Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 : Working with Leads and Opportunities - Creating an Opportunity

• Understand the sales pipeline.

• Evaluate the performance of individual sales representatives.

• Forecast future demand.

When you work with an opportunity, you can track all of the activities related to the potential sale, such as tasks, phone calls, and email messages.

By default, you can track the potential customer’s name, estimated close date, estimated revenue, probability, and rating for each sales opportunity. Many organizations customize the opportunity form to track additional data about the potential sale, depending on the products and services they provide.

You can choose between two revenue settings for each opportunity: System Calculated and User Provided. If you select System Calculated, Microsoft Dynamics CRM will automatically calculate the estimated value of the opportunity by using a combination of the products attached to the opportunity and the selected price list. If you select User Provided, you can enter the dollar amount of the opportunity value directly into the Est. Revenue field. Setting up products and price lists in Microsoft Dynamics CRM requires system administrator privileges, so the exercises in this article will utilize the User Provided option for revenue.

Note:

See Also Your system administrator can enable and configure the product catalog in your deployment. Refer to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM online help for additional information on the specific configuration steps.

For the Est. Close Date field, enter the date when you expect to close the opportunity, either as a win or as a loss. The Probability field allows you to enter a percentage to indicate your confidence that you will win the opportunity. You can enter a whole number from 0 to 100 in the Probability field. For example, entering 50 in this field means that you’re 50 percent confident that you will win the opportunity. Rating is another measure of the opportunity. The default values are Hot, Warm, and Cold. Some organizations use the Rating field to indicate their perception of the customer’s interest, and other organizations use Rating to record how interested they themselves are in pursuing the opportunity.

You learned how to create an opportunity record by converting a lead. You will also want to create opportunities for existing accounts and contacts, so you also need to know how to create opportunities outside of the lead qualification process.

Note:

SET UP Use the Internet Explorer web browser to navigate to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM website, if necessary, before beginning this exercise. You need the Sonoma Partners account record you created in this article. If you cannot locate the Sonoma Partners record in your system, you can use any account for this exercise.

1. Navigate to the Accounts view and open the Sonoma Partners account record.

2. In the entity navigation pane, click Opportunities.

3. On the ribbon, click the Add New Opportunity button. A blank opportunity record opens.

4. In the Topic field, enter Sonoma Partners Sample Opportunity.

5. For the Revenue data field, select User Provided. The Est. Revenue field becomes editable.

6. In the Est. Revenue field, enter 50,000.00.

7. In the Est. Close Date field, enter 12/31/2011.

8. In the Probability field, enter 50.

   
   

   

   
   

9. On the ribbon, click the Save button.