Opportunities Workflow

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Nate Smith
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Opportunities Workflow

This is a configuration page for the Sales Opportunities . If you wish to configure the layout of the Opportunities system, please refer to Opportunities Layout .

Your organisation will have its own sales/booking process, procedures and structure, and the Opportunities Workflow configuration lets you create these processes, procedures and structures through:

  • Stages , which represent the progression of the Opportunity
  • Steps , which are the processes related to the Stages
  • Transitions , which determine the relationship between Steps
  • Entry & Follow Ons , which define which Step an Opportunity should start on, and up-sell Opportunities
Stages, Steps and Transitions Illustrated

Stages, Steps and Transitions Illustrated

Stages

Stages represent the phases of progression of an Opportunity. These are high level categories that show up in high level reporting, like the Sales Funnel diagram in the Sales Pipeline . Think of a Stage as the word you’d use to describe to an outsider the sales process it’s concerned with. Some common stages are terms like Proposed or Reconsider .

Stages in the Opportunities System

Stages in the Opportunities System have a Status of either ‘Open’, ‘Archived’, ‘Lost’ or ‘Won’

The naming of Stages is entirely your own choice, whatever is suitable for your organisation and workflow ;however, their status must reflect either Open or Archived, Lost or Won .

To add a Stage:

  1. Make sure you’re in the Stages tab (if you’re not already)
  2. Click +Add Button
  3. Name your Stage (this will be displayed on your Sales Pipeline )
  4. Select the Status for this Stage
  5. Click Create Button
  6. Click Save Button to save the overall configuration

Open Stages

Open Stages are the points in which the Opportunity is active and can be won. At a high-level, Open Opportunities are those which you’re working on and should be concerned with at present, because they be can ‘Won’. Opportunities that are in the Open Stage will feature as a statistic in the ‘funnel’ diagram when you load the Sales Pipeline (the main page of the Sales Opportunities).

Drag and drop the Open Stages in the preferred order you want the funnel to display them.

Reorder your 'Open' Stages to reflect your Sales Funnel on the Sales Pipeline Page

Reorder your ‘Open’ Stages to reflect your Sales Funnel on the Sales Pipeline Page

Other Stages

Stages that are not Open can either be:

  • Archived - Opportunity has not been won, but is not dead, it may be revisited at a later date
  • Lost - Opportunity is dead, and there’s no further action that can be taken
  • Won - Opportunity has been successful

Once a Stage is no longer Open , it won’t feature as a statistic on the funnel diagram on the Sales Pipeline as there’s no further action to be taken.

Steps

Within Stages there are Steps, which are more detailed processes than Stages, and are typically used by the sales team to internally enforce their own procedures and provide more transparency. The Steps represent the various actions that a sale or booking may take along its path to completion. For example, the Steps, Proposal Sent , Proposal Accepted , and Payment Details Confirmed might all be part of the Proposed stage. From a high level perspective, knowing the Proposed Stage is enough, but the Steps within this Stage allow the sales team to have a detailed view. See how Steps are illustrated in the Workflow .

As such, each Step must have a Stage assigned to it.

To create a Step:

  1. Make sure you’re in the Stages tab (if you’re not already)
  2. Name your Step: this will be the name of the processes as displayed on your Workflow
  3. Select which Stage this Step belongs to
  4. Select which Attributes you wish for this Step to display for every Opportunity record
  5. Click Create Button
  6. Click Save Button to save the overall configuration
Creating a Step

Creating a Step

Assigning Attributes will determine what Attributes , as defined and laid out in the Opportunities Layout , will appear for this Step in the Opportunities System, i.e. what fields will appear.

How Attributes in Steps work and are displayed

How Attributes in Steps work and are displayed

Transitions

Once the Stages and Steps have been defined, you’ll have the building blocks of your sales process. Now you need to link them together, which is what Transitions are for. Transitions create relationships between Steps, determining the criteria in order to progress through the Opportunity.

In the Workflow , Transitions are displayed by straight line connections between Steps, illustrating they have a connection with each other. The current Step, Opportunity , is in green, and current Steps it can make a Transition to are highlighted by green Transition lines. Using the mouse pointer to hover over a Step, you can see the Transitions between those Steps with the blue lines. Steps that cannot be progressed to from the current Step are greyed out.

Steps and Transitions in the Opportunities System

Steps are connected through Transitions: blue lines are only mouse-over operations

Note

Each Transition determines the relationship between two Steps only; however, multiple Transitions may be configured for each Step. This can be seen in the example above: Proposed has 3 Transitions which lead from it to the Steps, Won , Lost and Archived .

To create a Transition:

  1. Make sure you’re in the Transitions tab (if you’re not already)
  2. Click +Add Button
  3. Name your Transition
  4. Select the From Step (from where the Transition starts)
  5. Select the To Step (to where the Transition ends)
  6. Select the Required Attributes , to enforce information recording
  7. Select the appropriate Triggers for creating entities
  8. Click Create Button
  9. Click Save Button to save the overall configuration
Creating Transitions between Steps

Creating Transitions between Steps

Required Attributes

Attributes checked here indicate that these fields need to be satisfied before this Transition can be actioned, e.g. if you select First Name to be an Attribute, then the Transition won’t let the User progress to the next Step unless the First Name field is filled out. The system will feedback an ‘Incomplete’ message and highlight which field requires attention - in this case, the First Name field. This must be resolved before the Opportunity record can be progressed (with this Transition) and be saved.

This is useful if certain information must be recorded before the next Step can be realised, thus enforcing your organisation’s workflow processes.

Required attributes illustrated, using 'value' as an example

Required attributes illustrated, using ‘value’ as an example

Triggers

Triggers (not to be confused with Communication Triggers ) can be activated through Transitions to automate the creation of appropriate records in your database using the information already populated in your Opportunity’s record. This saves you time and eliminates errors introduced from manually inputting the details yourself. For example, early Transitions in the workflow can automatically setup an Account for the business and a Contact for it, and later Transitions (like when the Opportunity has been won) can create a registration and an appropriate Invoice for the Events the Opportunity had Interests in. This is configurable by you so that you can dictate where and what in your workflow you want to populate your database with the appropriate details.

Check the boxes to activate any of the Triggers:

Trigger Behaviour
Create Account Create a new Accounts in your database using the record from the Opportunities System.
Create Contact Create a new Contacts in your database using the record from the Opportunities System.
Create Invoice Create a new Invoice in your database, generated from the Interests and Quotations of the Opportunity. Once this Transition goes through, the invoice generated will appear in the Details section (see screenshot below).
Create Registration Create a new registration record in your database, generated from the Interests for all the assigned students, and Quotations of the Opportunities. Once this Transition goes through, the registration generated will appear in the Details section (see screenshot below).
Create Token Issue Create a new issue of Training Tokens in your database, generated from the Interests . You can check issued tokens in the Training Tokens tab of the Account screen .
Registration and Invoice Transition Triggers Illustrated

Registration and Invoice Transition Triggers: automatically generated records will appear in the Details section

Entry & Follow Ons

Entry

As your Workflow expands, you may find that you wish to start your Opportunities on another Step . This first Step, from where all Opportunities will start from, is called the Entry.

To designate the Entry:

  1. Make sure you’re in the Entry & Follow Ons tab (if you’re not already)
  2. Click ★ New Opportunity or ★ New Opportunity - Existing Account if the Opportunity refers to an existing Account (see below)
  3. [Optional] Rename the Entry: this is for your reference only
  4. Select the From Step from which all new Opportunities will start
  5. Click Update Button
  6. Click Save Button to save the overall configuration

All new Opportunities will now start from this designated Step.

Difference between ★ New Opportunity set to 'Lead' and 'Opportunity'

Difference between ★ New Opportunity set to ‘Lead’ and ‘Opportunity’

★New Opportunity - Existing Account is used for Opportunities with existing accounts that are already on your CRM , e.g. you may have an Account and Contact set up already. You may wish to have this set to a Step later in the workflow than ★New Opportunity . For example, earlier Transitions may be configured to create CRM records, so you won’t need to do this again to avoid potential duplication.

Follow On

Perhaps your sales representative has managed to up-sell more Events , or the prospect has come back to you wishing to add more students as an Interest . In this situation, do you create a new Opportunity and re-enter all the details again? There’s no need, as this is what the Follow On feature is for!

To create a Follow On, just click +Add Button , and give it an intuitive name, e.g. perhaps the Step that it will start on, or a representative’s code so they know which one to use. Then, define which Step this sub-Opportunity should start from.

Once a Follow On has been created, the Follow On Button button will appear on your record on the Opportunities System. All Follow Ons created will appear as such on the parent or child Opportunity, making sure that you can keep track of them.

The Follow On button will appear on the Opportunities System once Follow Ons have been created

The Follow On button will appear on the Opportunities System once Follow Ons have been created

To use the Follow On, just click on Follow On Button on your Opportunities record and click on the Follow Up you wish. This will start a new Opportunity, starting on the Step defined earlier, prompting you to name the new Opportunity. The Opportunities System will identify this Opportunity as a Follow On (child) to the parent Opportunity.

Follow Ons are confirmed by a message and start on the Step previously defined

Follow Ons are confirmed by a message and start on the Step previously defined

Similarly, the parent Opportunity will display its Follow On (child) Opportunities when viewed, so that you can always refer to them or know that they are there.

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