The Backstory: You are managing important deals and accounts and need to know how they are really tracking before your next pipeline review. Rather than relying on scattered notes and gut feeling, you open a Scorecard and answer a set of structured questions tied to your team's methodology and account strategy. This gives you and your leaders a clear, shared view of deal qualification and account health.
Scorecards help sales teams evaluate accounts and opportunities using a set of structured questions organized into categories. As users answer more questions, the score increases to reflect the completion of the Scorecard. Completing a Scorecard helps ensure sales representatives have the information needed to evaluate an account or opportunity and make informed decisions throughout the sales process.
There are two types: Opportunity Scorecards and Account Scorecards, which serve different purposes and are accessed in different places.
Note: Scorecards are only available to customers with access to ClosePlan by Backstory.
Opportunity Scorecards
Opportunity (Deal) Scorecards create a common language for qualifying opportunities in line with your organization's sales qualification methodology, such as MEDDIC, MEDDPICC, BANT, or Challenger. Each question aligns with that methodology so you and your leaders can consistently gauge whether a deal is likely to close.
Account Scorecards
Account Scorecards live within an Account Plan and give sales teams a customizable, methodology-agnostic way to develop and track account strategies in a shared language. They give leadership clear visibility into account health while adapting to different business lines, regions, and organizational needs.
Access an Opportunity Scorecard
You can access Opportunity Scorecards from the Opportunity record in Salesforce or by adding a Scorecard column to a Sheet in the Backstory App.
Prerequisites: The Opportunity must have an Opportunity Plan, and your ClosePlan administrator must configure a Scorecard Template before the Scorecard tab or column appears.
Salesforce
Navigate to an Opportunity record in Salesforce.
Click the Scorecard tab.
Backstory App
Log into the Backstory App.
Click the Sheet where you want to view Scorecards.
Scroll to the Scorecard column, or if your Sheet does not have one, see Manage Columns to add it.
Click a cell in the Scorecard column to open the Scorecard sidebar.
Access an Account Scorecard
Account Scorecards track account strategy and health within an Account Plan. You can view one from the Account record in Salesforce or by adding a Scorecard column to a Sheet in the Backstory App.
Prerequisites: The Account must have an Account Plan, and your ClosePlan administrator must configure a Scorecard Template before the Scorecard tab or column appears.
Salesforce
Navigate to an Account record in Salesforce.
Click the Account Plan tab.
Click the Scorecard tab.
Backstory App
Log into the Backstory App.
Click the Sheet where you want to view Scorecards.
Scroll to the Scorecard column, or if your Sheet does not have one, see Manage Columns to add it.
Click a cell in the Scorecard column to open the Scorecard sidebar.
Scorecard Features
The Scorecard workspace includes three main categories.
Score Summary Bar
The Score Summary Bar displays the overall qualification score plus scores for individual categories at a glance. A higher overall score indicates a greater likelihood that the Opportunity will close successfully
Questions
The questions are organized into categories. As questions are answered, the Score Summary Bar updates to reflect the running total.
Dashboard
The Dashboard, accessible via the Dashboard button to the right of the Score Summary base, shows account health across four panels:
Current Scoring Propensity: Radar chart showing score % per category
Overall Trending: The Account Plan's score trend over time
Trending by Category: Trends broken down by individual categories
Activity by User: Contributions and activity counts per team member
Answer Scorecard Questions
These steps walk you through answering questions and adding context. Your answers automatically contribute to the category score and the overall score.
From the open Scorecard, click any question to open the Question Mode window.
Enter your response in the Answer tab. The input type depends on the question type your administrator configured, such as a text box, Yes/No toggle, or dropdown.
(Optional) Click the Notes tab to add context. Notes do not affect the score.
(Optional) Click the + button in the Actions tab to add a Salesforce task, then fill in the Subject, Details, and Due Date fields and click Save.
Click Save & Close.
AI-Powered Guided Account Plans
Guided Account Plans help you complete Scorecards more efficiently by using AI to generate suggested answers to Scorecard questions. When you click Generate Answer, Answer Assist analyzes available data from connected sources, including CRM data, Backstory metrics, information entered in ClosePlan Scorecards, engaged people, Chronicle, and public company news such as 8-K and 10-K filings.
After a suggested answer is generated, review it before adding it to the answer field. Once added, you can edit the response as needed before saving the Scorecard. Guided Account Plans provide a starting point based on available data, while you remain in control of the final answer.
Prerequisites: Guided Account Plans must be enabled by your organization.
Open a Rich Text or Free Text question in the Question Mode window.
Click the Guided Account Plan tab.
Review the AI-generated suggestion.
(Optional) Click Explain Further for more detail about why the suggestion was generated.
Click Refresh to generate a new suggestion, or click Accept to apply it to the answer field.
Click Save to confirm the answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I do not answer a question?
Unanswered Text, Rich Text, and Yes/No questions receive a score of 0. Your overall score reflects only the questions that have been answered.
Will adding Notes to a question change my score?
No. Notes are for additional context only and do not impact the Scorecard score. They are automatically synced to Salesforce.
Can I edit a Scorecard without leaving the Backstory App?
Yes. You can answer and update all supported question types, including Multiple-Choice, Yes/No, Text, Numerical, Rating, Date, and Dropdown, directly from the opportunity Sheet in the Backstory App.
Why do I see "Inaccessible" on a Field question?
This means your Salesforce account does not have Field Level Security permission to view that field. Contact your Salesforce administrator to request access. If a value was already set, you will see "Inaccessible (value set)" instead.
Can multiple questions sync to the same Salesforce field?
Yes. You can sync multiple questions to a single percentage-type field to generate a composite average score. Add each question to the same target field through the Question Sync Settings, and the average is calculated automatically.
Need Help?
Contact your Customer Success Manager or support@backstory.ai.