One of the best features offered by Salesforce is their ability to carry on the sales process with transparency with a special tab called ” opportunities ” . This tab includes list of all opportunities with their actual statuses to track each deal efficiently , which in turn help salesperson to track deals on real time basis and close them efficiently .
Salesforce opportunity tab facilitates you with many opportunities , that many companies might miss while not using it .
Why To Use Custom Salesforce Opportunity Stages
In general SalesForce opportunity stages represents key milestone which in turn consist of following milestones :
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- Prospecting
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- Qualification
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- Needs Analysis
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- Value Proposition
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- Id. Decision Makers
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- Perception Analysis
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- Proposal/Price Quote
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- Negotiation/Review
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- Closed Won
- Closed Lost
In general SalesForce in relation to sales call by company might not be of many use of many companies in general . Different companies have their different sales calls and flows and hence follow specific set of their guidelines which is apart from the milestone stated above . For instance companies which have a complex sales cycle which in turn also needs regular communication may need some extra level of opportunities , which in turn help sales manager in meeting their customer expectation . On the other hand same level of milestone may be proven excessive for companies with simple sales process . This is the challenges that is faced by an organisation and hence to make it easier we have prepared a specific sets of checklist in order to provide you with salesforce customisation service in relation to your salesforce opportunity stages . But in case you encounter any difficulties in your sales cycle and customisation process , you can right away contact our dedicated salesforce consultant and developer .
Important Steps To Customise Opportunity Stages
1. Draw Out Your Sales Process
Who will be the end user of your opportunity stages features in Salesforce module ? It is obviously sales manager of your organisation . The best way is to map out your entire sales process and determine which of them perfectly suits your sales cycle and which one needs further customisation to adjust your sales process . You should primary aim at simplifying the complex procedure for your sales manager to make him understand what to use and how to use at what time.
Also Read : How to influence salesperson to use Salesforce ?
2. Define Entrance And Exit Area For Each Stage
An opportunity stage never consist of only single milestone , rather it contains series of milestone which needs to be followed in order to move to the next stage . That is the reason each stage requires sets of activities to be accomplished in order to push the opportunity forward to next level . If you wish your sales manager could easily pass on next opportunity stage , always create a list of stages . For example , your sales manager will have to follow these stages if they wish to pass from ” Qualification ” to ” Need Analysis ” .
- Hold meeting
- Generate requirement list
Then during the need analysis stage , your salesperson with required some another sets of activities in order to proceed with next stage such as :
- Reviewing requirement of lead
- Decision maker identification
- Identifying measures to meet requirements
- Budgeting deal amount and adding the data to Salesforce
- Updating estimated closing data and entering in the system
3. Considering Percentage Is Beneficial
Percentage denotes the opportunity stages in which the sales lead has reached , which in turn also defines the sales grows . Assigning of percentage by companies at different level of opportunity stages will give you with probability of the sales closures . Out of the box SalesForce CRM are well equipped with predefined percentage in relation to standard opportunity stages . However this data is common for all specific sets of companies , so that is why Winklix strongly suggest customisation of probabilities service based on your historic data .
4. Revision Of Opportunity Stages
As sales cycle is something that changes continuously , it is always advisable to periodically revisit your sales process in order to ensure opportunity stages that are still being relevant .
Customisation Opportunity Stages And Better Revenue Forecast
SalesForce CRM shows opportunity pipeline report in order to show the entire open pipeline and probability analysis . These reports are always proven beneficial for any company which further allow them to plan future cash flows and revenue .
Winklix offers a wide range of salesforce customisation services to tailor your business needs .