Applications Administration Guide > Activity Plans and Sales Methods >

Scenarios for Activity Plans

This scenario provides an example of a process performed by the administrator and the end users in a sales situation. Your company may follow a different process flow according to its business requirements.

Scenario for Sales

A sales organization has adopted a new sales methodology in order to improve the effectiveness of its salespeople. The business analyst has provided the administrator with a detailed document describing the sales method, the stages of the method, and the activities that each salesperson should perform at each stage of the deal. The outline of the document looks like this:

Our New Sales Method

> Stage 1, Prospecting, the lead discovery phase. (Status = Open)

> Stage 2, Qualification of the lead and working up the deal. (Status = Open)

 Stage 3, Closing the deal and entering the order. (Status = Won)

> Activity 1, Prepare the quote within 2 days

> Activity 2, Email the quote to manager for approval within 3 days

> Activity 3, Create the contract within 1 week

> Stage 4, Lost deal. (Status = Lost)

The administrator creates a new sales method record (New Sales Method) and four associated sales stage records (Prospecting, Qualification, Closing, and Lost).

Next, she creates four new activity templates, one for each stage. The activity template describes the activities and milestones that the salespeople should perform at that stage.

Because the salespeople enter their own opportunity records, the administrator sets up the activity template details so that the salesperson who enters the opportunity is automatically assigned ownership of the activities.

Sales people set their user preferences to specify that their default sales methodology is the New Sales Method, so that this methodology is automatically filled in when they create their opportunities.

When salespeople enter their opportunity records and specify a sales stage, the activity template for that stage automatically generates and assigns the activities appropriate for the stage. And, because lead times were set up in the activity template details, the due dates for the activities are calculated automatically, based on the date that the opportunity entered the sales stage.