This chapter covers the following topics:
Use the Lead tab to view and manage leads. Leads capture the initial contact with potential customers, gathering information to inform the sales organization regarding customer interest. When a you enter a lead you can rank it and assign it to the appropriate sales resource.
Once enough information has been gathered, a lead can be qualified by a sales representative.
You can generate leads through various sources:
Marketing campaigns and trade shows can generate leads which you can import into the system through the Lead Import process.
TeleSales agents record lead information from phone calls.
Field sales representatives record lead information from the field into a sales application.
Note: There is Flexfield support for Header and Purchase Item level flexfields for leads. If Flexfield functionality has been implemented for a lead, the Flexfield name, field, and Flexfield button are displayed.
The Main Details window in Lead Details and Create Lead contains a Methodology dropdown and a Stage dropdown. Sales Methodology captures your sales group’s best practices to assist in making sales. The Stage feature indicates the current level of the lead or opportunity. In Oracle Sales Offline system administrators can verify if Stage is mapped to a lead, an opportunity, or a lead and opportunity. If you select a Sales Methodology without choosing a Stage level from the Stage dropdown and attempt to apply/save the lead or opportunity, an error message displays.
When a Lead is created in Oracle Sales and synchronized down to Oracle Sales Offline, the Sales Methodology is editable until a Sales Methodology is actually associated to the Lead.
Note: The Sales Team tab in the Lead and Opportunity Details form contains an Owner radio button. Only one sales team member can be the owner of the Lead or Opportunity record. You cannot remove the Owner from the Sales Team unless you explicitly select another sales team member to be the owner.
In the Lead Details window, click Lead to Opportunity.
This information will flow from the lead to the new opportunity into a new Opportunity Detail window:
Lead Name (Lead Name will flow to Opportunity Name field)
Customer Name
Primary Contact
Sales Methodology and Stage
Currency
Source (header level)
Address
Sales Team
Contact
In Oracle Sales Offline you can convert any lead to an opportunity, regardless of status, In Oracle Sales you can only convert leads in open status. When the Lead to Opportunity flow is initiated, the lead status will change to Converted To Opportunity and become read-only. If the lead does not have a sales methodology specified in Oracle Sales, then the newly converted opportunity will not have the sales methodology or corresponding sales stage specified.
If you create a new Lead and do not associate a Sales Methodology to it (for example, the Sales Methodology is null) you can still pick a Sales Methodology Value for this Lead using the Lead Details form. When the Sales Methodology is associated to the Lead, the Sales Methodology becomes read only.
Once a Methodology field is saved, you cannot update it. This applies to both Oracle Sales and Oracle Sales Offline. In some cases, a conflict may arise between Oracle Sales and Oracle Sales Offline if you set one Methodology in Oracle Sales and a different Methodology in Oracle Sales Offline. If this situation occurs and you perform a sync, a conflict in the Methodology field occurs and the Sales Offline Methodology value is overwritten by the Online Sales Methodology value.