Opportunity Management Configuration

In this lesson, you'll learn about how to configure the opportunities. First, let's talk about what you can configure for your opportunities.

Alan, as an Administrator, can configure and customize its usage based on Best Run Bikes requirements.

The following features can be configured:

• General Settings
• Document Type
• Sources
• Party Schema
• Sales Cycle
• Categories
• Reason for Status
• Forecast Category
• Contact Role
• Status
• Number Range
• Opportunity Routing to Employee

Alan can configure the following options when maintaining General Settings for Opportunities:

1. Guided Selling Score: depending on the business needs, Alan can activate the selling score based on the probability of success (which is manually entered by the end-user when creating the Opportunity) or the opportunity score, which is automatically calculated by the respective ML algorithm, assuming that this has been enabled and properly trained in the system.
2. Contact Interaction Threshold: with this option, Alan can maintain the number of days beyond which contact engagement would be recommended
3. Opportunity Won Status: Alan can select this checkbox to allow the opportunity to be set to won only when all mandatory actions and activities for current and upcoming sales phases are complete
4. Opportunity Export: Alan can select this checkbox to allow end users to export a list of Opportunities from the Guided Selling Worklist view.
5. Progress Bar: Alan can select which date will be shown as the last marker on an Opportunity progress bar, the Close Date or the Revenue Start Date

Sales Managers working at Best Run Bikes need to organize documents related to opportunities effectively. With different document types, they can group and classify the documents based on their purpose or content. This helps in streamlining the document management process and enables quick retrieval when needed. Different document types can help in managing the lifecycle of various opportunity-related documents. For instance, a proposal document may have different stages like "Draft," "Under Review," "Approved," or "Rejected." Properly defining document types facilitates tracking the document's progress and status within each stage.

Alan can create new entries corresponding to additional Opportunities document types:

Sources for opportunities allow sales managers and representatives to achieve:

• Different sources can provide valuable market insights and trends. By monitoring and analyzing data from various channels, the sales manager can make more informed decisions and tailor their sales strategies accordingly.
• A diverse set of sources means more opportunities in the pipeline. This can lead to increased sales volume, helping the sales team meet or exceed their targets.
• Exploring new sources for opportunities can open up avenues for business growth. It allows the sales manager to discover new partnerships, collaborations, or even expansion into different geographical regions.

In conclusion, having different sources for opportunities provides a more comprehensive and robust approach to sales management. It reduces risks, allows for greater market reach, fosters growth, and enables the sales team to make informed decisions to stay ahead in a competitive business landscape.

Alan can configure the following options when maintaining Sources for Opportunities:

1. Create new entries for defining new type of sources in addition to the standard values delivered by default in SAP Sales Cloud Version 2. Custom status codes must begin with the identifier Z.
2. Change the description of existing values
3. Activate or deactivate certain sources
4. Delete customized values. Only the entries beginning with the identifier Z can be deleted.

The party schema configuration determines the structure and organization of parties involve9d in the opportunity process. Parties can include customers, prospects, contacts, or other entities related to the opportunity. The party schema allows for defining the relationships between parties, their roles, and the information to be captured for each party. This configuration enhances the ability to manage and track the parties involved in the opportunity process.

Alan can configure the following options when maintaining Party Schema for Opportunities:

1. Activate or deactivate certain values
2. Select which party role has to be mandatory
3. Review the determination steps of each party role and activate or deactivate steps based on the requirements

Sales Cycles for opportunities are important for both Sales Managers and Sales Representatives:

A defined sales cycle provides Sales Managers with clear visibility into the progress of each opportunity. They can track where each opportunity stands in the pipeline, identify potential bottlenecks, and take corrective actions if needed. By analyzing the stages and duration of the sales cycle, Sales Managers can evaluate the performance of individual Sales Representatives and the team as a whole. The sales cycle data enables Sales Managers to forecast future revenue and plan resource allocation more effectively. With a defined sales cycle, Sales Managers can generate accurate sales reports, providing insights into key performance metrics.

Sales Representatives benefit from a clear roadmap provided by the sales cycle. It outlines the steps they need to follow, helping them stay organized and focused throughout the sales process. A defined sales cycle ensures that all Sales Representatives follow a standardized approach. This consistency leads to better customer experiences, builds trust, and enhances the brand reputation. Understanding the sales cycle helps reps identify high-value opportunities that have a higher likelihood of converting. They can concentrate their efforts on nurturing and closing these leads, leading to increased success rates.

Alan can configure the following options when maintaining the Sales Cycle for opportunities:

1. Create a whole new Sales Cycle
2. Select the default Sales Cycle
3. Activate / Deactivate Sales Cycles

Alan can configure the following options when maintaining Categories for Opportunities:

1. Create new entries for further categorize Opportunities based on business needs that cannot be addressed using the standard values. The code of custom values need to begin with the letter "Z".
2. Configure the description of the categories.
3. Toggle if any given category is active or not.
4. Delete custom categories. Only custom categories can be deleted.

The status change is important for sales representatives because of the following reasons:

• By tracking the reasons for status changes, sales representatives can gain insights into why certain opportunities progress or stall. This information helps them make more informed decisions about their sales strategies and how to best approach each opportunity.
• Over time, tracking reasons for status changes can reveal patterns or trends in the sales process. For example, if a particular reason consistently leads to successful closures, sales representatives can focus on replicating that success in similar situations.
• Understanding the reasons behind status changes enables sales representatives to forecast more accurately. By analyzing historical data on how opportunities move through the pipeline, they can make more realistic predictions about future sales performance.

In conclusion, tracking reasons for status changes in opportunities is essential for sales representatives to understand customer behavior, improve their sales approach, and achieve better results. It empowers them with valuable insights, allows for better forecasting, and facilitates continuous improvement in the sales process.

Alan can configure the following options when maintaining Reason for Status for Opportunities:

1. Create new entries for maintaining additional reasons for status based on business needs that cannot be addressed using the standard values. Custom values need to have a code beginning with the letter "Z".
2. Configure the description of custom values.
3. Select the status to which this Reason refers.
4. Toggle the activation or deactivation of reason entries.
5. Delete custom entries. Only custom entries can be deleted.

To use Pipeline Management and Forecasting in SAP Sales Cloud Version 2, administrators must set up forecast categories in the system.

Opportunities must be assigned to forecast categories as aggregate totals are calculated and displayed based on forecast category. Opportunities without a forecast category maintained will not be considered.

Alan can define custom categories and map them to definitions. One-to-one mapping to these definitions is required:

1. Create a new forecast category. Custom categories must begin with the letter "Z".
2. Committed Opportunities that are certain to become closed-won
3. Best Case Opportunities that may become closed-won
4. Pipeline Opportunities that aren't expected to close in the current fiscal period
5. Additional Category: administrators can include one more category between commit and best case if necessary, such as "Most Likely".

It's also possible to update forecast category fields automatically using Autoflow rules.

Tracking contact roles for opportunities is of significant importance in the sales process. Contact roles refer to the different individuals or stakeholders involved in the decision-making process within a potential customer organization. In many B2B (business-to-business) sales scenarios, multiple individuals are involved in the decision-making process. By tracking contact roles, sales representatives can identify key decision-makers, influencers, and gatekeepers within the organization. This understanding helps tailor sales strategies and engage with the right people at the right time.

Alan can configure the following options when maintaining Contact Role for Opportunities:

1. Create new entries for maintaining additional types of Contact Role based on business needs that cannot be addressed using the standard values. The code of custom Contact Roles must begin with the letter "Z".
2. Configure the description of custom Contact Roles.
3. Toggle activation of Contact Roles.
4. Deactivate standard values.

Opportunities document types must be associated with a specific status schema. In SAP Sales Cloud Version 2, there is a standard status schema available that can be adapted if needed. However, when creating a new Opportunity document type, the system will require a new status schema to be maintained.

Alan can configure the following options when maintaining the status for Opportunities:

1. Create a new set of statuses for a given Opportunity Document Type. The Document Type that should contain the new statuses should have first been created already.
2. Create a new status schema and a new status code in addition to the standard values delivered by default in SAP Sales Cloud Version 2. Customized status codes must begin with the identifier Z.
3. Change the description of the existing values.
4. Change the sequence.
5. Set the internal status for each status code.
6. Set which of the statuses is the initial one.
7. Activate or deactivate certain values.
8. Delete custom status entries.

Alan can configure a single number range for use of Opportunities in Guided Selling. The system assigns the next sequential number from the range to new opportunities. You can view the latest number used in the Number Range Status column.

In the number range, Alan can configure:

1. Optionally define a prefix to be used before the number in the ID.
2. Define the initial number in the range.
3. Define the final number in the range.

Alan can create routing rules to automatically assign opportunities to employees. In the first time creating rules, Alan needs to adapt the columns (1) to set up the rules table. Up to 20 columns can be in the table. The following columns are mandatory: Owner, Owner Role, Sales Employee and Sales Employee Role.

After that, a new role can be added and configured for each rule (2).

Finally, Alan can activate the new set of rules (3).

Once activated, Opportunities will be automatically assigned to sales representatives.