This chapter covers the following topics:
Leads are designed to capture the initial contacts with potential customers, gathering just enough information to tell a sales organization if a lead merits more sales resources, should be set aside for a later date, or should be abandoned entirely.
You can use leads to gather information on products that interest a customer, budgets for the lead, contact names, time frame for the sale, tasks and notes.
The person creating a lead can assign it manually to a sales agent who becomes the lead owner, and can specify other agents to be on the sales team for the lead. Or the agent can let the Oracle Territory Manager module automatically assign an owner and a sales team to the lead.
Depending on the implementation, Oracle TeleSales can automatically assign leads to individual agents who become the lead owners and to whole sales teams. When individual agents create leads, they automatically become the lead owners and can assign the leads manually. Depending on the implementation, the assigned lead shows up on the work queue of the owner of the lead or the entire sales team. The agent can accept or refuse the lead assignment by displaying the lead in the Lead Center and clicking Accept or Decline.
The progress of a lead is tracked by its qualification flag and status.
The status of a lead and lead qualification provide methods of tracking lead progress. A lead must become qualified before it can be turned into an opportunity.
The agent must evaluate the likelihood of a particular lead turning into a sale and assign it a rank.
Lead rank tracks the desirability of the lead. Agents can select a value manually from the Lead Rank drop-down list or they can let the application assign the rank automatically by clicking the Rank button.
The application determines the quality of the lead by using the rules engines set up by the administrator.
Lead creators can either enable the territory assignment program to assign the leads to sales representatives automatically or choose the sales representatives manually. The sales representatives then turn the leads into new opportunities or link them to existing opportunities.
Use this procedure to create a lead for an organization or a consumer.
Prerequisites
Steps
In the View Details region, select the person, organization, or contact for the lead.
Note: When you create a lead for an organizational contact the lead is recorded for the organization and the contact is listed as the primary contact for the lead.
Select the Lead tab.
Click New.
Enter a name for the lead in the Lead Name text field. The name you enter later used as the name for any opportunity you create from this lead.
Enter a name for the project. This is the name used for the project in the opportunity you create from this lead.
Optionally, use the Primary Contact LOV to enter the individual who is the primary contact for this lead. For consumers, this field defaults to the name of the consumer.
If an organization has many locations, then enter a location for the lead.
If you entered a primary contact, then select a role for the contact using the Contact Role LOV.
If you entered the source code for the customer in the Overview tab, then the Source Code is populated. If you did not make the entry, then enter it now using the List of Values (LOV). If you do not know the source code name, then save your work and search for the source code using Universal Search.
Specify the sales channel, an approximate budge, currency code, and budget status.
Use the Time Frame LOV to enter a time frame in which you expect the lead to close.
Use the Lead Rank field to evaluate the desirability of the lead. If you leave the Lead Rank field blank, then the application ranks the lead based on the information you have entered. The ranking takes place after you save the lead.
If you want to leave the territory management program to automatically assign the lead to a member of the sales team, then leave the Lead Owner field blank. Make an entry only if you want to override the territory assignment program and assign this lead to an agent manually.
If the lead is qualified, then select the Qualified check box.
If you do not select the Qualified check box, the application checks to see if the lead is qualified using the Qualification Engine.
Optionally, enter lead purchase interests, including the quantity the customer wants to purchase and the purchase amount.
Click Save on the toolbar.
If you want to add other lead information, click Details to launch the Lead Center.
The status of the lead is New by default. You can choose to override the default designation by selecting a status of your own.
You cannot create a lead for an account.
A close reason is required only if you change the status of a lead to a status with a Closed flag.
Note: In some implementations, it might be possible for you to lose access to customer, lead, and opportunity records you create or modify. Changing a zip code on a customer address, for example, can cause the Territory Management module to reassign that customer to another sales territory. This can result in you losing access to that information. Make sure you select the Keep check box next to your name on the Sales Team tab in the Lead Center to override territory assignment and prevent this from happening.
Use this procedure to display a lead for an organization or a consumer in the eBusiness Center.
In this procedure you find your lead in a list of leads displayed in the Leads tab of the eBusiness Center. If you have a large number of leads to sort through or must search on leads using specific criteria, then search for a lead using the Universal Search Window.
Prerequisites
Steps
If you want to view leads for a consumer, then, in the View Details region, select the person's name.
If you want to view leads for an organization, then select the name of the organization.
If you want to view leads for an organization where the displayed contact is a contact for the leads, then select the name of the organization and the contact name.
Select the Lead tab.
If you want to view only open leads, then make sure the Display All check box is not selected.
If you want to view only leads where you are the owner, then select the Owner check box.
You can sort the leads in the table by any of the available fields by clicking on the field header.
Select the lead you want to view or modify from the list. The basic information about the lead appears on the right side of the tab.
If you want to view more details about the lead, then click Details to launch the Lead Center. If you want to open the details in a new window rather than using an existing Lead Center window, then select the Multiple Details check box before clicking Details.
You can display a lead in the Lead Center in a number of ways. These include:
Display the lead in the eBusiness Center first and then click Details to open the Lead Center.
Navigate to the lead from the opportunity summary in the Dashboard tab of the eBusiness Center.
Use this procedure to create a lead for an organization or a consumer in the Lead Center.
Steps
Navigate to the Lead Center
From the Party Type drop-down list choose either Organization or Person (consumer).
Use the Customer field List of Values to enter the organization or consumer name.
Optionally, use the Primary Contact List of Values (LOV) to enter the individual who is the primary contact for this lead. For consumers, this field defaults to the name of the consumer.
Optionally, enter a unique name in the Lead Name text field. The name you enter later used as the opportunity name for any opportunity you create from this lead.
Enter a name for the project. The name you enter later used as the project name for any opportunity you create from this lead.
Optionally, enter the address, status, source code, campaign offer, response channel, and sales channel.
Optionally, enter a currency amount in the Budget field and select a budget status using the Budget Status LOV.
Optionally, use the Time Frame LOV to select a time frame for closing the deal.
Use the Lead Rank field to evaluate the desirability of the lead. If you leave the Lead Rank field blank, then the application ranks the lead based on the information you have entered. The ranking takes place after you save the lead.
A lead can become qualified automatically using the Qualification Engine. If you want to qualify a lead manually, then select the Qualified box.
A close reason is required only if you change the status of a lead to closed.
If you want to assign this lead to someone in your sales team, then use the Lead Owner LOV to enter the name of the individual. The person becomes the owner of the lead and receives notification in the work queue of this assignment.
Click Save on the toolbar.
Use this procedure to enter a prospect's purchase interests and other details into an existing lead using the Lead Center.
Prerequisites
Steps
Navigate to the Lead Center.
On the Purchase Interest tab, use the Lists of Values (LOVs) to enter the customer's product interest. You can select the product description from among the multiple operating units you can access.
In the Contact tab, enter the contacts for the lead using the First Name LOV. The contacts must already exist in the database before you can add them here.
Note: If you are creating the lead for a contact at an organization, then that contact is automatically made the primary contact for the lead.
You can designate one contact as the primary contact by selecting the Primary check box.
On the Partner tab, use the Preferred Partner LOV to search for a partner. The search results enable you to view partner information including address, partner type, level, and certification level. Select a partner and click OK.
Save your changes.
Depending on you implementation , the lead engine will run automatically. If you want to see how the changes affect the lead quality, channel, or resource you can manually run the engine by choosing Run Lead Engine from the Actions menu.
Use this procedure to accept a lead assigned to you. When a lead is assigned to you, it automatically appears in your Universal Work Queue.
Steps
Display the lead in the Lead Center. You can do so by double clicking the lead name in the Universal Work Queue. For more details, see Accessing Leads Opportunities, and Other Work from Your Work Queue .
Select the Accepted check box.
Click Save on the toolbar.
Use this procedure to refuse a lead that has been assigned to you in error.
If the owner of a lead declines the lead, then the owner is removed from the sales team unless Keep is selected for the owner in the Sales Team tab.
Steps
Display the lead in the Lead Center by double clicking the lead name in the Universal Work Queue. For more details, see Accessing Leads, Opportunities, and Other Work from Your Work Queue.
Click Decline.
Use the Decline Reason List of Values to select the reason.
Click OK.
Use this procedure to assign a lead to someone else.
Prerequisites
Steps
If you want to leave the territory management program to automatically assign the lead to a member of the sales team, then delete any name from the Lead Owner field.
If you want to assign this lead to an agent manually, then use the Lead Owner field List of Values to enter an agent's name.
Click Save.
Use this procedure to manually add sales agents and partners to a lead sales team. You can add individuals or entire sales groups to your team with this procedure.
Adding someone to the sales team makes them able to view the lead and add notes and tasks. Giving an individual full access status by selecting the Full check box enables them to modify all aspects of the lead.
If your organization has implemented Oracle Territory Manager, then a sales team is assigned to the lead automatically. However you can use this procedure to override any automatic assignment by selecting the Keep check box.
Navigation
Navigator > Lead Center
Navigator > Universal Work Queue > Get Work for lead
Prerequisites
Steps
Select the Sales Team tab.
The tab lists the current sales team.
If your organization has set up the Oracle Territory Manager module, then the sales team is automatically assigned to the lead when you create it.
If you want to add the team members of an entire sales group, then:
Click Add Resource Team.
The Add Resource Team window appears.
Search for the sales team you want to add by entering its name or partial name in the Team Name and clicking Find. Use the % sign to substitute for any missing characters.
The sales teams that match your search criteria display in the Team Name column.
Select the sales team by positioning the cursor in the sales team information.
The names of the individuals on the sales team display.
If you want to provide the new team members with rights to modify lead information, then select the Provide Full Access check box.
Click OK.
The sales group sales team is added to the lead sales team. Each individual has the Keep check box selected. This means that their assignment cannot be overridden by the Territory Manager module.
If you want to add an individual sales team member, then on the Sales Team tab:
Use the Name List of Values to add the agent.
If you want this individual to have update privileges for this lead, then select the Full check box. All team members have view privileges.
If you want to keep this individual regardless of the assignment made by the Oracle Territory Manager module, then make sure the Keep check box is selected.
Click Save on the toolbar when you have completed adding agents.
Note: In some implementations, it is possible for you to lose access to customer, lead, and opportunity records you create or modify. Changing a zip code on a customer address, for example, can cause the Territory Management module to reassign that customer to another sales territory. To prevent reassignment, select the Keep check box next to your name on the Sales Team tab.
Use this procedure to view in the Lead Center opportunities that have been created from a lead.
Prerequisites
Steps
Select the Opportunity tab.
Any opportunities created from the lead are listed.
If you want to view an opportunity, then select the opportunity from the list and click Opportunity Center.
The Opportunity Center displays the details of the opportunity.
Use this procedure to qualify a lead. A lead must be qualified before it can be turned into an opportunity.
Prerequisites
Steps
A lead can become qualified automatically using the Qualification Engine.
If you want to qualify a lead manually, then select the Qualified box.
Click Save on the toolbar.
The Universal Work Queue displays a list of leads for quick navigation and update. There are two Universal Work Queue windows available, one with the queue listed on one side of the window, and the other with the choices in a cascading menu.
Steps
In the Select Items list or the Universal Work Queue nodes, highlight either My Leads (Owner) or My Leads (Sales Team). Optionally, you can select your choice and skip steps 2 and 3.
The next selection list appears.
Select one of the following options:
30 Days: Open leads created in the last 30 days
90 Days
6 Months
1 Year
All: All open leads
The next selection list appears.
Optionally, select a lead status.
The window displays a list of leads that match the selected criteria and displays related note history for any selected lead.
If you want to update a lead, then perform the following steps:
Select the lead and select your choice from the Action drop down list. If you select more than one lead, then some actions are not available.
Enter or select your changes.
Optionally, enter a note.
Click Apply.
Your changes are saved for one or more selected leads.
Optionally, double-click anywhere in a row to open the lead in the Lead Center.
The Update Lead region can be customized by your administrator, including adding actions to the Action drop down list.