Siebel Applications Administration Guide > Target Account Selling >

Adding Customer Milestones

Milestones are formal steps in the customer's buying process. The Customer Milestones view helps sales professionals identify and track customer requirements that must be met as the sales cycle progresses. After the milestones are set, use the Our Activities list to target specific activities to accomplish to meet each milestone. These activities might include formal presentations, product demonstrations, benchmarks, proposals, and other activities required to make the sale. Figure 21 shows the Customer Milestones list, and the activities associated with the selected milestone in the Our Activities subview list.

Figure 21. Customer Milestones View with Associated Activities

Milestones are similar to Activity Plan templates that are created with predefined activities. For example, the initial milestone, Request Offering, is associated with recommended activities to be performed by you and your sales team. These activities might include understanding the problem or opportunity, defining the customer's Compelling Event and confirming the budget, completing an opportunity assessment, and developing an organization map for the customer's business.

A sample of customer milestone types is included with the Siebel Sales application. Your administrator can change the milestones to suit your business needs. You and your sales team can create, edit and delete activities associated with the milestones that address the opportunity.

This task is a step in Process of Managing Target Account Selling.

To add a milestone

1. Navigate to the Opportunities screen, then the Opportunities List view.
2. Drill down on the Opportunity Name field of an opportunity record.
3. Click the Target Account Selling view tab.
4. In the lower link bar, click Customer Milestones.
5. In the Customer Milestones list, create a new record, and complete the following steps:
   1. In the Event field, select the type of event from the list.

      A set of suggested activities appears in the Our Activities list. You must save the type of event for the activities to appear.

   2. In the Description field, enter a description of the milestone event.
   3. In the Customer Responsibility field, select the customer contact who is the key contact and owner of the milestone event.

Repeat the procedure until you have entered all key milestone events. Review the recommended activities for each milestone before adding new milestones.

Adding Associated Activities to Each Milestone

Complete the following procedure to add associated activities to each milestone.

To add associated activities to each milestone

1. Create a customer milestone.
2. In the Our Activities list, add a new activity record and complete the fields as follows:
   1. In the Type field, choose the activity type from the list.
   2. In the Display In field, choose where you want the activity to appear.

      If you choose Calendar and Activity as the display method, you must enter a start date for the activity for it to appear in the calendar.

   3. In the Resources text field, describe the resources required to support the activity.
   4. If the activity is delegated, for example, from a manager to a member of the sales team, drill down on the Owner field, and query for the new owner in the Employees list.

      The default owner is the User ID of the activity creator.