Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
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.
7-1
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.
7-2
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%. 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%. 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%.
7-3
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.
7-4
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.
7-5
7-6
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.
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.
7-7
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.
7-8
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.
7-9
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.
7-10
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).
7-11
7-12
7-13
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.
7-14
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.
7-15
7-16
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.
7-17
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
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
7-18
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
7-19
Challenge Yourself!
Use the information in the Scenario and Goal Description to complete the lab.
Step by Step
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 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.
7-20
7-21
7-22
Challenge Yourself!
Use the information in the Scenario and Goal Description to complete the lab.
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.
7-23
2.
3.
7-24
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
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
7-25
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
7-26