Opportunities

A sales opportunity, also known as a potential sale, is the first step in the sales process. The opportunity begins when a sales representative first makes contact with the potential customer, and it ends when the sale is made or the opportunity is lost for whatever reason.

Once sales representatives have identified opportunities within a company, they enter information about the items that may be purchased and how the opportunity came about. They can track the likelihood of closing the sale and allocate credit toward sales quotas once the sale is closed.

This section covers the following features:

Creating an Opportunity

Use this procedure to enter the items that may be purchased, record how the opportunity came about, track the likelihood of closing the sale, and allocate credit toward sales quotas.

Prerequisites

Only a team leader or someone assigned full access privileges can update opportunity line item details. Only a team leader can remove an opportunity item from an opportunity.

Steps

1. From the Opportunity tab, choose Create.
   The Create Opportunities page appears.
2. Choose the customer and site.
   The address information appears.
3. Optionally, enter a note for the opportunity.
4. Select purchase items for the opportunity and enter an amount for each purchase item.
   The amounts are totaled.
5. Enter opportunity detail information including the expected close date.
6. If you want to add a new contact for the site and the opportunity, then enter the new contact information.
7. If you want to select an existing site contact to be related to the opportunity, then from the Opportunity Contacts menu, choose Add from Site.
   The added contact will appear in the Opportunity Contacts grid.
8. If you want to delete a contact from the opportunity, select Remove.
9. To save your opportunity, click Create.

The opportunity record is available to all users.

Guidelines

The sales representative who enters the information about a new opportunity automatically becomes a leader of the sales team with the rights of adding sales team members, assigning sales credits, and rating the likelihood an opportunity will succeed.

Enter amounts in the customer's preferred transaction currency. Both transaction amount and the amount expressed in the user's preferred currency appear when viewing or editing opportunities.

Managing Opportunities

An opportunity is a qualified potential sale. Use this procedure to change information about the items to be purchased and how the opportunity came about, update the likelihood of closing the sale, and update the allocation of credit toward sales quotas.

Prerequisites

Only a team leader can update opportunity line item details. Only a team leader can remove an opportunity item from an opportunity.

Steps

Any information you edited or added, once saved, is available in the database to all other users.

Guidelines

Enter amounts in the customer's preferred transaction currency. Both the transaction amount and the amount expressed in the user's preferred currency appear when viewing or editing opportunities.

When you modify the sales credits for an opportunity item, you must always ensure that the revenue credits equal the opportunity item amount.

Opportunity Status Rating Definitions

Your company can use status ratings to track an opportunity through the sales process and to identify the opportunities to include in the sales forecast. When you create or change an opportunity, you must set it to one of eight status ratings. Use this table to determine the correct rating to apply to your opportunity.

Status Rating	Used For
Preliminary	A new opportunity. Preliminary opportunities are included in the calculated forecast.
Upside	An opportunity that is further along than Preliminary, but does not have the win confidence of a Forecasted opportunity. Upside opportunities are included in the calculated forecast.
Forecasted	An opportunity that is far enough along in the sales cycle that you reasonably expect it to close by the date indicated. Forecasted opportunities are included in the calculated forecast.
Won	An opportunity that has been closed successfully. Won opportunities are displayed on forecast screens.
Dealer	An opportunity that is being worked through a partner or reseller
Expired	An opportunity that is closed due to inactivity
No Opportunity	An opportunity that has closed without a sale
Lost	An opportunity that is lost to competitors

The Preliminary status rating is the default each time you create a new opportunity and purchase. The Upside, Forecasted, and Won status ratings are used for creating forecasts.