How can I add recurring revenue (MRR or ARR) to a deal on Zendesk Sell?

Hi Brendan,

Good question! One option to mark recurring revenue in Sell is to have two pipelines; one pipeline for one-time transaction deals, and one for recurring revenue. This way, you will be able to view the one-time transaction pipeline and know that these deals will not be recurring at the end of the month, quarter, or whatever time period you align your sales cycle with. When viewing the recurring pipeline, you’ll know that each of these deals, as well as the total deal value in this pipeline, will be recurring each billing period. You can have your deal stages set so that you do not close the recurring deals, but instead keep them in a final open “recurring” stage. This way you will not have to close the deals each cycle, export them, and re-import a new copy of them. That said, you can always re-import the deals if it is important for your business to close out these deals each cycle for reporting reasons. Having two pipelines will allow you to look into each pipeline separately, as well as together. You’ll be able to make smart lists that include one or both pipelines, and the same goes for reporting! As a side note, it may be helpful to add a tag to each deal to mark if the deal is transactional or recurring. This will give you another data point to segment your deals as you work in Sell.

Nate

@Nate Brown Hey Nate, can you advise what is the best way recurring deal to show up when renewal is due?

In case it's helpful, we use our subscription analytics solution, ChartMogul, for tracking all key metrics: MRR, churn, LTV, etc. I pipe in data from Zendesk Sell to ChartMogul so I can see MRR by sales rep, etc. Zendesk Sell is our source of truth for sales workflow and process management, but ChartMogul allows us to see all of the transactional data for each and every customer (including discounts, proration, expansion).

We also use a smart list @Anton Mintsev for our managed accounts that show renewal upcoming that basically filters for upcoming accounts renewals.

I'm obviously a bit biased but for me it's best of both words because recurring revenue reporting is really tricky in most CRM systems.

Some valid comments there - and I guess the issue is each case is quite unique. In our case, most customers will become recurring but their need (and therefore) amount ordered will change month after month, depending on seasonability and may other factors. Therefore, it makes is very difficult for us to use Zendesk sell along to forecast sales revenue etc.

@Sara Archer Thanks for the input! From what I understand, Zendesk Sell has been having conversations with ChartMogul regarding building an app that integrates the two. 

@Audrey Barucchi Another app that's currently available on our Marketplace that might be helpful is Clone Deal, as it allows you to "clone" an existing Deal in Sell. However, you are correct that the solution to each use case is unique, and adjusting the MRR or amount ordered currently needs to be manually done. 

I'm happy to submit your feedback to our Voice of the Customer team and advocate for any related project going forward!

Thanks, 

Agreed, recurring revenue reporting is tricky in most CRMs :)

Curious on few topics in here:

1. In what ways does your sales team keep the record of downgrades and churn (be it in Zendesk Sell or outside of it)?
2. How does your company calculate total customer value in a mixed world of recurring revenue and transactional sales? 
3. What forecasted MRR means to you: a) active deals to be closed with specific MRR, or b) MRR to be recognised from existing customers, or c) it depends?  
4. How does your ideal recurring revenue report looks like? What questions does it answer?