Analyzing Opportunities in Your Pipeline

When you have access to accurate pipeline and forecast numbers you can quickly adapt your team's selling strategies to meet new demands. NetSuite includes a variety of tools to help you manage your company's pipeline so that you can maximize the sales closed by your team.

Your NetSuite dashboard includes key performance indicators that give you a quick look at pipeline amounts and opportunities. Report snapshots, such as the Customers by Pipeline snapshot, appear as graphs or lists and link to corresponding reports. You can also publish saved search results to your dashboard, which gives you a customized list of opportunities, customers, or sales transactions.

Opportunities on Your Dashboard

Opportunity reports and KPIs give you easy access to deals that your reps are pursuing. From your Dashboard, you can view custom search results, key performance indicators, and report snapshots that give you information on opportunities.

For example, Wolfe Electronics sales managers use the steps below to show the Opportunities Won key indicator. This indicator provides information on the deals that were won the previous day.

To show the Opportunities Won key indicator:

On the Home tab, click Personalize Dashboard.
In the Add Content pane, click Key Performance Indicators.
In the Set Up Key Performance Indicators popup, click Add Standard KPIs.
Select Opportunities Won, and then click Done.
In the Range column, select yesterday.
In the Employees column, select My Team.
Check the box in the Compare column.
In the Compare Range column select this month.
Click Save.

When Wolfe sales reps log in each morning, they see the number of opportunities closed yesterday compared to the total for the month.

Click any KPI or report snapshot for a detailed report that shows the information you are looking for. For example, when you click a date range on the Opportunities Won KPI, you see the Opportunities Won report. NetSuite filters the report to show the same date range as the KPI.

Saved searches provide another powerful tool that you can use to display information on your dashboard.

Wolfe Electronics sales managers use a saved search of opportunities to track open deals that are approaching their expected close dates. This search lets them know which opportunities sales reps should be close to winning. The search results appear on their dashboards, so it is one of the first things they see when they log in to NetSuite.

To do this, first create the saved search.

To save an opportunities search:

Go to Opportunities > Transactions > Opportunities > Search.
Check the Use Advanced Search box.
Click Create Saved Search.
In the Search Title field, enter Opportunities to Close This Week.
Check the Available as Dashboard View box.
On the Criteria subtab, in the Filter column select Sales: Expected Close Date.
In the popup, select within next one week, and click Set.
In the Filter column, select Document Status.
In the popup, hold CTRL, and select In Progress and Issued Estimate.
Click Set.
Click the Results subtab.
Click Remove All.
Click Add Multiple.
Hold CTRL, and select Customer, Probability, Sales Rep, Projected Total and Days to Close.
Click Add.
Click Save.

Next, display the search results on the dashboard.

To show a list of opportunities on your dashboard:

Go to Home, and click Personalize Dashboard.
In the Add Content pane, under Standard Content, click Custom Search.
In the Custom Search Portlet, click Set Up.
In the Search field, select Opportunities to Close This Week.
Click Save.

When the managers log in, they see a current list of opportunities that their sales reps expect to close during the next seven days. The managers review this information each morning with each of their sales reps.

Pipeline Reports and KPIs

NetSuite Reporting and Search tools help sales managers examine the reasons your sales team wins or loses deals. This information is essential for improving your team's strategy and product positioning. With NetSuite, you can report on the sales you lose and understand why you lost them.

To do this, you can use NetSuite search, built-in reports, dashboard KPIs, and report snapshots.

NetSuite includes reports that break down the pipeline by sales rep and customer. These reports also show opportunities that have been won, lost, or that remain open:

Pipeline by Sales Rep Summary / Detail – These reports let you view the total open opportunities and estimates for each sales rep.
Pipeline by Customer Summary / Detail – These reports present the total open opportunities and estimates for each customer.
Opportunities to Close Summary / Detail – These reports show the projected and weighted totals of the opportunities that sales reps are still working to close.

You can view pipeline reports on the Reports page, under the Pipeline Analysis heading.

Opportunities and Search

You can also use NetSuite search tools to get the pipeline information you need to make sales decisions.

For example, Wolfe Electronics sales managers use the competitor information on opportunities to analyze lost deals. With an opportunity search, the managers can see which competitors the company is losing business to. This search helps managers and their reps adjust their selling strategy.

To create a list of lost opportunities:

Go to Opportunities > Opportunities > Search.
Click Create Saved Search.
Enter Opportunities Lost to Competitors in the Title field.
In the Filter column, select Sales: Win/Loss Reason.
In the popup, select is lost to a competitor.
Click Set.
In the Filter column, select Sales: Actual Close.
In the popup, select within and this fiscal year to date.
Click Set.
Click the Results subtab.
Click Remove All.
Click Add Multiple.
Press and hold the CTRL key, and then select Won By, Number, Sales Rep, and Projected Total.
Click Add.
Click Submit.

These search results show all of the opportunities Wolfe Electronics lost this year to competitors. You can save these search criteria and view them later, or you can export the results in spreadsheet format. You can also publish the search results to your Dashboard or to the Opportunities tab.