CRM Opportunities are a great way to help your Sales team track and close new customer sales. You can record information such as the estimated value for the potential sale, what type of sale it is, any notes as the Opportunity moves through the sales process, and much more.
The Opportunity Pipeline will also help to identify the stage that the potential sale is at and where potential sales are falling out of the sales pipeline.
Let's take a look at how to create a new Opportunity within the CRM!
Step 1: Search for Contact
Opportunities can be logged either underneath a Company or a Contact. We'd usually recommend creating the Opportunity under the Contact, just so you, and anyone else working on this, know exactly who to speak to at the company about this potential sale. If you're not sure who the key contact will be yet, then create it under the Company for now! You can use the Global Search to find your Contact or Company. Please Note: If you haven't yet created the new company, click here to find out how to create a new business contact within the CRM.
Step 2: Create Opportunity
Click the plus icon in the top right-hand corner of the Contact or Company, and then select 'Opportunity' from the drop-down list.
Step 3: Record Info About New Opportunity
By selecting 'Opportunity' from the quick create menu, a new window will open where you can record information about the new Opportunity.
Description: When adding a Description, remember that this is what will be displayed when you're looking under the parent record; therefore, it should be as relevant as possible.
Sales Person: The Sales Person is whoever takes overall responsibility for the Opportunity. Please note that different users of the CRM can still be set Tasks against the Opportunity - by setting a Sales Person, it just helps people internally know who has ownership of this sale.
Type: The Opportunity Type should help categorise the sales Opportunity. The Type can be selected from a drop-down and this is configurable if you have the correct level of authority within the CRM.
Sales Opportunity Pipeline: The Sales Opportunity Pipeline should represent the steps that your sales Opportunity would take from start to finish. For example, your starting Status within the Pipeline may be 'Unqualified' and the final Status may be either 'Lost' or 'Won'. If you have the correct level of authority within the CRM, then you'll be able to edit the sales Opportunity Pipeline. Please note: you can have multiple Sales Opportunity Pipelines configured.
Size: The Size determines what revenue value is associated with this particular Sales Opportunity.
Margin: The Margin should represent the profit margin for this particular Opportunity.
Once happy with the information entered, click 'Create'.
Step 4: Recording Further Opportunity Details
Once you've created an Opportunity, you can then record further information about it. The more information you enter here, the better understanding you and your colleagues will have about the potential sale.
Summary: The summary field should be used to provide a general overview of what this Sales Opportunity entails.
Analysis: Here, you can select from a drop-down list to help further categorise what the Opportunity relates to. For example, you may want to record whether the Opportunity is a one off, or if it's returning business. This information can then be used within Reports to help build a picture of the types of Opportunities you're working on.
Size & Margin: These options allow you to record monetary values against the Opportunity. Similarly to the Analysis, this can then be used within Reports to help show the value which will be received if the Opportunity is successful.
Current Status: This is where you can change what stage the Opportunity is in as it moves through the sales process from start to finish. Some of Statuses may require a Task, which means that a CRM user must take responsibility of the Opportunity whilst it's in that current Status. This avoids things being forgotten about in critical parts of the process.
Source & Source Activity: Use these options to record where the Opportunity originally came from. Options could include an Exhibition, an E-shot, a Telemarketing activity, outbound calling by a salesperson etc. If you've sent out a Campaign from the CRM, you can use the Source option to link Opportunities to Campaign Activities. This allows you to record potential income based on marketing activities e.g. how many Opportunities and Quotes were generated after exhibiting at a trade show.
Guttometer: The Guttometer is used to record how likely you think it is that the Opportunity will successfully close. A value from 0 – 100 can be entered. This can then be used within Reports.
Step 5: Managing the Opportunity
After you've recorded all key information about the Opportunity, it's important to make sure someone takes ownership of the potential sale. By setting a Task for either yourself or another user, you can make sure someone follows up on this Opportunity in a timely manner. To set a Task on an Opportunity, simply click the 'Next Action Due' button.
You can then select the Task User, Task Date and Type in a follow-up message to determine the task at hand. For more information on setting Tasks, click here.
Finally, make sure you change the Status of the Opportunity as you move through the sales process - especially once you've made a sale! By keeping the Status of all your Opportunities as up to date as possible, you can see using Reports which ones have been closed off, which were lost, and which are still being worked on.