Chapter 7: Opportunity Management

CHAPTER 7: OPPORTUNITY MANAGEMENT Objectives The objectives are: •

Understand the role of opportunities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

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Use sales process workflows for pipeline reporting.

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Create opportunities.

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Work with opportunities, by applying such things as sales processes, adding activities, viewing sales literature, adding products, and competitors.

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Close opportunities.

Introduction This lesson explains how to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to work with qualified customers when making a sale. It begins by explaining how to create an opportunity. It discusses sales process workflows and how you can use them to manage opportunities and track their progress through the pipeline. It discusses the ways to track the activities being done for an opportunity and manage the opportunity, including viewing sales literature, and adding information about products of interest and competitors. It ends by discussing how to properly close an opportunity record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0

Understanding Opportunities An opportunity is a potential sale. Opportunities are the primary means of tracking individual potential sales. Tracking opportunities allows you to track and reporting on the sales pipeline for an individual salesperson, a sales department, or the entire organization. You can create a new opportunity directly in the system, or, if you use leads in your organization, you can convert qualified leads to opportunities to avoid re-entering data. BEST PRACTICE: Many organizations use specific terminology for potential deals and customers to differentiate them during the sales process. It is important to understand that in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Leads specifically refers to unqualified potential relationships, while Opportunities refers to a specific deal with a potential or current customer. Remember that leads can contain information about a person, the organization where they work, and a potential sale. However, after qualification, this lead information is divided between three records: the contact record, the account record, and the opportunity record. Be sure users understand the difference between leads and opportunities. Managing opportunities is critical for any business since successful management leads to sales, as well as helping to accurately forecast potential revenue. Sales teams are measured on the business they generate and opportunity pipelines are often used as a measurement for sales tracking and performance. This makes opportunities a focus of the sales team. Sales people spend a lot of time and energy working on opportunities to turn them into sales. Working with opportunities may involve several customer interactions and activities, such as assessing the customer needs, formulating a solution, making a proposal, and finally gaining acceptance from the customer. These activities form the sales stages of the opportunity and are important to track because they provide an indicator of how far the opportunity is from closure. To further aid in closing the sale and analyzing opportunities, you can track attributes such as the probability of the sale closing. Probability can be entered by the sales person or calculated by the system based on where the opportunity is a pre-defined sales process.

Scenario [Company1] is using CRM to track products and sales orders. A sales representative for the organization has converted a lead, [Company2], into an opportunity, account, and contact. Subsequent interactions with the customer are tracked from within the opportunity. The customer is interested in [Product1]. The sales representative associates that product with the opportunity, and then reviews the sales literature available for the product. He selects a piece of literature and sends it to the customer.

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Chapter 7: Opportunity Management

Sales Processes and the Sales Pipeline Report Organizations often forecast potential revenues by assessing the opportunities they have and what stage they are at in a sales process, called the pipeline. Depending on the organization's sales process, a pipeline can have several stages. Each stage moves the opportunity nearer to closure, increasing the likelihood of a successful sale. Thus, there is a direct relationship between where the opportunity is in the sales pipeline and the probability of the sale's closure. Organizations can run pipeline status reports which forecast revenue based on pipeline stages, giving the business a more accurate picture of the expected revenue. Accurate forecasting in this manner only works if there is consistency in assessing probabilities based on stage. For example, if sales people manually enter probabilities at each stage, one sales representative may enter a 30% probability for opportunities at stage B, while another sales representative may only enter a 15% probability for opportunities at the same stage. It's thus beneficial for businesses to define and implement a sales process workflow to drive and track opportunities through the pipeline stages in a consistent, prescribed manner and to define the probabilities for each stage.

Scenario A sales manager at a [company1] has discovered a potential client at a [vertical] firm. He creates an opportunity which initiates his organization's sales process workflow. The opportunity goes through three stages: •

Discovery: The sales manager and the rest of the sales team identity the customer needs and pain points. When the sales manager creates the opportunity, the sales process workflow is automatically applied and creates a task activity for the sales manager to schedule an assessment meeting with the customer. Several other activities and steps follow this until the assessment is complete, at which point the sales team analyzes the requirements and completes the discovery stage. When the stage is complete, the workflow sets the Probability field to 20%.

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Proposal: The sales manager determines how to meet the requirements identified in the discovery stage and drafts a proposal for the customer. The workflow ensures that mandatory information is entered in the system. A negotiation process ensues until the customer approves the proposal and pricing. When the stage is completed, the workflow sets the Probability field to 60%.

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Closing: The proposal has been accepted by the client, so in Microsoft Dynamics CRM the sales manager completes the contract with the client and schedules delivery of the solution. When the sales manager marks the sale as closed and sets the status reason, the sales process workflow ends. Before ending, the workflow sets the Probability field to 100%.

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 Sales Process Workflows Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers the ability to manage the sales pipeline using staged workflows. These workflows, designed specifically to define the sales pipeline process, are called sales process workflows. In a sales process workflow, the workflow stages map to the pipeline stages. A sales process workflow can consist of several stages as defined by the business. Each stage may have several activities associated with it, such as scheduling a meeting with a customer or sending a letter. You can require that all these activities be completed to move to the next stage, so that one stage must be completed before you move to the next. The workflow can also automatically set a probability when all the activities are completed and you move to the next stage. In this way, the probability of the opportunity automatically changes. Using sales process workflows in Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows businesses to implement a uniform pipeline to ensure consistent tracking and reporting. You can create more than one sales process workflow. For example, an organization might use different pipeline processes for different types of opportunities. BEST PRACTICE: When you create a sales process workflow that creates activities, include the opportunity name in the activities you create, so that the end user can view the opportunity related to each task.

Demonstration: Using Workflows and the Sales Process This demonstration uses the Pipeline report to view specific sales information.

Scenario A sales representative for [user's organization] has discovered a potential client at [company]. The sales process starts with the creation of an opportunity and then goes through three phases: Discovery, Proposal, and Close. Goal Description The goal of this demonstration is to create a sales process using stages which an opportunity goes through to become a sale.

Create a Staged Workflow Follow these steps to create a staged workflow: 1. 2. 3. 4.

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In the Navigation Pane, click Settings, and then click Workflows. On the Actions toolbar, click New. Under Workflow name, enter [name for Sales Process workflow]. Under Entity, select Opportunity. This workflow starts when an opportunity is created.

Chapter 7: Opportunity Management 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Under Type, select New blank workflow. Click OK. Under Scope select Organization Under Publish As, select Workflow. Under Start when, select Record is created. This ensures that the workflow initiates each time a new opportunity is created.

Create a Stage Follow these steps to creating a stage: 1. On the Actions toolbar, click Add Step. In the confirmation message, click OK. 2. Click Type a stage description here, and then enter Discovery Stage. 3. In the next row, click Select this row and click Add Step, and then, on the Actions toolbar, click Add Step, and then select Update Record. 4. Click the Set Properties button. 5. In the Update Opportunity dialog box, on the Additional Fields tab, under Pipeline Phase, enter Discovery. 6. Click Save and Close. 7. In the next row, click Select this row and click Add Step, and then, on the Actions toolbar, click Add Step, and then select Create Record. 8. Click Type a description here, and then type Assessment Meeting. 9. In the next row, under Create, select Task. 10. Click the Set Properties button. 11. In the Create Task dialog box, under Subject, enter Schedule an Assessment Meeting. 12. Click Save and Close. 13. On the Actions toolbar, click Add Step, and then select Create Record. 14. Click Type a description here, and then type Complete Requirements Document. 15. In the next row, under Create, select Task. 16. Click the Set Properties button. In the Create Task dialog box, under Subject, enter Complete Requirements Document.

Complete the Workflow Follow these steps to complete the workflow: 1. Click the blue dot next to the Assessment Meeting title, to select the row. The row will be highlighted in blue. 2. On the Actions toolbar, click Add Step, and then select Wait Condition.

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 3. Click Type a step description here, and enter Wait Condition for Assessment Meeting. 4. In the next row, click (click to configure). 5. In the Specify Workflow Condition box, point to Select, and then under Local Values, select the task Assessment Meeting. 6. In the next column, point to Select and select Activity Status. 7. In the next column, point to Select, and select Equals. 8. In the next column, point to Enter Value, and then click the ellipsis. In the Available values list, select Completed, and then click >> to move the value to the Selected Values list, Click OK. 9. Click Save and Close. 10. Repeat steps 1 through 9 to add the same type of Wait Condition for the Complete Requirements Document. 11. Repeat the steps from the previous the section to add the next stage, Proposal Stage. Include these steps: Task Make Draft Proposal Task Get Pricing Approval 12. Repeat steps 1 through 9 to add Wait Conditions that require the tasks in the Proposal Stage to be completed. 13. Repeat the steps from the previous the section to add the next stage, Closing Stage. Include these steps: Task Complete the Contract Task Schedule Delivery of the Solution At this point, the workflow script is finished. 14. Repeat steps 1 through 9 to add Wait Conditions that require the tasks in the Closing Stage to be completed. 15. In the Workflow form, on the Standard toolbar, click Save. 16. On the Standard toolbar, click Publish to publish the workflow.

Using a Sales Process to Track Opportunities Users can apply the appropriate workflow to the opportunity when it is created, or they can design the workflows to check for certain criteria when an opportunity is created, to launch the correct workflow. When you apply a sales process workflow to an opportunity, the workflow adds activities to the opportunity (which also show up in the user's Workplace activity list) based on the current sales stage. Users can check off each activity as it is completed. When the required activities in a stage are completed, the opportunity automatically moves to the next stage in the sales process, changing probabilities, as specified in the workflow.

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Chapter 7: Opportunity Management

BEST PRACTICE: You can use the Task list and the Calendar in Microsoft Outlook to more easily work with opportunities. You can have Microsoft Dynamics CRM activities appear as tasks in the Microsoft Outlook Task list (or as appointments in the calendar for meetings) and then mark them as completed from within the Outlook. For more information, refer to Lesson 5, Using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Client for Outlook.

Using the Sales Pipeline Report The Sales Pipeline report is a standard report that comes with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The Sales Pipeline report works in conjunction with sales process workflows to show forecasted revenue in a variety of ways. To use the sales process workflow, you must: •

Create a staged workflow

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Apply the workflow to the opportunities you want to track in the report

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Enter expected revenue for the opportunities

When you run the Sales Pipeline report, you select the sales process workflow to report on. Any opportunities to which the workflow has been applied will appear in the report. You can view the revenue forecasts by sales stage, to see expected revenue and weighted expected revenue. You can also view the revenue in other ways, such as by sales territory or by product. You can use the report to forecast sales revenue based on likelihood of opportunity closure, as indicated by the stages.

Procedure: View a Sales Pipeline Report 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Workplace, and then click Reports. 2. In the list of reports, select and open the Sales Pipeline report. 3. In the Report View dialog box, if desired, change the default criteria. Refer to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Help for instructions. 4. Click Run Report. 5. On the Sales Report, under Group By Sales Process, select the sales process workflow that will be the basis of the report. 6. Under Group By, select the data by which to group the report. Select Sales Stage to see revenue by sales stage, as defined in the sales process workflow. 7. Under Revenue, select the type of revenue you would like to have displayed on the report. 8. Click View Report.

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0

NOTE: The opportunity you are reporting against must have a revenue field entered to have it display on the report. Reports can also be exported and printed.

Creating Opportunities Opportunities can be created manually or by converting a lead or an activity to an opportunity. If your organization uses leads, you will often convert leads into opportunities. (Lesson 8, Lead Management, discusses the process of converting leads into opportunities.) In other situations, create a new opportunity for an existing account or customer, or create an opportunity based on an activity that has occurred, such as an e-mail or a phone call. BEST PRACTICE: Even if your organization chooses not to use leads as part of the standard sales process, you can use them as a helpful data entry tool. When a new relationship is established, you can enter information about a person, their company, and also their potential sale into a lead record and then qualify the lead. Microsoft Dynamics CRM creates the contact, account, and opportunity saving you from typing information into all three forms. You might create an opportunity from scratch, for example, if an existing customer calls to ask about a new product or service the company is offering. Even if the customer and account exist, you would create an opportunity to reflect this particular potential sale.

Procedure: Create an Opportunity Follow this procedure to create a new opportunity or edit existing opportunities. 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, in the Sales area click Opportunities. 2. On the Actions toolbar, click New. 3. On the General tab, enter information or observe any noted restrictions or requirements as needed: • Topic: Enter information that reflects what the opportunity is interested in. For example, if an existing customer called for details about a product, list the name of the product as the topic. • Potential Customer: Enter the appropriate account or contact. You can click the Lookup icon to search for the customer or to create a new account or contact. • Price List: If the organization uses price lists, select the appropriate price list. You can click the Lookup icon to search for the price list. More information about price lists can be found in Lesson 9, Using the Product Catalog.

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Chapter 7: Opportunity Management • •

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Revenue: If an organization uses automated pricing, select System Calculated. Otherwise, select User Provided, and then enter an amount under Est. Revenue. Est. Revenue: Estimated revenue is calculated for opportunities with products added to them. If you selected User Provided, enter an amount in this field. This value appears in the list of opportunities on the main opportunities page and is used for forecasting purposes. Est. Close Date: If desired, enter the date when the sale is expected to close. This date is used for forecasting purposes. Probability: If an organization uses probabilities, enter a number between 1 to 100, to indicate the likelihood of the sale occurring. Note that this value may be auto-calculated based on a sales process.

4. On the Administration tab, enter information or observe any noted restrictions or requirements as needed: • Owner: Enter the owner of this opportunity, if necessary. The owner is automatically populated with the name of the user creating the record. You can click the Lookup icon to search for another user. • Status Reason: Select the status of this opportunity, such as In Progress or On Hold. 5. On the Notes tab, select Click here to enter a new note…, and enter any details about this opportunity. 6. Click Save and Close.

Converting Activities to Opportunities Interactions between a sales representative and a customer may result in opportunities. For example, a sales representative may receive a call, e-mail, or fax from a customer looking to buy a product or a service. Or an opportunity may present itself during a meeting with the customer. These interactions or activities can be tracked in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The system allows the user to directly convert the activity to an opportunity. This enables the sales team to efficiently update their opportunity pipeline.

Procedure: Convert an Activity to an Opportunity 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Workplace, and under My Work, click Activities. 2. In the list, select and open the activity that you want to convert. 3. On the Action toolbar, on the Convert Activity menu, select To Opportunity. 4. In the dialog box, under Customer, enter an Account or Contact. Click the Lookup search icon to search for an account or contact.

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 5. If necessary, under Currency, change the currency used for this opportunity. (By default, the currency is based on the currency specified for the chosen account or contact.) 6. If appropriate, under Source Campaign, enter the campaign that generated this activity. You can click the Lookup icon to search for the campaign. NOTE: On the Convert Activity to Opportunity dialog box, by clearing Record a closed campaign response, changes the Source Campaignfield to be not required. 7. Select any other options that are appropriate, and then click OK. 8. On the Opportunity form click Save and Close.

Working with Opportunities Working with opportunities can involve several tasks: •

Tracking the products in which the customer is interested

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Tracking activities related to the opportunity

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Tracking competitors

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Sending literature to the customer

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Assigning and sharing opportunities

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Moving Opportunities through a sales process workflow

To sell effectively, sales people need to know what interactions have occurred with a customer - what touch points have taken place and what needs to happen next. Proactively reaching out to customers helps move the sale forward. Phone calls, e-mails, faxes, and meetings are key interactions. So that sales people can have a complete view of the opportunity, it is important to track the various activities that take place with the customer. Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows users to record and relate different types of activities to an opportunity. Organizations that maintain product information in the CRM system may also want to relate those products to opportunities. That way, when a sales person needs to produce a quote or a proposal, Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be used to generate it with details of the products and services in which the customer is interested. Tracking products and associating them with opportunities also helps calculate the value of the opportunity, which helps sales people to focus on highvalue opportunities. More details regarding products can be found in Lesson 9, Using the Product Catalog. The sales team may want to track information about the other organizations with which they are competing. Competitors can be associated with opportunities, so that sales people know what issues need to be addressed to make this particular sale.

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Chapter 7: Opportunity Management Lastly, while pursuing an opportunity, sales teams may need to send out product or service information to the customer. Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows users to view the available literature for products and competitors associated with the opportunity. For example, you can track the sales literature about products that was sent to this customer. This consolidated information can help the sales team improve their chances of winning business, because they have more information about what they can send what they have sent to their customers.

Adding and Viewing Activities for an Opportunity The bulk of the work needed to close an opportunity is to interact with the customer in one way or another. This work is recorded in Microsoft Dynamics CRM as activities. Activities can be added for an opportunity before they are completed, to keep track of actions that must be taken. You can add specific activities, such as phone calls or e-mails, or use the Task activity to track generalized to-do items. For example, to call a contact about the opportunity, create an activity and note what the phone call should include. Later, when you complete the phone call, you can mark the activity as completed. (Some activities, such as e-mail, are automatically marked as completed when they have gone through Microsoft Dynamics CRM.) Once an activity is complete, it becomes part of the history for this opportunity. You can view the activities performed for an opportunity and view them over various timeframes, such as the last week or the last ninety days.

Procedure: Add a new Activity to the Opportunity 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, in the Sales area click Opportunities. 2. Select and open an opportunity from the grid. 3. On the Standards toolbar, on the Actions menu, select Add Activity and then select the Task, other activities that can be added are: • • • • •

Fax Phone Call E-mail Letter Appointment

4. For the Subject field, enter the topic for this activity. 5. In the main text box enter a description of the task. 6. For the Owner field, the owner is automatically populated with the name of the user creating the record. You can click the Lookup icon to search for another user (The Owner field does not appear for appointment activities).

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 7. If there is a due date for this task, enter the data in the Due field. 8. Enter any additional information in the appropriate fields and then click Save and Close. NOTE: To manually close an activity (mark the activity as completed), open the activity record. On theStandard toolbar, underActions, select the appropriate option for the activity, such as Close Fax orClose Meeting.

Procedure: View the History of Activities Activities appear in the history list when they have been closed. Thus, history contains the list of e-mail and faxes sent, tasks completed, and phone calls made or meetings that were held. 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, in the Sales area click Opportunities. 2. Select and open an opportunity from the grid. 3. In the form's navigation pane, in the Details area, click History. 4. For the Filter on picklist, select the time period to view activity history. 5. Under Include, select Related Records to view the history from all records related to the opportunity record, such as the history of activities for leads or contacts associated with this opportunity. Select This Record Only to view the history for this opportunity only. 6. Click Save and Close.

Adding Competitors to an Opportunity Track your competitors together with the products and sales literature they carry that matches your own inventory. When tracking opportunities, knowledge about competition can be the difference between winning and losing. This knowledge can help the sale team better position their services and products against the competition thus improving chances of winning.

Procedure: Adding a Competitor to an Opportunity 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, in the Sales area click Opportunities. 2. Select and open an opportunity from the grid. 3. In the form's navigation pane, in the Sales area click Competitors. 4. On the Actions toolbar, click Add Existing Competitor.

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Chapter 7: Opportunity Management 5. In the Look Up Records dialog box, click the Lookup icon to see the list of available competitors in the Available records list on the left. Select a record in the Available records list and then click the right arrow buttons to move the competitor to the Selected records list. Click OK. 6. Click Save and Close.

Viewing Sales Literature through an Opportunity Sales representatives may need to send sales literature as part of the sales process. Sales literature is created by other parts of the organization but is available for viewing and use by the sale team. Sales literature is not directly associated with opportunities. Rather, literature is associated with either a product or a competitor. The product or competitor is associated with an opportunity, and the sales literature can be view by first viewing the product or competitor record associated with the opportunity.

Procedure: Access Sales Literature through a Competitor 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, in the Sales area click Opportunities. 2. Select and open an opportunity from the grid. 3. In the form's navigation pane, in the Sales area, click Competitors. 4. In the competitors list, select and open a competitor. 5. In the form's navigation pane, in the Sales area, click Sales Literature. 6. In the list, select and open a literature record to view detailed information about the literature. 7. Click Save and Close.

Procedure: Access Sales Literature through a Product 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, in the Sales area click Opportunities. 2. Select and open an opportunity from the grid. 3. In the form's navigation pane, in the Details area, click Products. 4. In the products list, select and open a product. 5. In the form's navigation pane, in the Sales area, click Sales Literature. 6. In the list, select and open a literature record to view detailed information about the literature. 7. Click Save and Close. NOTE: To view sales literature for a product, you must have a product list associated with the opportunity and literature must be associated with the appropriate products in that price list.

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 Assigning and Sharing Opportunities During creation, an opportunity has an owner associated with it. Typically, it is the sales person that is working on then opportunity. Sometimes, the owner may need to be changed. In addition, larger opportunities are often owned by a team or group of sales people. Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides the ability to share opportunities across users and teams, allowing for the recognition of revenue generation by user or a team. Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows sales teams to assign opportunities to specific users or share opportunities between users. This allows for transitioning of opportunities and allows more than one user or team to work on the opportunity.

Procedure: Assign an opportunity 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, in the Sales area click Opportunities. 2. Select and open an opportunity from the grid, but do not open an opportunity. 3. On the Actions toolbar, click the Assign icon. 4. In the Assign Opportunity dialog box, select Assign to another user, and then enter the user or team to whom you are assigning the opportunity. You can click the Lookup icon to search for a user. 5. Click OK. NOTE: If the user or team does not appear in the list, contact the system administrator.

Closing Opportunities Working with an opportunity usually involves several stages. Each organization has its own sales process, often implemented in the solution using workflows. Eventually, the opportunity comes to a close, hopefully as a sale that has been won.

Closing an Opportunity When an opportunity is won or lost, it needs to be marked as closed. Closing an opportunity does not delete it from the system, but the opportunity is no longer available in the list of active opportunities and some of the fields become readonly. It is better to close an opportunity rather than deleting it. That way, notes and attachments that are associated with the opportunity are saved for future reference and the opportunity can be re-opened if interest is renewed.

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Chapter 7: Opportunity Management

NOTE: Once a opportunity is closed it can be re-opened, however if an opportunity is deleted all information is lost. The audit trail for reports and analysis is lost when opportunity records are deleted. Consider carefully before deleting an opportunity.

Procedure: Close an Opportunity Whether you win a sale or lose it, you need to close the opportunity and indicate the status of the opportunity at closing (A potential sale to an account or contact that may be won or lost.). 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, in the Sales area click Opportunities. 2. Select and open an opportunity from the grid. 3. On the Standard toolbar, click the Actions menu, select Close Opportunity…. 4. In the Close opportunity dialog box, for the Status field, select Won or Lost. If you select Won, enter the following information: • Status Reason: Select the reason for closing this won opportunity. The default is Won, but the system administrator may have added additional fields to capture information about won opportunities. • Actual Revenue ($): Enter the agreed upon price for this sale. This value is pre-populated if you added products to the opportunity. • Close Date: Enter the date this sale closed. • Description: Enter the reason for the win. If you select Lost under Status, enter the appropriate information in the following fields: • • • • •

Status Reason: Select the reason the opportunity was lost. The default options are Canceled or Out-Sold. The system administrator may have added other options. Actual Revenue ($): Enter the expected revenue this sale would have generated. This value is pre-populated if you added products to the opportunity. Close Date: Enter the date that you closed the opportunity. Competitor: If you lost the sale to a competitor and you know the competitor, enter the competitor. You can click the Lookup icon to search for the competitor. Description: Enter the reason for the loss.

5. Click OK. 6. Click Close.

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 Reopening Opportunities Sometimes, an opportunity that was closed must be reopened. For example, an opportunity was lost because the customer did not budget for the purchase. Later, the customer returns with budget and wants to buy the product. In that case, the closed opportunity can be reopened. Reopening a closed opportunity rather than creating a new one allows the user to obtain context from the history of activities for this opportunity. Leveraging knowledge of earlier interactions puts the sales person in a good light, speeds up the sales process, and helps the sales person be more effective in identifying customer requirements and winning the business.

Procedure: Reopen a Closed Opportunity You cannot reopen a deleted opportunity. If you deleted the opportunity, create a new opportunity to reflect the renewed interest. 1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, in the Sales area click Opportunities. 2. Under View, select Closed opportunities. 3. In the list of opportunities, select and open a closed opportunity. 4. On the Standard toolbar, click the Actions menu, select Reopen Opportunity. 5. In the confirmation dialog box, click OK. 6. Click Save and Close.

Demonstration: Managing Your Pipeline Scenario A sales representative is ending the week and wants to review the health of the current pipeline and plan activities for the next week. Upon reviewing the current pipeline, the salesperson decides that opportunity [opportunity name] will close next week if he makes one extra phone call, so he adds the phone call to his activity list. Goal Description This demonstration accomplishes the following:

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Uses the pipeline report to review progress

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Uses activities to manage opportunities and tasks

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Schedules a new activity

Chapter 7: Opportunity Management Steps View a Sales Pipeline Report: 1. 2. 3. 4.

In the Navigation Pane, click Workplace, and then click Reports. In the list of reports, select and open the Sales Pipeline report. In the Report View dialog box, click Run Report. On the Sales Report, under Group By Sales Process select [workflow name]. 5. Under Group By, select Sales Stage. 6. Click View Report. NOTE: To identify the opportunity involved in each stage, select the Opportunity's title belowOpportunity on the report. Adding a phone call activity on an opportunity: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

In the left navigation click Sales, then click Opportunities. Select and open [opportunity name] from the grid. In the form's navigation pane, click Activities. On the New Activity dialog box, click Phone Call. Click OK. On the Task form enter [subject name] in the Subject field Click Save and Close.

Summary This lesson explained how to work with opportunities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It explains how to create opportunities and work with them. It explained how to create sales process workflows and use them to forecast revenue through the Sales Pipeline report. It showed you how to work with opportunities, including adding product and competitor information to them, specifying activities and tracking their status, and how to view literature that might be helpful in closing the sale. It also covered how to properly close an opportunity record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0

Test Your Knowledge Opportunity 1. What is an opportunity? ( ) Promise of purchase by a customer ( ) Potential sale ( ) An opportunity is the same as a Lead ( ) A record that is created after you prepare a quote

Opportunities 2. What types of information can be tracked via opportunities? Select all that apply. (Select all that apply.) ( ) Associated contacts ( ) Salesperson actively working it ( ) List of competitors ( ) Likelihood of close

Add Products to an Opportunity 3. Which of the following must be specified before products can be added to an opportunity? ( ) Salesperson ( ) Estimated Revenue ( ) Price List ( ) Discount

Delete Opportunity 4. What happens when an opportunity is deleted? Select all that apply. (Select all that apply.) ( ) All related note information is lost ( ) The opportunity cannot be reactivated ( ) A status reason can be specified ( ) All related activity information is lost

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Chapter 7: Opportunity Management Closed Opportunity 5. A closed opportunity has changed their minds and would like to do business with you. You now need to _________ the opportunity? ( ) Create a new ( ) Reopen ( ) Activate ( ) Assign

Sales Pipeline 6. To access the Sales Pipeline report, the user can click on Reports from the? ( ) Workplace module ( ) Sales module ( ) Service module ( ) Settings module

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0

Lab 7.1 - Creating a Sales Process In this lab you create a staged Sales Process workflow for opportunities. The Sales Process will create an activity to have completed for the opportunity to advance through the different stages of the Sales Process workflow. As you perform the instructions, use the information in the Scenario and Goal Description to complete the lab. Refer to the Introduction to Training chapter for information about the two levels of lab instruction and the lab solution in Appendix B. Scenario A system administrator wants to create a Sales Process workflow for opportunities based on his or her organization three sales stages Discovery, Proposal, and Closing. This automatically adds Activities to the Opportunity's activity list based on the current sales stage. As more activities are completed, the opportunity moves further along the stages in the Sales Process. Goal Description Use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to accomplish the following: •

View the Lead Source Effectiveness report

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Locate the type of lead that produced the most revenue

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View the opportunities that contributed to the revenue

Challenge Yourself! Use the information in the Scenario and Goal Description to complete the lab.

Need a Little Help? Follow these steps to create a staged workflow:

Step by Step 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

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In the Navigation Pane, click Settings, and then click Workflows. On the Actions toolbar, click New. Under Workflow name, enter [name for Sales Process workflow]. Under Entity, select Opportunity. This workflow starts when an opportunity is created. Under Type, select New blank workflow. Click OK. Under Scope select Organization. Under Publish As, select Workflow. Under Start when, select Record is created. This ensures that the workflow initiates each time a new opportunity is created.

Chapter 7: Opportunity Management Step by Step Create a Stage Follow these steps to creating a stage: 1. On the Actions toolbar, click Add Step and select Stage. In the confirmation message, click OK. 2. Click Type a stage description here, and then enter Discovery Stage. 3. In the next row, click Select this row and click Add Step, and then, on the Actions toolbar, click Add Step, and then select Update Record. 4. Click the Set Properties button. 5. In the Update Opportunity dialog box, on the Additional Fields tab, under Pipeline Phase, enter Discovery Phase. 6. Click Save and Close. 7. Select the block below Discovery Stage that includes the Update: Opportunity text and the Set Properties button and then, on the Actions toolbar, click Add Step, and then select Create Record. 8. Click Type a step description here, and then type Assessment Meeting. 9. In the next row, under Create, select Task. 10. Click the Set Properties button. 11. In the Create Task dialog box, under Subject, enter Schedule an Assessment Meeting. 12. Click Save and Close. 13. On the Actions toolbar, click Add Step, and then select Create Record. 14. Click Type a step description here, and then type Complete Requirements Document. 15. In the next row, under Create, select Task. 16. Click the Set Properties button. In the Create Task dialog box, under Subject, enter Complete Requirements Document. 17. Click Save and Close.

Step by Step Complete the Workflow Follow these steps to complete the workflow: 1. Click the blue dot next to the Assessment Meeting title, to select the row. The row will be highlighted in blue. 2. On the Actions toolbar, click Add Step, and then select Wait Condition. 3. Click Type a step description here, and enter Wait Condition for Assessment Meeting. 4. In the next row, click (click to configure).

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 5. In the Specify Workflow Condition box, point to Select, and then under Local Values, select the task Assessment Meeting. 6. In the next column, point to Select and select Activity Status. 7. In the next column, point to Select, and select Equals. 8. In the next column, point to Enter Value, and then click the ellipsis. In the Available values list, select Completed, and then click >> to move the value to the Selected Values list. Click OK. 9. Click Save and Close. 10. Repeat steps 1 through 9 to add the same type of Wait Condition for the Complete Requirements Document. 11. Repeat the steps from the previous the section to add the next stage, Proposal Stage. Include these steps: Task Make Draft Proposal Task Get Pricing Approval 12. Repeat steps 1 through 9 to add Wait Conditions that require the tasks in the Proposal Stage to be completed. 13. Repeat the steps from the previous the section to add the next stage, Closing Stage. Include these steps: Task Complete the Contract Task Schedule Delivery of the Solution At this point, the workflow script is finished. 14. Repeat steps 1 through 9 to add Wait Conditions that require the tasks in the Closing Stage to be completed. 15. In the Workflow form, on the Standard toolbar, click Save. 16. On the Standard toolbar, click Publish to publish the workflow. 17. The Workflow Publish Confirmation dialog box appears. Click OK. 18. Click Close to close the Workflow.

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Chapter 7: Opportunity Management

Lab 7.2 - Managing Your Pipeline In this lab you complete the activities of an opportunity in the Proposal sales stage to move the opportunity forward to the Closing stage. As you perform the instructions use the information in the Scenario and Goal Description to complete the lab. Refer to the Introduction to Training chapter for information about the two levels of lab instruction and the lab solution in Appendix B. Scenario A sales representative creates an opportunity, completes the activities to advance the opportunity from the Proposal stage to the Closing stage in the sales process. Goal Description Use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to accomplish the following: •

Open the opportunity's activity to view the Tasks remaining.

•

Complete the remaining tasks.

•

Advance the opportunity to the final stage in the sales process

Challenge Yourself! Use the information in the Scenario and Goal Description to complete the lab.

Need a Little Help? Follow to create a three part Staged Workflow:

Step by Step 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, and then click Opportunities. Click Activities. In the list, select and open [Task name]. On the Action toolbar, on the Actions men, select Close Task. In the Close Task dialog box click OK. Click Close. On the Activity form click the Refresh icon to view remaining tasks. Repeat steps 4 through 7, to complete for all the remaining tasks in order to advance the Opportunity to the Closing stage.

NOTE: On the bottom right corner on the Opportunity form the Pipeline Phase can be found. The Pipeline Phase displays the stage the opportunity is currently in, this feature must be manually set on the workflow.

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0

Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned Take a moment and write down three key points you have learned from this chapter: 1.

2.

3.

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Chapter 7: Opportunity Management

Solutions Test Your Knowledge Opportunity 1. What is an opportunity? ( ) Promise of purchase by a customer (•) Potential sale ( ) An opportunity is the same as a Lead ( ) A record that is created after you prepare a quote

Opportunities 2. What types of information can be tracked via opportunities? Select all that apply. (Select all that apply.) ( ) Associated contacts (√) Salesperson actively working it (√) List of competitors (√) Likelihood of close

Add Products to an Opportunity 3. Which of the following must be specified before products can be added to an opportunity? ( ) Salesperson ( ) Estimated Revenue (•) Price List ( ) Discount

Delete Opportunity 4. What happens when an opportunity is deleted? Select all that apply. (Select all that apply.) (√) All related note information is lost (√) The opportunity cannot be reactivated ( ) A status reason can be specified (√) All related activity information is lost

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Applications in Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 4.0 Closed Opportunity 5. A closed opportunity has changed their minds and would like to do business with you. You now need to _________ the opportunity? ( ) Create a new (•) Reopen ( ) Activate ( ) Assign

Sales Pipeline 6. To access the Sales Pipeline report, the user can click on Reports from the? (•) Workplace module ( ) Sales module ( ) Service module ( ) Settings module

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