Create and Edit Sales Methods and Stages

You can create and edit sales methods and their stages by following the procedures in this topic.

It doesn't cover these components of sales methods and stages setup:

• Recommended documents

• Action items (called process steps in the setup UI)

• Assessment Templates

• Activity Templates

• Mandatory fields

For information about setting up sales methods and stages, see the related topics.

Create or Edit Sales Methods

Here's how to create or modify existing sales methods.

Note: Several sales methods are predefined. You can use the predefined ones, modify them to suit your business needs, or create your own sales methods. However, if you modify or create a default sales method, then this affects your standard prebuilt business intelligence reports for Sales and you may have to modify them.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:

   • Offering: Sales

   • Functional Area: Opportunities

   • Task: Manage Sales Methods and Sales Stages

2. If you want to create a sales method: In the Manage Sales Methods page, click the Create icon.

3. If you want to edit a sales method: In the Manage Sales Methods page, drill down on the sales method, or select the row showing the sales method and click the Edit icon.

4. In the Create Sales Method or Edit Sales Method page, fill in the required information. Here are some details of the more complex attributes of sales methods:

   • Set: A set represents a group of business units. The Set field allows the sales method to be shared across multiple business units. Select the Common Set, unless you're aware that a different set should be selected.

   • Close Window: Set in days, the Close Window value is added to the current date to set the initial opportunity close date. If it isn't set, the application retrieves the default close window from the Opportunity Close Date Default profile option.

   • Disable: The Disable check box lets you disable the sales method. Only disable sales methods during implementation and not after the methods are in use in current opportunities.

5. Add new or modify existing sales stages as described in the section, Create or Edit Sales Stages.

6. Save your changes.

Create or Edit Sales Stages

Here's how to create or modify existing sales stages.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:

   • Offering: Sales

   • Functional Area: Opportunities

   • Task: Manage Sales Methods and Sales Stages

2. From the Manage Sales Methods page, select the sales method whose sales stages you want to modify.

   The Edit Sales Method page appears.

3. To add another sales stage to the sales method: In the Edit Sales Method page, click the Create icon and fill out the required information in the Create Sales Stage page.

4. To edit a sales stage: In the Edit Sales Method page, drill down on the sales stage, or select the row and click the Edit icon. Fill out the required information in the Edit Sales Stage page.

5. Set or enter attributes of sales stages. Here are some details of the more complex fields:

   • Disable: This check box lets you disable the sales stage. Only disable sales stages during implementation and not after the stages are in use in current opportunities.

   • Win Probability: This field represents the likelihood (in percent form) of winning the opportunity. This Win Probability field sets the default win probability at opportunity level for the sales stage. If you don't want your sales stages to control opportunity win probability, make sure they aren't defined by blanking out any value in this field.

   • Duration: Enter the average number of days you expect opportunities to stay in this stage. This field is used in the Stalled Deals infolet and underlying report. When opportunities are in a sales stage longer than the value entered here, they're considered stalled at that stage, and are reported in the stalled deals infolet on the dashboard.

6. Save your changes.