3Managing Sales (Dealer)
Managing Sales (Dealer)
This chapter covers special features of Siebel Dealer that are available only to dealers to help dealers manage sales. It includes the following topics:
About Siebel Dealer Dashboard
Siebel Dealer allows the OEM to collaborate with dealers on sales. For more information, see Sales, Service, and Marketing with Siebel Dealer.
Siebel Dealer provides dealer employees with dashboards that allow them to view the most important information that they need for their work on one screen.
The following dashboards are available:
Sales Consultant Dashboard. Includes actual and goal unit sales, today’s activities, my calendar, current opportunities, and my promotions.
Sales Manager Dashboard. Includes actual and goal unit sales for team, today’s activities, my calendar, current opportunities, team’s promotions, and team’s calendar.
Service Employee Dashboard. Includes today’s activities, my calendar, my promotions, and current service requests.
Service Manager Dashboard. Includes today’s activities, my calendar, store promotions, and current service requests for team.
Store Dashboard. Includes actual and goal unit sales for store, today’s activities, my calendar, current opportunities, team’s promotions, and team’s calendar. To be used by the store general manager.
Some of the applets on the dashboards display daily data, and some display monthly data. In addition, the calendar can display data for the day, week, or month.
Daily data. The following applets display data for the current day:
Today’s Activities. Displays all of the employee’s activities for the current day. The first column lists activities that have a due date of today and are not done. The second column lists activities that have a due date of before today and are not done; it continues to display past-due activities for the number of days defined in Dealer Preference view, as described in Entering Dealer Preferences (Dealer).
Note: The Today’s Activities only displays certain types of activities, as described in Changing Types of Activities Displayed in the Dealer Dashboard.Current Opportunities. Displays all current opportunities for this consultant where there is no activity or there has been activity in the last 15 days. This is based on the value in the Last Activity Date in the Opportunity view of the Contacts screen. Whenever you make any change to an opportunity, this field is updated.
My Promotions, Team’s Promotions, or Store Promotions. Displays all promotions that are active on the current day. Promotions are displayed if their campaign is not completed, and the creation date is within 30 days of today’s date, and today is between the start date and end date of the campaign.
Team’s Calendar (Today). Available to sales managers and store manager only. Gives the managers a view of the calendars of all their reports for the current day. The manager can also click the arrows to view their reports’ calendars for previous or later days.
Monthly data. The following applet displays data for the current month:
Unit Sales. Displays the actual sales and sales goals for the current month for fleet, new retail and used retail sales. On the sales consultant dashboard, it displays the actual sales and sales goals for that individual sales consultant. On the sales manager dashboard, it displays the actual sales and sales goals for the manager’s team. All these sales goals are based on the monthly forecast, described in Process of Creating the Monthly Forecast (Dealer). Actual data is based on the Service History view.
Calendar. Provides a complete calendar for creating and tracking appointments and other activities. Employees can display and use a daily, weekly, or monthly calendar.
Using Siebel Dealer Dashboards (Dealer)
This topic describes how to use Siebel Dealer dashboards.
To use Dealer dashboards
Navigate to the Dashboard screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select:
Sales Consultant Dashboard
Sales Manager Dashboard
Service Employee Dashboard
Service Manager Dashboard
Store Dashboard
Note: Employees can only select the view that is appropriate to them. For example, a sales consultant does not have the sales manager view available.The dashboards display the most important information needed by these employees, in summary form.
Sales managers can refresh the data in the dashboard by clicking Refresh. Sales consultants’ data is refreshed periodically, based on the refresh interval set in Dealer Preference view, as described in Entering Dealer Preferences (Dealer).
The Update field in the Unit Sales and Activities applets shows the last time that the data was refreshed.
To view more complete information, click the heading that appears before any of the applets in the dashboard.
The appropriate screen appears, with more complete information.
Entering Dealer Preferences (Dealer)
Dealers can specify preferences to control features of Siebel Dealer behavior, such as how long a trade in evaluation remains valid and how frequently the dashboard refreshes.
To enter dealer business preferences
Navigate to the Dealer Preference screen.
In the Dealer Preference form, select values for the fields, as described in the following table.
| Field | Comments |
|---|---|
Trade In Evaluations Valid For |
Enter the number of days that a trade-in evaluation remains valid. The default is 30 days. The value you enter here controls the value in the # of Valid Evaluations field of the Opportunity record. For example, if a sales consultant does a trade-in evaluation today and evaluations are valid for 30 days, # of valid evaluations will include this evaluation for the next 30 days. |
Dashboard Activity History |
Enter the number of days that activities remain in the dashboard history. Activities in the dashboard disappear a specified number of days after their due date, depending on the value you enter here. |
Dashboard Activity Refresh Interval |
Enter a number of hours to specify how frequently dashboard activities will refresh. To refresh more frequently than once an hour, enter a decimal, such as .5. This prevents overloading because of constant refreshes. |
Dashboard Unit Sales Refresh Interval |
Enter a number of hours to specify how frequently dashboard unit sales will refresh. To refresh more frequently than once an hour, enter a decimal, such as .5. |
Period Type |
Specify the period used in forecasts. For more information, see Creating the Framework for Yearly and Monthly Forecasts (Dealer). |
Split Deals for Sales Consultants |
Select this check box to specify whether the deal is split. If a deal is not split, all the employees in the Sales History view will be fully credited for the deal. For example, if employee A and B both work on the sale of a given product, then both would be considered full contributors for the sale of that product. If a deal is split, the employees in the sales history will be credited according to a preset weight. For example, if the weight specifies that the sales can be split among all the contributors equally, both A and B would be considered a part-time contributor and would have one-half of the sale credited to their records. The weight does not show up in the Siebel Dealer user interface. It is designed to be included in the data imported from the third-party application.
Note: If no weight value is available but the split flag is checked, the default weight is 0, and none of the employees is credited.
|
Remove assigned Sales Consultant when assigning new Sales Consultant to Opportunity and Contacts |
Select this check box if you want the current sales consultant to be removed from an opportunity and contact when they are assigned to a new sales consultant. |
Process of Creating the Yearly Forecast (Dealer)
At the end of the year, the dealership’s general manager usually consults with sales managers to create the store yearly forecast for the next year.
Siebel Dealer automates this consultation process. The sales managers enter their yearly forecasts in Siebel Dealer, and the general manager uses these to create the store yearly forecast.
To create the yearly forecast, the dealer goes through the following steps:
Creating the Framework for Monthly and Yearly Forecasts (Dealer)
Before doing forecasts, the general manager of the dealership creates the framework for the forecasts by specifying:
Periods. By default, sales consultants and managers enter their estimated sales for each month, but you can also choose a different period.
Employees. You must specify which employees will be included in the store yearly forecast and the store monthly forecasts for the next year. This option only applies at the store level; all sales consultants will be included in the sales manager’s monthly forecasts and will have sales goals generated, even if they are not included in the store forecast.
This task is a step in Process of Creating the Yearly Forecast (Dealer).
The general manager can create the frameworks for the yearly and monthly forecast at different times, but it is most common to create both at the same time, at the end of the year when the general manager is planning for the next year. This most common practice is described here.
To select the period for yearly and monthly forecasts
Navigate to the Dealer Preference screen.
In the Period field, select the period you want to use.
You might want to specify which employees are included in the store yearly and store monthly forecasts.
To specify which employees are included in the store yearly and store monthly forecasts
Navigate to the Dealer Preference screen.
In the link bar, click Employee Yearly and Monthly Forecast Admin.
The Employee Yearly and Monthly Forecast Admin list appears. It includes all the employees in the store.
In the Employee Yearly and Monthly Forecast Admin list:
Select the Part of Store Yearly Forecast field to include an employee in the yearly forecast.
Select the Part of Store Monthly Forecast field to include an employee in the monthly forecast.
Repeat Step 3 for all the employees who will be included in the yearly forecast and monthly forecasts.
Creating the Sales Manager’s Yearly Forecast (Dealer)
After the general manager has created the framework for the yearly forecasting process, the general sales manager tells the sales managers to add their estimated figures for the next year’s sales forecast.
The sales managers or the employees that they choose to enter the forecast go to the Manager’s Yearly Forecast view of the Yearly Forecast screen, and they enter the figures for each period.
This task is a step in Process of Creating the Yearly Forecast (Dealer).
To create the sales manager’s yearly forecast
Navigate to the Yearly Forecast screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select Manager’s Yearly Forecast.
Click Create All Periods for Year.
In the Yearly Forecast list, all the periods for the year appear.
In a record in the Yearly Forecast list, in the Retail New, Retail Used, and Fleet fields of that record, enter an estimate of the sales of the sales manager’s reports for that period.
Retail New is forecasted retail sales of new vehicles. Retail used is forecasted retail sales of used vehicles. Fleet is forecasted sales of vehicles to fleets.
Repeat Step 4 to add an estimate of sales for every period in the yearly forecast.
Creating the Store Yearly Forecast (Dealer)
After all the sales managers have entered their forecasts for the year, the dealership’s general manager can create the store yearly forecast on the basis of the sales manager’s forecasts.
The general manager can use the Store Yearly Forecast view of the Yearly Forecast screen to look at the total yearly forecast for the store for each period, which is the sum of all the sales managers’ yearly forecasts. The general manager can also use this screen to look at each sales managers’ yearly forecast for each period. Employees records will appear only if they have been included as part of the store yearly forecast.
The general manager might want to adjust the yearly forecast for each period. For example, the sales managers might have been too optimistic, and given economic conditions, the general manager might think it is more realistic to set a lower store yearly forecast than the store yearly forecast based on the sales managers’ yearly forecasts.
If the sales managers have not all entered their forecasts, the general manager can add records and enter forecasts for those sales managers.
This task is a step in Process of Creating the Yearly Forecast (Dealer).
To add sales managers’ forecasts to the store forecast
Navigate to the Yearly Forecast screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select Store’s Yearly Forecast.
In the Yearly Forecast list, select the record for the coming period, and scroll down to view the Sales Manager’s Monthly Forecast list.
If all the sales managers’ forecasts are not listed there, you can add records for individual sales managers or for all sales managers.
In the Sales Managers Yearly Forecast list, from the menu, select Add Employee and use the dialog box to add individual sales managers.
In the Sales Managers Yearly Forecast list, from the menu, select Add All Employees to add all sales managers who are not already on the list.
Records for sales managers are created with zero values.
For any sales managers that have been added to the list, enter values in the Yearly Forecast Retail New, Yearly Forecast Retail Used, and Yearly Forecast Fleet fields.
You might want to create a store yearly forecast.
To create the store yearly forecast
Navigate to the Yearly Forecast screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select Store’s Yearly Forecast.
In the Yearly Forecast list, there are records for all the periods in the yearly forecast, with new, used, and fleet sales figures that are the sum of all the sales managers’ yearly forecasts for that period.
Select a record in the Yearly Forecast list and scroll down to view the Sales Manager’s Yearly Forecast list, which includes all the sales managers’ yearly forecasts for that period.
If the general manager thinks the sales managers’ estimates are not accurate, the general manager adjusts the forecast for the store by editing the New, Used, and Fleet fields for that period.
Click Roll-Up.
The yearly forecast appears.
To create a store forecast for every period in the yearly forecast, repeat Steps 3, 4, and 5.
Displaying the Store Yearly Forecast (Dealer)
After the process of creating the store yearly forecast is complete, dealers can view it by going to the yearly forecast screen. The sales manager can view the manager yearly forecast, and the general manager can view the store yearly forecast.
This task is a step in Process of Creating the Yearly Forecast (Dealer).
To display the store yearly forecast
Navigate to the Yearly Forecast screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select Manager’s Yearly Forecast or select Store’s Yearly Forecast.
Process of Creating the Monthly Forecast (Dealer)
At the end of the each month, the dealership’s general manager usually consults with sales managers and sales managers consult with sales consultants to create the sales forecast for the next month. These forecasts are the sales goals for the store and the sales goal for each consultant for the month.
Siebel Dealer automates this consultation process. The sales consultants enter their forecasts in Siebel Dealer, and the sales managers use these to create their forecasts. Then the general manager uses the sales managers’ forecasts to create the store forecast.
The process of creating monthly forecasts is similar to the process of creating yearly forecasts, except that:
Monthly forecasts are done once a month, and yearly forecasts are done once a year.
Monthly forecasts begin with sales consultant forecasts, which are used as the basis of the sales managers’ forecasts and the store forecasts. Yearly Forecasts begin with sales managers’ forecasts, which are used as the basis of the store forecast.
To create the monthly forecast, the dealer goes through the following steps:
Creating the Framework for Yearly and Monthly Forecasts (Dealer)
Before monthly forecasts can be created, the general manager of the dealership specifies what period will be used and which employees will be included in the store yearly forecast and the store monthly forecasts for the next year.
This is usually done at the beginning of each year for both yearly forecasts and monthly forecasts. It is described in detail in the discussion of creating yearly forecasts in Creating the Framework for Monthly and Yearly Forecasts (Dealer).
This task is a step in Process of Creating the Monthly Forecast (Dealer).
Creating Sales Consultants’ Monthly Forecasts (Dealer)
At the end of each period, when it is time for forecasting for the next period to begin, the first step is for the sales consultants to create their forecasts. They enter their goal for projected sales for the coming month.
This task is a step in Process of Creating the Monthly Forecast (Dealer).
To create a sales consultant’s forecast
Navigate to the Monthly Forecast screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select My Monthly Forecast.
Click Create One New Period.
In the Monthly Forecast list, a record is added for the next period.
In the Retail New, Retail Used, and Fleet fields of the new record, enter an estimate of sales for that period.
Creating Sales Managers’ Monthly Forecasts (Dealer)
After the sales consultants who report to a sales managers have entered their forecasts, the sales manager can create a forecast on the basis of the sales consultant’s forecasts.
Sales managers look at their reports’ forecasts. The default forecast for the sales manager is the sum of all the reports’ forecasts. The sales manager can adjust this forecast to set a more realistic forecast for the month.
If any sales consultant has not entered a monthly forecast, the sales manager can add a record and enter forecast figures for that employee.
This task is a step in Process of Creating the Monthly Forecast (Dealer).
To add sales consultants’ forecasts
Navigate to the Monthly Forecast screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select Manager’s Monthly Forecast.
In the Monthly Forecast list, select the record for the coming period, and scroll down to view the Sales Consultant’s Monthly Forecast list, which includes the forecasts for that month of all the sales consultants who report to this sales manager.
If a sales consultant has not created a forecast, there will be no record for that sales consultant.
If all the sales manager’s reports are not listed there, click Add All Employees Who Report To Me.
If any employee has not created a record, a record for that employee is created with zero values.
For any sales consultants who have been added to the list, enter values in the Monthly Forecast Retail New, Monthly Forecast Retail Used, and Monthly Forecast Fleet fields.
You might want to create a sales manager’s forecast.
To create a sales manager’s forecast
Navigate to the Monthly Forecast screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select Manager’s Monthly Forecast.
In the Monthly Forecast list, select the record for the coming period, and scroll down to view the Sales Consultant’s Monthly Forecast list, which includes the forecasts for that month of all the sales consultants who report to this sales manager.
If the sales manager thinks the sales consultants’ estimates are not accurate, the sales manager adjusts the monthly forecast for that period:
In the Monthly Forecast list, the record for that period will already be selected.
Change the values in the Monthly Forecast Retail New, Monthly Forecast Retail Used, and Monthly Forecast Fleet fields.
Click Roll-Up
The monthly forecast appears.
Creating the Store Monthly Forecast (Dealer)
After all the sales managers have entered their forecasts, the dealership’s general manager can create the store forecast on the basis of the sales manager’s forecasts.
The Forecast screen, Store Forecast view allows the general manager to look at the total forecast for the store for each month, which is the sum of all the sales managers’ forecasts. Sales managers forecasts will be shown here only if they have been marked as part of store monthly forecast in Employee Yearly and Monthly Forecast Admin view. The sales manager can adjust this forecast to set a more realistic forecast for the month.
This task is a step in Process of Creating the Monthly Forecast (Dealer).
To create the store forecast
Navigate to the Monthly Forecast screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select Store’s Monthly Forecast.
In the Store’s Monthly Forecast list, select the record for the coming month and scroll down to view the Sales Managers Forecast list.
If the general manager thinks the sales managers’ estimates are not accurate, the general manager adjusts the monthly forecast for the store:
In the Monthly Forecast list, the record for that period will already be selected.
Change the values in the Monthly Forecast Retail New, Monthly Forecast Retail Used, and Monthly Forecast Fleet fields.
Click Roll-Up.
The monthly forecast appears.
Displaying the Monthly Forecast (Dealer)
Sales consultants and sales managers can view their own forecasts on the Siebel Dealer Dashboard. The dashboard automatically displays the forecast information for the current month of the current year. For more information about using the dashboard, see Using Siebel Dealer Dashboards (Dealer).
This task is a step in Process of Creating the Monthly Forecast (Dealer).
Process of Creating and Using Sales Steps (Dealer)
To guide the sales process, each dealership can create a list of standard sales steps that sales consultants perform to work on each opportunity. The dealership can calculate sales step goals, based on the monthly forecast. The sales consultants view these sales steps by navigating to the Contacts screen, Opportunities, and then the Sales Steps view. When the sales consultants finish each step, they click Done, which automatically fills in the current date and creates an Activity record of the type Sales Step, to let managers track which sales step each employee has completed.
Sales consultants can see which sales steps have already been completed for an opportunity.
Dealers have the option of creating and using sales steps, but it is not mandatory.
To create and use sales steps, dealers perform the following steps:
Creating Sales Steps (Dealer)
Each dealership defines its own sales steps, to be used by its sales consultants. The general manager can plan the sales strategy and design the needed sales steps. Then the sales steps are entered in Siebel Dealer’s Sales Step Administration screen.
This task is a step in Process of Creating and Using Sales Steps (Dealer).
To create sales steps
Navigate to the Dealer Preference screen.
In the link bar, click Sales Step Administration.
Add a new record to the Sales Step Administration list and complete the necessary fields, as described in the following table.
Field Comments Name
Enter a name for the sales step, which will be the name that appears in the sales consultant’s Sales Step list.
Order
Enter the order in which this step will appear in the sales consultant’s Sales Step list.
Active
This check box is selected by default. You can deselect it to deactivate this step, so it does not appear in the sales consultant’s Sales Step list.
Continue to add records with this information until all of the sales steps have been added.
Creating Sales Step Goals (Dealer)
Dealers can calculate sales step goals for sales consultants, based on the monthly forecast. The monthly forecast projects total sales for the sales consultant for this period. The sales step goals use this forecast as the basis of a daily work plan, which gives the sales consultant a detailed list of sales steps that she wants to accomplish each day.
The sales managers create sales step goals for their sales teams at the beginning of each period. It is usually the beginning of each month, but you might use different periods.
To create sales step goals for your sales team
Navigate to the Sales Step Goals screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select My Team’s Sales Step Goals.
In the Sales Step Goals list, in the Period drop-down list, select the period that you are generating goals for.
In the Employees list, select the records of the employees whose sales step goals you want to create.
Click Create Sales Steps for Selected Employees.
The goals are generated and appear in the Sales Step Goals list.
For each employee, for key goals, enter a value in the Close Ratio field.
For example, a demonstration drive is a key goal, because it is closely connected to sales. If you estimate that sales consultants will sell one vehicle for every five demonstration drives they give, enter a close ratio of 20% for the demonstration drive sales steps. This allows the Siebel application to calculate how many times demonstration drives sales consultants will have to give each day in order to meet their monthly sales goal, in order to create the sales consultants’ daily work plan.
Displaying Daily Sales Step Goals (Dealer)
After the sales manager creates the goals, the sales consultants can view their own goals. When a dealer marks a sales step as done during the sales process, this sales step goals list is updated to record how many sales steps have been completed, so the sales consultants can look at their sales step goals lists regularly in order to check how their actual performance compares with their goals.
Sales consultants can also print out a report with their daily goals, so they have a written plan of their tasks for the day. Alternatively, sales managers can print out reports of daily goals for each of their sales consultants and can give these printed reports to the sales consultants each day.
To display your own sales step goals
Navigate to the Sales Step Goals screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select My Sales Step Goals.
View your goals in the Sales Step Goals list. The list includes the fields described in the following table.
Field Comments Sales Steps
Displays the sales step that this record applies to.
Period
Displays the period that this record applies to.
Monthly Forecast (Retail New)
Displays the monthly forecast for new retail vehicle sales for this employee for this period.
Monthly Forecast (Retail Used)
Displays the monthly forecast for used retail vehicle sales for this employee for this period.
Sales Step Monthly Goal (Retail New)
Displays the goal for this sales step for new retail vehicle sales for this employee for this period.
Actual (Retail New)
Displays the actual number of times this employee has performed this sales step for new retail vehicle sales for this employee for this period. This number of times that the employee has marked the sales step as completed for opportunities that have type retail new.
Sales Step Monthly Goal (Retail Used)
Displays the goal for this sales step for new retail vehicle sales for this employee for this period.
Actual (Retail Used)
Displays the actual number of times this employee has performed this sales step for new retail vehicle sales for this employee for this period. This number of times that the employee has marked the sales step as completed for opportunities that have type retail used.
You might want to print your own sales step goals.
To print your own sales step goals
Navigate to the Sales Step Goals screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select My Sales Step Goals.
From the Reports menu, select Daily Work Plan Report.
Use the report window to print the daily work plan.
You might want to print your team’s sales step goals.
To print your team’s sales step goals
Navigate to the Sales Step Goals screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select My Team’s Sales Step Goals.
In the Employee’s list, select one of your team members.
From the Reports menu, select Daily Work Plan Report.
Use the report window to print the daily work plan for that team member.
Using Sales Steps (Dealer)
Sales steps are used in two ways:
Sales consultants use them as a work plan, going through the sales steps in order to work each opportunity.
While sales consultants are working opportunities, when they complete each step, they mark that it is completed. When they complete the sales step, an activity is created in the Activities screen, recording the sales step. This allows the Siebel application to track their progress to their goal and to generate the appropriate sales steps for the next day’s work plan.
Dealer sales consultants use the Contact screen to mark sales steps as completed.
This task is a step in Process of Creating and Using Sales Steps (Dealer).
To use sales steps
Navigate to the Contacts screen.
In the Contacts list, select the customer.
Click the Opportunities view tab.
In the Opportunities list, select the opportunity that is being worked on.
Under the Opportunities form, click the Sales Steps view tab.
The Sales Step list appears, with all the steps that were defined in the Sales Step Administration screen.
In the record for the sales step that has just been completed, select the Completed check box.
The current date is automatically entered in the Date field, the sales consultant’s login name is automatically entered in the Sales Consultant field, and an Activity record is automatically created recording this sales step.
Tracking Sales Steps (Dealer)
Because an Activity record is created whenever a sales consultant completes a sales step, the sales manager can track the work of their sales consultants by displaying these activities.
This task is a step in Process of Creating and Using Sales Steps (Dealer).
To track sales steps
Navigates to the Activities screen, My Team’s Activities view.
Create a query to display all Activity records that have a sales consultant’s login name in the Employee field and Sales Step in the Type field.
The sales steps that this sales consultant has completed appear.
Process of Using the Showroom Log (Dealer)
The showroom log allows dealers to capture information about walk-in customers and customers contacting the retailer through phone, email, or the Web. It allows the dealer to record the customer's profile information, identify the purpose of the customer’s visit or call (sales, service, or parts), and identify the customer's vehicle preferences, so customers can be assigned to the appropriate sales, service, or parts personnel.
This topic illustrates one typical use of the showroom log. In dealerships, prospective customers can talk to the receptionist when they arrive at the store, or they might talk to the sales manager or to another dealer employee.
The receptionist can use the showroom log to enter information about customers and their vehicle preferences. This information is automatically used to create an Contact record and an associated Opportunity record for the customer.
Then, when a sales consultant is available, the receptionist uses the showroom log to assign the customer to this representative.
After the customer has been assigned, the sales consultant can find the information about this customer in the My Contacts screen, and can use this screen to work with the customer using all the information that the representative has captured in the showroom log.
To work with customers, dealers can perform the following steps:
Entering Information About a New Customer in the Showroom Log (Dealer)
When prospective customers enter a dealership, they typically talk to the receptionist first. By filling out the fields in the showroom log, the receptionist enters the key information that the sales consultant will need to work with the customer.
While filling out the showroom log, the receptionist selects a sales consultant in the Employee field to assign the customer to this employee. The receptionist chooses a sales consultant who is available or will soon become available to work with new customers.
This task is a step in Process of Using the Showroom Log (Dealer).
If a new contact is entered, the information entered in the showroom log automatically generates a Contact record and an associated Opportunity record, which have this employee as the primary owner.
To enter information about the customer
Navigate to the Showroom Log screen.
Add a new record to the Showroom Log list, and complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.
Field Comments Employee
Select the sales consultant who will be the primary owner of this contact and opportunity.
Last Name
If this is an existing contact, select the contact. If this is a new contact, enter the last name and other information about the contact in the Contact area of the More Info form.
Campaign
If you select a campaign here before creating a new contact from the showroom log, the opportunity for that contact will automatically have this campaign entered in its Campaign field. You can choose from all campaigns associated with the dealer organization.
Opportunity
If this is an existing contact, select the opportunity. If this is a new contact, a new opportunity record is generated automatically.
Working with a New Customer (Dealer)
Now information about this customer is available to the sales consultant in the Contacts screens. The sales consultant uses this screen to work with the customer, for example, by entering activities or by sending the customer a letter or email. The sales consultant can also work with the customer using sales steps and printing forms, as described in the following topics.
This task is a step in Process of Using the Showroom Log (Dealer).
To work with the customer
Navigate to the Contacts screen, My Contacts view.
In the Contacts list, select the record for this customer, and read information about this customer in the record and the More Info form.
Clicks the Opportunity view tab to read more information about this opportunity.
Select the Opportunity record.
The fourth-level navigation appears under the Opportunity form.
Use the fourth-level navigation to enter the buyer and cobuyer, to use sales steps, to enter activities, to capture trade-in information, to enter information about the vehicles that were shown to the customer, and to print forms.
Entering Opportunities (Dealer)
In Siebel Dealer, the Opportunity record includes added fields that allow the dealer to enter information that is specific to the automotive industry.
The fields covered here are available in addition to the fields in the Opportunity records of other Siebel Business Applications. For more information about working with opportunities, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.
To enter an opportunity
Navigate to the Opportunities screen.
Add a new record to the Opportunity list, and complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.
Field Comments Target Purchase Horizon
Select the time frame when the customer plans to buy the vehicle. The options are 0 to 3 months, 3 to 6 months, 6 to 9 months, and more than 9 months.
Monthly Budget
Enter the amount that the customer is willing to spend each month on vehicle payments.
Qualification Level
Select a number from one to six to represent the quality of an opportunity.
Purchase horizon start
Enter the date when the purchase horizon starts. For example, if you selected 0 to 3 months as the purchase horizon, enter today’s date, and if you selected 3 to 6 months as the purchase horizon, enter the date three months from today.
Purchase Horizon End
Enter the date when the purchase horizon ends.
Lead Partner
Select the lead partner on the opportunity.
Assigning Unassigned Opportunities (Dealer)
In addition to the walk-in customers who are entered in the showroom log, there might be other opportunities displayed in the Unassigned Opportunities screen, which the dealer receptionist or some other dealer employee can assign to sales consultants.
The Unassigned Opportunities screen does not display opportunities entered in the showroom log. It displays other opportunities that do not have an assigned sales consultant. For example, it can display Internet leads which were imported from other sources, so they do not have assigned sales consultants.
When an opportunity is assigned, the contacts for that opportunity also are automatically assigned to the sales consultant.
This task is a step in Process of Using the Showroom Log (Dealer).
To assign an unassigned opportunity to a sales consultant
Navigate to the Unassigned Opportunities screen.
In the Unassigned Opportunities Log list, select the opportunity of the next customer.
Click Assign.
In the Pick Position dialog box, select a sales consultant and click OK.
Entering Vehicles Presented (Dealer)
During the sales process, a sales consultant might show several vehicles to the customer. As sales consultants show vehicles to customers, they can enter the vehicles that they have shown each customer. Recording the vehicles that were shown and were finally chosen by customers to buy is important to understanding customers’ choices.
To enter vehicles shown to a contact
Navigate to the Contacts screen.
Click the name of the contact for this opportunity.
The Opportunity form appears after the contact.
On the Opportunity form, click the Vehicles Presented view tab.
Add a new record to the Vehicles Presented list and complete the necessary fields. Some fields are described in the following table.
Field Comments VIN
Select the vehicle identification number. This picklist displays vehicles that are in the dealer’s organization and have the status of available.
Quoted Price
Enter the price quoted to the customer.
Selected
Select this check box if the customer buys this vehicle.
Displaying Others Who Have Accessed a Contact (Dealer)
Dealers must allow sales consultants to talk with the contacts of other sales consultants, in case the primary sales consultant for the contact is on leave or out of the store for some other reason. However, the primary sales consultant for a contact can view an audit trail of all other sales consultants who have accessed their contacts, to make sure that they do not lose those contacts to the other sales consultants.
When dealers click the search icon to search for a contact, they have the option of searching for my contacts or for all contacts. If sales consultants search for all contacts and click on a name in the search results to view information about a contact whose sales team the sales consultant is not on, Siebel Dealer allows the primary sales consultant for the contact to see in the audit trail that these other sales consultants have viewed information about the contact.
Primary sales consultants can view everyone not on the sales team who has done a search and displayed information about their contacts.
To display others who have displayed information about your contacts
Navigate to the Others Accessing My Customer screen.
The Others Accessing My Customer list appears. Each record includes the name of one of your customers, the name of another sales consultant who has accessed that customer, and the access date.
Reassigning Contacts and Opportunities (Dealer)
You can reassign a sales consultant’s contacts or opportunities.
The option you select in the Dealer Preferences screen determines whether the old sales consultant is removed from the team when you reassign contacts or opportunities to a new sales consultant. For more information, see Entering Dealer Preferences (Dealer).
Reassigning Contacts
Typically, contacts are reassigned when a sales consultant leaves a dealership.
The Reassign screen allows you to reassign all contacts where the sales consultant was the primary sales consultant for the contact. You can select multiple contacts and reassign all of them by clicking Reassign.
When you reassign contacts, opportunities and activities associated with the contacts are automatically reassigned also, if the sales consultant was the primary sales consultant for the opportunity, the contact was the primary contact for the opportunity, and the opportunity is not closed out.
To reassign a sales consultant’s contacts
Navigate to the Reassign screen.
In the Reassign Contacts list, select the sales consultant whose contacts you want to reassign.
In the lower list, select one or more contacts and click Reassign.
In the dialog box, select the employee you want to reassign the contacts to, and click OK.
Reassigning Opportunities (Dealer)
Typically, opportunities can be reassigned when a large number of opportunities have been developed as a result of a promotion.
The Reassign screen allows you to reassign opportunities in bulk. When you reassign opportunities, activities associated with the opportunities are automatically reassigned also.
To reassign a sales consultant’s opportunities
Navigate to the Reassign screen.
In the Show drop-down list, select Reassign Opportunities.
In the Reassign Opportunities list, select the sales consultant whose opportunities you want to reassign.
In the lower list, all opportunities appear that have the chosen sales consultant as the primary on the sales team.
In the lower list, select one or more opportunities and click Reassign.
In the dialog box, select the employee you want to reassign the opportunity to, and click OK.
Process of Printing Forms for Vehicle Sales (Dealer)
While sales consultants are working on a sale, they can use Siebel Dealer to capture credit information and print forms such as the buyer's worksheet, the trade-in appraisal form, and the credit appraisal form.
To create and print forms, dealers use the following steps:
Creating Forms (Dealer)
A dealer administrator can create templates that will be used as the basis of forms. After the managers define these templates, they will automatically be filled out with detail information about the current customer for the sales consultant to print out.
This task is a step in Process of Printing Forms for Vehicle Sales (Dealer).
These forms are created in the same way as Siebel Proposals, and the process is described in detail in the topic about proposals in Siebel Applications Administration Guide.
The general process is:
Create a Proposal Field Mapping Record. The dealer manager uses the Document Administration screen to create a mapping that specifies which fields from the Siebel database will be inserted in the Siebel Proposal. This allows the form to be automatically filled out with information about the customer.
In Dealer, navigate to the Proposal Field Mapping view of the Document Administration screen.
Create a new record with Business Object = Contact.
Create a new record with Business Component = Opportunity.
Create new bookmarks associating these with the fields in the Opportunity Business component. For example, associate LastName with the Contact Last Name field.
Create a Form. In Siebel Dealer, navigate to the Forms view of the Document Administration screen to create the form and to associate it with this mapping. This view is used in the same way as the Proposal Templates view, described in Siebel Applications Administration Guide. The Form record must have the following values:
The Name field must have a name that includes a substring identifying the type of form it is. For example, the name might include WorkSheet for the Buyer-WorkSheet Form, TradeIn for the Trade-In Form, and CreditApplication for the Credit Application Form.
The DefaultFlag field must be checked.
The Form Type field will be used by sales consultants to sort the forms. For example, a dealer might have several forms for trade-in evaluation. Enter Trade-In in the Form Type field when you create the form, and sales consultants will be able to select this form type to display all trade-in evaluation forms. You can create any form types that you want. The most common are:
Buyers Worksheet. Information about the customer that can be carried over to the finance manager for closing the lead.
Trade-In Form. Information to determine the trade-in value of the customer’s current car.
Credit Application. Information needed to give the customer credit.
The file must be attached to the appropriate file system.
The Mapping field must contain the Mapping record name created in the previous step.
For more detailed information, see the topic about proposals in Siebel Applications Administration Guide.
Printing Forms (Dealer)
While working on an opportunity, the sales consultant prints out necessary forms.
To print forms
Navigate to the Contacts screen.
In the Contacts list, select the customer.
Click the Opportunities view tab.
In the Opportunities list, select the opportunity that is being worked on.
Under the Opportunities form, click the Forms view tab.
In the Forms list, in the Form Type field, select the type of form you want to produce.
All forms of this type appear.
In the Forms list, click the Draft Name of a form.
The form appears in the application that was used to create it. For example, it might appear as a Microsoft Word document.
Print out the form using the application that was used to create it.
Generating Follow-Up Communications (Dealer)
The Employee and Customer Communication Rules Administration screen allows each dealership to create rules which automatically notify customers or sales consultants when certain conditions are met. The screen allows dealers to create the following types of rules:
Lease Expiry Rule. This rule allows the dealer to contact the customer when a lease is about to expire. The dealer enters the number of days before expiration of the lease when this rule will run. If the dealer selects the Send Email to Customer check box, the rule sends an email to warn the customer that the lease will expire, unless the customer has specified not to send email. This email is based on a template that is built into Siebel Dealer, and it is personalized with information about the customer. If the dealer selects the Schedule Call for Sales Consultant check box, the rule creates an activity for the primary sales consultant for this customer, to contact the customer about the lease expiration. This rule only runs for opportunities whose sales stage is delivered.
No Activity After Sales Stage Rule. This rule allows the dealer to contact the customer if the customer is not continuing the sales process. If there has been no activity for the specified number of days after an opportunity’s sales stage has changed, this rule creates an activity for the sales consultant, with the type No Activity and with a link to the opportunity. The dealer enters the number of days and checks the Notify Sales Consultant check box. This rule does not run for opportunities whose sales stage is delivered.
Vehicle Sales Anniversary Rule. This rule allows the dealer to contact the customer one year after the car has been delivered. This runs one year after the sales stage becomes delivered. If the dealer selects the Send Email to Customer check box, the rule sends an email to the customer which is based on a template that is built into Siebel Dealer and which is personalized with information about the customer. If the dealer selects the Schedule Call for Sales Consultant check box, the rule creates an activity for the primary sales consultant for this customer, to contact the customer.
Vehicle Sales Follow-up Rule. This rule allows the dealer to contact the customer at any time interval after the sales stage becomes delivered. The dealer enters the number of days after vehicle sale when the rule will run. If the dealer selects the Send Email to Customer check box, the rule sends an email to the customer which is based on a template that is built into Siebel Dealer and which is personalized with information about the customer. If the dealer selects the Schedule Call for Sales Consultant check box, the rule creates an activity for the primary sales consultant for this customer, to contact the customer.
These rules apply only to the dealership where they are created.
To create rules for contacting customers
Navigate to the Dealer Preference screen.
In the link bar, click Communication preferences.
Click the Lease Expiry Rule view tab, and enter values for the fields, as described in the following table.
Field Comments Number of Days to Check for No Activity
Enter the number of days with no activity after reaching a sales stage when this rule will act.
Notify Sales Consultant
Select this check box to notify the sales consultant that there is no activity. The application notifies the sales consultant by creating a record that the sales consultant can see in My Activities view.
Click the No Activity After Sales Stage Rule view tab, and enter values for the fields, as described in the following table.
Field Comments Number of Days to Check for No Activity
Enter the number of days with no activity after reaching a sales stage when this rule will act.
Notify Sales Consultant
Select this check box to notify the sales consultant that there is no activity. The application notifies the sales consultant by creating a record that the sales consultant can see in My Activities view.
Click the Vehicle Sales Anniversary Rule view tab, and enter values for the fields, as described in the following table.
Field Comments Send Email to Customer
Select this check box to send an email about the vehicle anniversary to the customer.
Schedule Call for Sales Consultant
Select this check box to create an activity for a sales consultant to call this customer.
Click the Vehicle Sales Followup Rule view tab, and enter values for the fields, as described in the following table.
Field Comments Number of Days After Vehicle Sales
Enter the number of days after the vehicle is sold that this rule will act.
Send Email to Customer
Select this check box to send an email about the vehicle sale to the customer.
Schedule Call for Sales Consultant
Select this check box to create an activity for a sales consultant to call this customer.
Marking Opportunities as Closed (Dealer)
When sales consultants finish working on opportunities, they mark the opportunities to be closed when they give each opportunity a sales stage that has been associated with the status of won or lost. The OEM creates sales stages, as described in Siebel Automotive Guide.
After opportunities have a stage associated with the status of won or lost, they appear in the Opportunities to Close screen, so managers can review them and close them out. The manager can close out activities that are sales-related.
After opportunities are closed out, they are still displayed in the Opportunities screen, but the follow-up activities for these opportunities no longer appear as activities for the sales consultants.
To mark opportunities to be closed
Navigate to the Contacts screen.
Click the name of the contact for this opportunity.
The Opportunity form appears after the contact.
In the Opportunity form, in the Sales Stage field, select the sales stage associated with the status of won or lost.
The name of this sales stage depends on the sales stages that the OEM defined. For example, the system administrator at the OEM might have created a sales stage called Closed Won and associated it with the status of Won in the Sales Methods view of the Application Administration screen.
On the Opportunity form, click the Reason to Close view tab.
In the Reason to Close form:
Select the reason the opportunity was closed.
Select the make and model of the car the customer bought.
If you lost the opportunity to another dealer, enter the name of the dealer.
You might want to review and cancel an opportunity.
To review and cancel opportunities
Navigate to the Opportunities To Close screen.
The Opportunities To Close list includes all opportunities with a stage associated with the status of won or lost.
Review the Opportunities list to decide which opportunities can be cancelled.
To cancel an opportunity:
Select a record in the Opportunity to Close list, and complete the necessary fields in the Reason to Close form.
Click Opportunity Close Out.
The application cancels all open activities associated with this opportunity that have the category of sales activity.