An opportunity is any lead that could result in a sale. Some opportunities are generated from campaign leads, while others are created by your company's sales representatives. Through Siebel Energy, sales representatives can manage their sales opportunities for business and residential customers. Specifically, they can:

• View a list of all opportunities in the database or only those opportunities specifically assigned to them
• Create new opportunities
• Track the status of an opportunity through the sales cycle, from creation to closure
• Update information about opportunities as they move through the sales cycle
• Generate quotes based on opportunities
• Use opportunity profiles to record additional information and review customer responses to predefined questions

From the Opportunities screen, CSRs can run the Price Comparison feature. The Price Comparison feature generates annual costs for both in-house and competitors' electric and gas services. The feature calculates savings for existing and prospective customers if they choose to change rate plans. For more information on this feature, see Price Comparison in Siebel Energy.

Administrators involved with opportunities will benefit from reading this chapter. It describes how your CSRs create and update opportunities. After becoming familiar with the end-user procedures, you can customize the software to fit your company's needs.

For information about hierarchical products or multiple price types with recurring and nonrecurring fees, see these guides:

• Product Administration Guide
• Pricing Administration Guide
• Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Industry Applications