Entering Basic Opportunity Information

Access the Add Opportunity form.

After you enter basic opportunity information, you can click the Save and Close button to exit the program. You can click the Save and Add New button to enter basic information for another opportunity, or you can click the Save and Continue button to continue working with the opportunity record. If you choose to continue working with the opportunity record, proceed to the Managing and Maintaining Opportunities section of this chapter for additional information.

Opportunity Type

Enter the type of opportunity you are entering. Values are stored in UDC 90CB/TC and might include types such as:

DIR: Direct

REF: Referral

PAR: Partner

Source

Enter the manner in which the opportunity was obtained. Values for source are stored in UDC 90CB/LS. You can enter generalized codes or specific codes to track the success of particular marketing campaigns and events. For example, you might set up general codes such as Referral, Advertising, and Event.

To track the success of particular advertising or marketing events, you can enter each advertising campaign or marketing event in the UDC table, such as New York Expo, California Tech Show, or Daily News Ad.

Contact (Partner)

Select the partner contact from the available options. When you enter a partner's address book number in the Partner field, the system makes the contacts associated with that partner available for selection. You can select one partner contact.

Contact (Sold To)

Select the sold to contact from the available options. When you enter a customer number in the Sold To field, the system makes the contacts associated with that customer number available for selection. You can select one sold to contact.

Line of Business

Review the value in this field to determine the company with which the opportunity is associated. If Line of Business is selected on in the Accounts Receivable Constants form, the system uses the branch to retrieve the default line of business company. If Line of Business is not selected, the system uses the default value of 00000. If Line of Business is selected and the company is set up in the F03012 table, the company is used. If the company is not set up, the system uses the default value of 00000.

Contact (Ship To)

Select the ship to contact from the available options. When you enter a customer number in the Ship To field, the system makes the contacts associated with that customer number available in this field. You can select one ship to contact.

Qualification Name

Enter the name of the qualification script that should be used to qualify the opportunity. If you leave this field blank, the system enters the default qualification that is specified in the processing options of the Manage Opportunities program (P90CAB020).

Goal

Review the value in this field to determine the score that the opportunity needs to meet or exceed to be considered qualified. The system populates this field with the value that was entered when the associated qualification script was created.

Score

Review this field after you attempt to qualify an opportunity to determine whether the score meets or exceeds the qualification goal. If the value in this field is greater than or equal to the value in the Goal field, the opportunity is qualified.

Sales Methodology

Enter the sales methodology that should be used by sales representatives who are working on the opportunity. When you enter a new opportunity, this field is populated using the value that you enter in the processing options. If you leave this option blank, the system populates the sales methodology field with the default methodology. You can change the methodology if necessary.

Sales Cycle

Select the current sales cycle step that is associated with the opportunity from the available options. The available options include the sales cycle steps that are associated with the methodology that you enter in the Sales Methodology field. When you add a new opportunity, the system enters the first sales cycle step for the default sales methodology. You can change this value if necessary. Each time the sales cycle step changes, the sales team members associated with the opportunity are notified of the change using email. You specify, in the CRM constants, whether the notification is sent to the internal employee work center or to an external email address.

Probability

Review the value in this field to determine the probability of converting the opportunity to a sale. The system populates this field with the probability that is associated with the current sales cycle step.

The probability is used in several ways. First, the probability must be greater than zero (0) to convert the opportunity to a quote, it must be 100 percent to convert the opportunity to a sales order, and it must be zero (0) in order to enter a value in the Lost To field. Additionally, the probability is used in calculating the amount of potential revenue that is entered into the sales pipeline for the opportunity.

Close Date

Review, and if necessary, update the date in this field. This date represents the date by which the opportunity should be closed or finished. The system calculates the close date and populates this field. The date is determined by adding to the system date the months-to-close value that is associated with the current sales cycle step. You can change this date if necessary.

Potential Amount

Enter the monetary value that could potentially be realized by the organization if the opportunity is converted to a sale. If the Line Item Total field is blank, this value is used to determine the amount of revenue when creating sales forecasts, and also to determine the number of gold bars to display for the related customer. However, if there is a value in the Line Item Total field, that value is used to determine the amount of revenue included in a sales forecast and gold bar display.

Additionally, you can set the processing options for the Manage Forecasts program (P90CB060) to use the value in this field or the value in the Line Item Total field when calculating revenue.

Budget Amount

Enter either the amount of money that the client has budgeted for this sale, or the monetary amount that is available for the sales team to use when pursuing the opportunity. This value is informational only and can be used by the sales team when setting item prices for the customer, or it can be compared against the costs associated with the opportunity to determine whether the sales team is over or under budget.

Line Item Total

Review the monetary amount that is associated with total number of goods or services entered in the detail area of the form. This field is read-only and is updated each time a line in the detail area is added, changed, or deleted. This value can be used to determine the revenue amount associated with sales forecasts, as well as the number of gold bars that are displayed for the associated customer. If this field is blank, the system uses the value in the Potential Amount field to determine the gold bar display.

Lost To

Enter the competitor that the customer chose to purchase goods and services from. This field is enabled only when a sales cycle with a probability of zero (0) is entered on the opportunity record.

Lost Reason

Enter the reason that the opportunity was not converted to a sale. Four lost reason codes are supplied for you; however, you can add additional codes if necessary. Values are stored in UDC 90CB/LR, and include:

CMPET: Competitor Undercut.

LOSFB: Loss of Funding/Budget.

OVPRC: Pricing too high.

PDNMN: Product does not meet needs.