—the same way your Franchisees should use your playbook like they’re supposed to.
If you have good Close Date management on your Franchise Sales Deals in HubSpot:
No more guessing who will close this month
No more spreadsheets on spreadsheets on spreadsheets updating who will close
No more Teams/Slack/11PM texts about the status of a particular Lead
Just clean data and useful reports that answer these questions for you.
How to Use This Playbook
This playbook contains six in-depth videos:
Video 1: You Have to Care About Close Date - The foundation for why this matters
Video 2: Do You Have a Close Date Problem? - Diagnose your current situation
Video 3: Set Good Defaults - Create reliable baseline close dates
Video 4: Make it Easy to Take Action - Ensure close dates are updated where your team works
Video 5: Maintain Visibility - Make close date issues impossible to ignore
Video 6: Support with Automation - Add workflows to reinforce good practices
What you should do:
Watch Video 1
Use the tools in Video 2 to see how back your Close Date problem is.
Have your HubSpot Admin assess and review the tools in the rest of the videos
Review the tools together with your Fran Dev Reps and sales leaders to determine which work best in your Franchise
Go out there and win those Deals!
The Videos
Future video playbooks will be available to subscribers to the paid tier of The FranDev Lab Report launching in April 2025.
1 - You Have to Care About Close Date
If you care about closing Deals, you need to care about Close Date. With accurate Close Dates, HubSpot can help your project closed territories and revenue. You can know how many new Franchisees you expect to close this month. If you don’t, you’ll forever be chasing reps and spreadsheets for updates, wondering what’s going to close.
Here’s how you can get there:
Set good defaults - Use what you know about your franchise sales cycle to set realistic default close dates
Make it easy to take action - Make it easy for reps to update close dates during calls and milestone activities
Maintain visibility - Make close date issues visually noticeable so problems are easy to spot as reps work Deals
Support with automation - Use notifications and workflow automations to help reps maintain accurate close dates
2 - First: Do you have a Close Date problem?
If you aren’t actively managing Close Date, you probably do have a Close Date problem. How bad is it? How much is it skewing your pipeline numbers? Here’s how to find out.
Topics:
Filters to help find Deals with Close Date problems
Reports you can create drill down on where your Close Date problems are happening
3 - Set Good Defaults
Establish reliable close date defaults that match your actual franchise sales cycle and automatically adapt to different lead types. Get useful projections from day one without manual effort.
Topics:
Create a report to see and break down how long it takes to win Deals
How to set a simple default Close Date timeline
[Ops Hub Pro] Creating a workflow calculate and Close Dates for each Deal based sources, types, or other data because Deals close at different speeds.
4 - Make it easy to take action
Make it easy for reps to update close dates. Put it Close Date where they work, give them tools during and right after calls, and prompt them as the Deal advances.
Topics:
Adding Close Date to Board and Table Views
[Sales or Ops Enterprise] Adding Close Date to Playbooks
Adding Close Date to Deal Cards
Prompting for Close Date updates when Deals change stages in the Pipeline
5 - Maintain Visibility
Make close date issues easy to spot throughout HubSpot so Reps are more likely to notice issues and correct them on all their Deals.
Topics:
Create a Deal Tag to surface lapsed Close Dates
Adding Deal Tags to Board and Table views for Reps
Create a Close Date Status property and a workflow for maintaining it
Reports for surfacing lapsed Close Dates
[Supered] Process Rules for additional visibility and process
6 - Support with Automation (if possible)
We can’t entirely automate Close Date but there are some automations we can put in place to support good Close Date data.
Topics:
Updating the Close Date Status property on Deal close
Notifying Reps when their Close Dates lapse
Create workflows that update Close Date on milestones or actions
Create workflows that check and set valid Close Dates at each Pipeline Stage
See you in the next Lab Report.
Which of these future Video Playbooks are you most interested in?
Reply and let me know. Frequently requested topics get covered sooner.
Two different ways to add an Approval stage to your Sales Pipeline
How long does it take: reporting on Deal Age during and after the Close
Identifying Deals with no activity