Sales Opportunities (SLS)

Overview

The Sales module enables you to handle your Sales Opportunities throughout their lifecycle, from creation to finalization. It comprises a Listview as well as an Editing View and varies Reporting and informational Views. 

The Status is used to manage the milestones of your Sales Opportunities. The list of Statusses can be tailored to fit your needs and incorporates colour coding to draw attention to them. 

Reminder Dates can be used to help you manage the Sales Process - you can, for instance, view all the Opportunities that you are required to action today or this week.

The following Views are available:

• Sales Opportunities (Listview)

• Edit Sales Opportunity

• Sales Activity - A report of Sales Activity by date.

• Inventory - For quick reference to inventory levels and customer prices.

Subscribers

When the SLS is emailed, it is sent to the list of Subscribers which is automatically updated as follows: Internal: SLS Creator, Rep, Assign to, Response Creators. External: Customer Contact.

Click on Menu (button) > View/Edit Subscribers to add or remove emails from the Subscriber list.

Sales Opportunities (Listview)

The Listview displays a list of Sales Opportunities according to the selected data filters. By default, this view is sorted by the Reminder Date. Double-click an Opportunity to open it in the Edit View.

Data Filters

By default, all the Active Opportunities are displayed. Click the dropdown icon on the View button for a list of default filters. 

• Date - Filter on the Created, Reminders or Projected date

• Customer

• User

• Rep - This filter is disabled when you don't have access to view all Customers - see Settings below

• Entity - Visible if multiple Entities are used.

• Status - Filter on the Status group 

• Department 

Important Fields

• Status

• SLS No - a reference number for the Opportunity

• Date - the date on which the Opportunity was created

• Reminder - the date on which the Opportunity needs to be attended to. Settings are used to determine how this field will be highlighted.

• Projected - the date on which you expect to close the Opportunity.

• Once-off - The projected once-off value of the Opportunity

• Annual - The projected annual value of the Opportunity

• Last (d) - The number of days since the Opportunity was attended.

• Open (d) - the number of days since the Opportunity was created.

• Customer Region

Edit Sales Opportunity

The Editing View is used to edit the Sales Opportunity and displays relevant information required to manage the opportunity.

Actions

• Add Attachment - this allows you to add a link to a file or website. Attachments are displayed at the top-right of the edit form.

Sales Activity

This panel displays the Sales Activity linked to the selected Sales Opportunity in descending date order.  

To add a new Sales Activity, click the Actions button and select an Activity, for example,  Note, Phone Call, Video Call, Message, etc. This will open the Activity edit form. On the Activity edit form, you can record Notes (click the Format button to remove blank lines and double spaces), change the Opportunity Status, and set a Reminder date.

Board Views

Active Sales Opportunities can be viewed in the Board Views, by Status or by Projected. The Column Header displays the Count, Once-off and Annual value of the Board. The boards exclude Pending and Cancelled opportunities and respect the 'View all Customers' setting. 

• Board (Status) - A Kanban board view with columns for each Status - ordered by Projected Date. 

• Board (Projected) - A Kanban view with columns for Earlier, 6 months (Starting this month) and Later - ordered by Status, Projected Date

Settings

General Settings

• Sales > Default: Sales Messages - Select the list of Sales Messages from the list of email templates. Email templates are created in the Emails module.

• Sales > Enable drag-and-drop on Board (Projected) - Y/N - Default = No. 

• Sales > Enable drag-and-drop on Board (Status) - Y/N - Default = No.

Note: When you drag-and-drop on the Board Views, responses are not created to record the date/time of the Status or Projected change.

Role Settings 

• Sales > Sales - Access Allowed - (None, User, Administrator) - Administrator rights are required to update Settings, Delete Sales Opportunities and Save Grid (All Users).

• Sales > Default: Transaction Type IDs (eg. '=2', 'in (1,23) - Determines which Transaction types can be created from the Sales Opportunity. 

• Sales > Default: View all Customers (Default = No) - By default, you are only able to view Customers that are linked to you as the Rep.

User Settings

• Sales Batch Updates - Access Allowed (Y/N)

Sales Module Settings

The following Settings are accessed from the Menu button inside the Sales module. Edit Lead Source allows you to add a lookup list which can optionally be used on the Opportunity, the other settings are explained below. Note: Administrator rights are required to access these Settings.

Statuses

Statuses are the ordered list of steps in your Sales Pipeline and can be used to filter your Sales Opportunities. A new Opportunity is assigned the first Status in the list. Right-click on a Status to move it up or down.

A Status cannot be deleted from Settings if they are in use.

Status fields include: 

• Description

• Group - Used in the Data Filter

• Probability % - Sets the default Probability % of the Opportunity. The Probability is automatically updated when the Opportunity Status is changed if the Probability on the Status lookup is not blank.

• Colour - Used to highlight the different Statuses visually.

Activities

This setting is used to create Activity templates. Fields include:

• Caption

• Data Type - The Standard data type provides a free text entry form to record the activity. Various custom input forms can be added depending on the Data Types that are enabled using the General Setting > General > Default: Use Data Types. 

• Group - Used to group Activities on the Add Activity menu.

• Set Status - This field can be used to automatically change the Status of the Opportunity when an Activity is added. 

• Note - Right-click on an Activity and select View/Edit Note. The Note serves as a template that can be completed when the Activity is added.

Reminder colours

Colour is used to highlight Opportunities by their reminder dates. The Value field represents the hours until the Reminder is due. For example:

• -1 = Reminder is overdue

• 24 - Reminder is due today

• 168 - Reminder is due this week.

References

The Reference field is used to add a short note that can be used to find the ticket later. It is displayed in the list view where it is included in the grid search. A lookup list is used to pre-populate Reference options.

Save/Restore Grid 

This allows you to save and restore the grid view layouts. Administrator rights are required to Save Grid (All Users).

Actions

• Batch Update - Customers - Opens a Batch Update dialogue above the Customers gridview.

• Batch Update - Transactions - Opens a Batch Update dialogue above the Transactions gridview. Requires you to select a Transaction type, eg. Quotations

• Message - Multi-select the Recipients in the Customer Panel, click Message and select an Email Template from the popup menu. Data tags are used to personalise the message. 

Messages

Standard messages can be personalised and emailed from the Sales module. Message Templates are created in the Email module by selecting Menu > Create a new Template. The General Settings > Default: Sales Messages  are used to select which messages can be sent from the Sales module.

Sales Pipeline

The Sales Status is used to qualify a prospective customer and build the Sales Pipeline - see the notes on Sales Pipeline below. The following statuses are added by default:

• 1 - Prospect

• 2 - Lead Qualified

• 3 - Demo or Meeting

• 4 - Proposal 

• 5 - Negotiation and Commitment

• 6 - Opportunity Won 

• 7 - Post Purchase

Prospecting 

Through ads, public relations, and other promotional activities, potential customers discover that your business exists. Often, you apply targeting parameters to deliver your message to potential buyers who fit the profile of your existing client base and ideal customer. 

Lead qualification 

To move leads downstream, offer an e-book, white paper, webinar, or another type of lead magnet to determine if the prospect is interested in learning more about your products and services. 

Demo or meeting

Afterwards, schedule a demo or meeting to introduce potential buyers to your offerings and solutions. At this point, you want to evaluate if there is a strong business case for the lead to receive a proposal. 

Proposal

Make your case by summarizing how your company can help address the potential customer’s needs. Demonstrate how the prices you propose deliver more than enough value to offset the engagement cost. At this stage, remember to state your competitive advantages to help differentiate your proposal from other vendors your customer may meet. 

Negotiation and commitment

Discuss expanding or shrinking the scope of work, adjusting pricing, and managing expectations to come to an agreement on a mutually beneficial partnership. 

Opportunity won

Finally, you close the sale and move toward order fulfilment.

Post-purchase

In business, the sale should be considered closed at the first contract signing. Instead, your reps should invest in providing exceptional service during onboarding and regularly monitoring the account’s progress. At opportune times, you can cross-sell existing customers on new services and upsell them on premium solutions. When the contract is about to expire, you can explore renewal options with them. Among your happiest clients, ask for referrals to other potential customers.

Upgrade from Workflow modules

An upgrade procedure can be used to convert the notes from a Workflow module to the CRM Module - UPGRADE_COPY_WF_TO_CRM. 

Take care not to execute this procedure multiple times for the same module.