Opportunities Will Really Matter

In Contact we have Opportunities and we'll have them in Salesforce, too. I have a feeling, though, that many people will find they matter a lot more in Salesforce than they did in Contact.

Why? Well, because in Salesforce Opportunities are the ONLY way to forecast. There is no such thing as the 3 month forecast form we have now, where you write 3 numbers -- how much this month, how much next month & the month after. With Salesforce, those 3 numbers will be computed mathematically from the Opportunities.

We decide what Opportunity amounts to include in those 3 numbers, and that's a topic we'll be discussing as we prepare Salesforce for roll-out and, I imagine, re-discussing as we begin using it. There will be several stages of an Opportunity and we will determine what Opportunities in which stages will we include or exclude from our Forecasts.

The stages, at least at this point, are:

1. Prospect
2. Qualify
3. Cover the Bases
4. Expecting to Close
5. Closed Won
6. Closed Lost

I expect that we will include the Opportunities in stages 4 and 5, those that we're expecting to close and that have closed -- and been won.

How does that sound to those of you who forecast now? Do you feel you'll be able to create Opportunities and manage the stages with this type of logic?

For sales reps, the Opportunities also play into the Focus Four form and discussions you have with your managers. I plan to design a dashboard in Salesforce that will show the opportunities in the Focus Four quadrants so that you don't need to create the Opportunity in Salesforce and turn around and write it again on a Focus Four form.

Using the Opportunities in this way will fit into one of the goals set by the sales department, to have a better, more detailed view of what is in the "funnel" (the opportunities out a ways, waiting to be funneled into real sales).