Commercial relationship types in Tribe help you indicate where a relationship sits in your sales funnel. They add valuable context to your CRM and make it easier to filter, segment, prioritize, and manage your sales efforts.
By using relationship types consistently, your team gains a shared understanding of how each relationship should be approached and what actions are appropriate next.
Why commercial relationship types matter
Commercial relationship types allow you to:
Structure your sales funnel clearly
Segment relationships for reporting and follow-up
Prioritize sales activities effectively
Keep your CRM aligned with real sales behaviour
They describe the commercial status of the relationship, not a specific deal. Deals themselves are always managed through sales opportunities.
Common commercial relationship types
Many organisations work with types such as:
Suspect
Lead
Prospect
Hot prospect
Customer
You do not need to use all of these. The goal is to keep your setup simple, relevant, and aligned with how your team works.
Suspect
Definition: A potential fit that matches your target audience, but has not actively shown interest yet.
Typical examples:
Companies from a target list
Event attendees you haven’t spoken to
Cold outreach targets
Engagement is still low.
Key question: Do they fit our ideal customer profile?
Lead
Definition: A person or organisation that has shown initial interest, but has not yet been qualified.
Typical examples:
Filled in a form
Downloaded content
Met at an event
Signed up for a webinar
At this stage, you don’t yet know if there is a real opportunity.
Key question: Do we know enough to start qualifying this contact?
Suspect vs. Lead: two entry points into your funnel
Relationships can enter your sales funnel in different ways. Tribe distinguishes between suspects and leads to reflect this.
Suspects are identified by you, without confirmed interest.
Leads contact you first via inbound channels such as forms, email, or phone.
At this stage, there is no confirmed interest yet.
Suspects and leads are simply different ways to enter the funnel. Once there is concrete interest, both typically become a prospect.
Prospect
Definition: A qualified contact with a potential need and a realistic chance of becoming a customer.
Typical examples:
Discovery call completed
Confirmed interest or challenge
Budget or timeline being explored
Sales conversations are active.
Key question: Is there a real opportunity here?
Hot Prospect
Definition: A highly engaged prospect who is close to making a decision.
Typical examples:
Requesting a proposal or quote
In negotiation
Decision process underway
This group deserves the highest sales priority.
Key question: Are they close to buying?
Customer
Definition: An organisation that has purchased your product or service. Typical examples
Signed contract
Paid invoice
Active subscription
At this stage, the focus shifts from selling to retaining and growing the relationship.
Key question: How do we retain and expand this relationship?
Promoting relationships in Tribe
Within Tribe, you can easily promote a relationship as it progresses through your funnel:
Suspect → Prospect
Lead → Prospect
Prospect → Customer
This can be done with just a few clicks.
A key principle to keep in mind: A relationship is ultimately either a prospect or a customer. These are the two commercial states in which you actively manage a sales relationship.
Selling more to existing customers
When a relationship is already a customer and you want to sell something additional, you do not change the relationship type back.
Instead:
You create a new sales opportunity linked to the existing customer.
This ensures:
Each deal remains clearly separated
Your reporting stays accurate
The full sales history of the relationship is preserved
Quick Summary
Use commercial relationship types to reflect sales maturity, not individual deals.
Promote relationships as they progress - don’t skip steps unnecessarily.
Keep customers as customers and manage new deals through sales opportunities.
Keep your setup simple and aligned with how your team works.
Used correctly, commercial relationship types give your CRM structure, clarity, and momentum throughout the entire sales lifecycle.