Chapter 7. Working with Sales
The Sales area in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is where you work with current and prospective customers, where you manage leads and opportunities, and where you work with business process flows (BPFs).
The new navigation bar breaks out the areas as follows:
My Work
Dashboards
What’s New
Activities
Customers
Accounts
Customers
Sales
Leads
Opportunities
Competitors
Collateral
Quotes
Orders
Invoices
Products
Sales Literature
Marketing
Marketing Lists
Quick Campaigns
Goals
Goal Metrics
Rollup Queries
Tools
Reports
Alerts
Calendar
Figure 7.1 shows the Sales navigation bar with the categories My Work, Customers, Sales, Collateral, and Marketing, as well as their subcategories.
Note
Notice the right-pointing arrow at the right, near Quick Campaigns. Clicking this (or simply mouse wheeling down while hovering over this area) opens this menu to the right, revealing more options.
Accounts and contacts are explained in CHAPTER 6, “Working with Customers.” Marketing lists, sales literature, and quick campaigns are included in CHAPTER 8, “Working with Marketing.”
Flow Interface for Sales
The flow interface of Dynamics CRM 2016 brings all the entities into a single flowing interface that allows users to easily manage their sales processes (or, in the case of an xRM deployment, whatever process leverages leads, accounts, customers, opportunities, quotes, orders, and invoices).
Unlike in previous versions of Dynamics CRM, where independent forms related to each other based on originating lead (for example), a single unified interface now allows for uninterrupted usage.
Figure 7.2 shows a flow process in a step diagram, and the following section describes how to take these steps in the CRM interface.
Lead to Opportunity Flow Example
The lead-to-opportunity sales process shown in Figure 7.2 is provided by default with the system. Here are the steps for this sales process:
1. Create a new lead, enter the topic and the name, and then select Save in the navigation bar. The lead starts a sales process, which is displayed across the screen. To understand what process this is, navigate to the information icon (i) located below the words Next Stage and click it (see Figure 7.3). In this example, you’re going to be using the default lead-to-opportunity sales process.
2. If your sales default process is not the lead-to-opportunity process, select ... > Switch Process, as shown in Figure 7.4, and then select Lead to Cash, as shown in Figure 7.5.
Tip
To add additional system business processes, navigate to Settings > Data Management and click Add Ready-to-Use Business Processes.
The lead has a new process ribbon in the center, and you can easily see that there are new steps, as well as a new process name, by navigating to the information icon. Once you’ve selected the right process, you can perform the required actions to complete the process.
Tip
If the process steps aren’t shown, they are likely collapsed. To expand the process steps, select the flag on the active process step. To collapse them, select the up arrow near the information icon.
Note
You can navigate from one stage to the next by selecting the stages that are shown. However, if you have a closed lock icon on a stage, you cannot edit it. This is useful in that it shows what needs to be done in the next stages.
3. To move from one stage to the next, complete at least the required fields (indicated with small red asterisks). In this example, you can see a red asterisk next to the custom field Identify Decision Maker, which means it’s required. If you try to move to the next stage by selecting Next Stage, you are prompted with the warning shown in Figure 7.6. Complete the required field by mousing over it and clicking it as complete. A checkmark appears by it.
Note
Because only the required fields must be completed before you move to the next step of the process, you can optionally skip non-required fields. It is always a balance when customizing a system to configure the number of required fields versus the number of optional fields and the resulting data thereof.
4. Click Next Stage, and you are asked to select the opportunity for the record. Because you haven’t qualified this lead yet, you have no records yet, and you need to first select Qualify from the navigation bar (see Figure 7.7). Once qualified, the record moves to the next stage and goes from being a lead to being an opportunity.
5. Select the (now locked) stage Qualify, and the record moves back to the lead form, and it shows in highlight at the bottom that it was qualified (see Figure 7.8). In addition, the lead record is now read-only, and nothing on that stage can be modified unless the lead is reactivated.
6. Navigate back to the Develop stage (and thus the opportunity record), and we can see that there are no required fields for this stage. You can advance the sales process by selecting Next Stage after you optionally enter the suggested information.
Tip
Selecting the stages only navigates you to the stage and doesn’t actually promote the process to the next stage. The way to promote the process to the next stage is by selecting either the left- or right-pointing arrow by Next Stage on the far right. If Next Stage is not highlighted, no action is available.
7. Complete the present proposal in the Propose stage on the opportunity record. When you’re finished, mark the present proposal as complete and click Next Stage. You now move back to the opportunity and the final process, which is Close, as shown in Figure 7.9.
In this example, you completed the sales process and worked with three different record types, all on one form. In the process, you’ve seen that the navigation and system usage are very easy.
Note
You can navigate back to this record and go up and down the stages to see the various individual records, or you can navigate directly to an entity (Lead, Opportunity, or Quote) and see the records that were created as part of this process.
Stage Gating
The concept of stage gating involves providing required fields that must be populated before the user can continue. In the flow example in the preceding section, a number of stages have both required and nonrequired fields, and as noted earlier, a balance in terms of data input should determine what is required.
The Business Process
It is easy to determine what the required fields are and what the stages look like by selecting ... > Edit Process. When you do this, you open up the business process and see the included entities at the top and what fields are necessary for navigation to the next stage (see Figure 7.10).
For more information about developing and designing business processes, SEE CHAPTER 26, “Process Development.”
Leads
Leads are not customers but rather potential customers. This is an important distinction because it provides a needed level of separation when working with your customer base. As explained later in this chapter, leads are converted to customers when they become qualified. If they are disqualified, they remain as inactive leads.
Using leads properly can provide rich insight into your organization on several levels. Because leads are not yet qualified (again, they are potential customers who haven’t yet met internal criteria to be converted to customers), they should be considered the customer entry point into the CRM system.
Although it is certainly possible that you will be adding accounts and contacts directly to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, entering leads enables you to manage the following:
What new customers might be interested in your products
How your salespeople are cultivating their new customer base
What kind of criteria are being used to convert leads to customers
Note
When working with leads, you should not include potential sales information anywhere other than in the Notes and Description fields. This is because leads are considered potential customers, not potential sales. This is an important distinction: Potential sales information should be captured with an opportunity, not with a lead.
As mentioned earlier, leads are also used for specific marketing efforts. Growing businesses usually aim to add new customers, and creating marketing tailored to interested customers is much more efficient than preparing marketing for everyone.
When creating a lead, you must specify the following:
Topic—What the lead pertains to, such as the specific product or service specific to the lead
Name—The first and last name (required) of the lead (see Figure 7.11)
These fields are used when the lead is qualified and converted to an account, a contact, or an opportunity.
Working with New Leads
When working with new leads, the default business process starts automatically and attaches itself to the lead (as shown in Figure 7.11). If you have a business need to work only with leads (or any other entity) and don’t want to have a business process associated with them, you have the following options:
Remove the Lead entity from any business process.
Remove or deactivate any lead business processes.
Create a new business process flow that only references the Lead entity.
To create a new lead, navigate to Sales > Leads and select New.
Note
There is no lookup for or association with any existing data in the CRM system other than Currency, which is in the Details section of the form. This is because the lead is a new record and is not related to any existing record. If you’re creating a lead and want to associate it with an existing customer, you probably want to work with opportunities, as explained in the next section.
Although the remaining fields on the form are not required, it is helpful to populate them; the information entered and saved automatically carries over to the converted account, contact, and opportunity records when they have been qualified.
Most of the information on the various sections is self-explanatory, with the exception of Rating, in the Header section. This is a self-assessment of the lead itself and can be set to Cold, Warm, or Hot. When used properly, this setting can drive workflow events, such as a callback by the sales manager within one day if the lead is hot or within five days if the lead is cold.
The Lead Source drop-down list, shown in Figure 7.12, offers a great way of running reverse metrics on a trade show or seminar. You can easily add to this drop-down list by customizing the leadsourcecode attribute, adding specific events that your company might sponsor or attend.
Figure 7.13 shows the customization options for the Lead Source field (refer to Figure 7.12). To customize this field, navigate to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System > Customize Lead Entity. Then select Fields and the Lead Source field.
After you make this customization, you can easily determine who was contacted and at which event by querying on this field.
SEE CHAPTER 22, “Customizing Entities,” for more information on fully customizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM entities.
The Header section of the lead form enables you to set the owner, which, by default, is populated with the user who created the record, as well as the status reason, lead source, and rating. The bottom left of the form shows the status reason. When you’re working with unqualified or new leads, the status reason enables you to select whether the lead is new or contacted. When a lead is converted, the status reason changes to Qualified if the lead was converted to a customer, or it changes to the reason it was disqualified (as selected during the conversion process).
The contact methods and marketing information for leads are the same as those on the account and contact forms (see Figure 7.14).
Converting Leads
Leads are converted to customers when they have met internal qualifications and become customers. Internal qualifications can be anything from a lead indicating that he is ready to buy to a background/credit check and line-of-credit approval prepared by your accounting department. In addition, leads are converted to disqualified customers (and removed as active leads) through the conversion processes for a variety of reasons, such as lead disinterest or inability to contact the lead.
To convert a lead, select the Qualify or Disqualify option from the navigation bar. When you select Qualify, the Duplicate Warning dialog may open if triggered by your business process flow, as shown in Figure 7.15, and the lead is converted to an opportunity. If you select Disqualify from the navigation bar, you must select a reason, as shown in Figure 7.16.
Lead conversion in Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables you to quickly create the necessary customer records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM by automatically creating an account, a contact, or an opportunity from the existing information on the lead.
Lead fields are automatically mapped to your contact fields and can be customized. To customize lead fields or to view existing mappings, navigate to the Lead entity in Customizations and click 1:N Relationships. There you find the mappings (by opening contact_orginating_lead and clicking Mappings) that exist, and you can modify them as necessary.
When a lead is converted (either qualified or disqualified), the original lead record status is changed to indicate the new status of the lead, and the lead is closed. When a lead is closed, no further edits can be made to it unless it is reactivated.
Reactivating and Viewing Closed Leads
You can reactivate any closed lead by opening the closed lead and selecting Reactivate Lead from the navigation bar. Any activities remain with the lead, regardless of whether it is active or deactivated.
Caution
When a lead is reactivated for any reason, qualified records that were generated (such as accounts, contacts, or opportunities) continue to exist. You can end up creating duplicate records if you frequently reactivate closed leads.
Tip
Lead notes do not transfer to the opportunity record. Keep in mind, however, that you can still check the original lead notes by opening the lead and checking the notes there.
The next section further explains opportunities, which are the next step in the sales process. If you select only to create either an account or a contact from the lead, the customer will exist in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer base, but you will have to manually create opportunities if you choose to use them.
Caution
Depending on your security permissions, you might not be able to qualify leads that you do not own. In addition, the user of the originating lead owns all newly created records created from the conversion process.
You can view closed leads and their conversion status from the leads interface by selecting Closed Leads (see Figure 7.17). You can reactivate any lead by opening it and selecting Reactivate Lead from the navigation menu, as explained earlier.
Closed leads can be an important auditing tool for an organization because they can be analyzed to get a look at the effectiveness of your sales team and to determine which campaigns created how many leads.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes these tools for querying on the status of leads:
Two reports, the Lead Source Effectiveness report and the Neglected Leads report, found in the Report menu, in the Tools section
The lead view, which allows you to view closed leads
More complex queries using Advanced Find to determine conversion dates, as well as opportunities and customer records or associations with existing customer records
Converting Multiple Leads at Once
You can also convert multiple leads at once, if required, instead of doing so one by one. To convert multiple leads, you can either add them to a marketing list as marketing list members and then select Convert Lead from the navigation menu, or you can simply select multiple records from the lead view and then click Qualify in the navigation bar.
For information about working with marketing lists, SEE CHAPTER 8.
Opportunities
Just as a lead can ultimately lead to a customer, an opportunity is considered a potential sale. For this reason, opportunity records should associate with existing customer records. Also, although they are not a required part of a sales process, opportunities provide insight into potential upcoming sales and, when used in conjunction with the Sales Pipeline report, can be used to forecast revenue by date, probability, and potential revenue.
Opportunities tie closely to quotes, orders, and invoices because they use the base information found on the originating opportunity when they are being created. In addition, opportunities are commonly created from leads and contain the base information from the originating lead.
Opportunities are created when “an opportunity” to make a sale is found for an existing customer. Although opportunities do not require the existence of a customer record, you can easily create a new account or contact record to associate with an opportunity if the customer is new. By doing this, however, you skip the step of creating leads and then converting them to customers and opportunities. This might be how your business works. Perhaps your sales cycle is very quick, and leads are not something that you cultivate. However, if you generally have potential customers, consider using leads to qualify them and then using opportunities to build potential sales around them.
The following section shows how to create a new opportunity. However, remember that you can easily work with an opportunity that was created as part of the conversion process from a lead, as shown earlier in this chapter.
Creating a New Opportunity
To create a new opportunity, navigate to Sales > Opportunities > New. The required fields for an opportunity are Topic and Currency (see Figure 7.18).
Although the Price List field is not required, you cannot add any products to the opportunity until you have selected a price list; otherwise, you receive an error, as shown in Figure 7.19.
The following items make up the header section of an opportunity:
Est. Close Date—Indicates the date that the opportunity might be converted to a sale, which is necessary for forecasting when considering sales. Failure to enter the estimated close date prevents the opportunity from appearing on the Sales Pipeline report.
Est. Revenue—Defaults to System Calculated and, when first created, has a total value of $0. When products are added to the opportunity, the estimate revenue adjusts accordingly. Alternatively, you can select User Provided and enter any value into the Estimated Revenue text box. If User Provided is selected, however, adding products and clicking Recalculate has no effect on the estimated revenue.
Status—Shows the status of the opportunity as it moves through the qualification stages.
Owner—Shows the current owner of the opportunity. As with most other records in the system, the default is the owner who created it.
The options in the navigation bar for an opportunity (after it is saved) include Close (as either Won or Lost) and Recalculate the Opportunity.
Adding Products to an Opportunity
To create a complete opportunity, including adding products, follow these steps:
1. Select Sales > Opportunity > New.
2. Complete the Topic and Currency fields.
3. Select whether the opportunity estimated revenue should be calculated by the system or user. To have the system calculate the estimated revenue for this example, change User Provided to Revenue as System Calculated.
Tip
You can only edit Est. Revenue directly in the header if User Provided is selected in the Product Line Items section. Otherwise, the Est. Revenue field is locked because it is set to System Calculated, as shown in Figure 7.20, and it updates when product line items are added or when Recalculate Opportunity is selected.
4. Enter a value for the Est. Close Date field (recommended), and then, before you can add products, also select an option from the Price List drop-down (see Figure 7.21). The record is saved.
For information on constructing price lists, SEE CHAPTER 17, “Settings.”
5. Click the + option and then select either Existing Product or Write-in Product (see Figure 7.22).
6. Select an existing product (as shown in Figure 7.23) or a write-in product (as shown in Figure 7.24). Or select a mix of existing products and write-in products, as shown in Figure 7.25. Once the product is added to the form, perform edits appropriately on Price per Unit, Quantity, and Discount.
Note
This is one of the few places in the system where Microsoft has incorporated an “editable” inline grid that allows you to dynamically update products directly within the grid interface.
If you right-click any of the product line items, you can open that product line item directly (or in a new window) and edit it, if necessary, as shown in Figure 7.26.
Tip
If you have Revenue set to User Provided, clicking Recalculate Opportunity has no effect on the Est. Revenue field.
You can add products that are in your product catalog or write-in products. Write-in products are covered in the “Quotes, Orders, and Invoices” section, later in this chapter.
The handy Recalculate Opportunity option enables you to easily recalculate the estimated revenue when performing edits on the product line items. You might use this, for example, when you are building an opportunity and want to change the underlying price list for it, or when you are adding products and need to be sure you have the underlying calculations correct.
Closing Opportunities
Before you close an opportunity, you can associate quotes, orders, and invoices with it. When an opportunity has been realized (by either winning or losing the business), you must close it. Closing opportunities helps you effectively manage forecasted sales.
When you close an opportunity, you are prompted for information about why you are doing so. To close an opportunity, select Close as Won or Close as Lost from the navigation bar.
When an opportunity is closed, it is either won or lost. Selecting the status Won when closing an opportunity indicates that the revenue associated with the opportunity has been realized and that the business has been closed (or will be closed on the date indicated). When you select Lost, you indicate that the opportunity is no longer viable; either it has been lost to a competitor or the customer is no longer interested (see Figure 7.27).
Tip
You cannot close an opportunity (as either won or lost) if active or draft quotes are associated with it. To close such an opportunity, you must first close the active or draft quotes.
After you close an opportunity, it can no longer have new quotes, orders, and invoices associated with it unless it is reopened. You can easily reopen an opportunity by selecting Reopen Opportunity from the navigation bar (see Figure 7.28).
Caution
If you are working with probability ratings (a field not on the form by default but commonly used to manage the probability of the opportunity), closing the opportunity does not affect the probability rating of the opportunity. Depending on your situation, this might be fine, but you might end up closing opportunities with a 0 probability rating as won. Based on your business needs, you might want to consider adding a custom workflow that updates the probability rating to 0 if you close the opportunity as lost and to 100 if you close the opportunity as won.
Competitors
Managing your competitors is just as important as managing your customers. The more you know about your competition, the better you’ll be able to compete.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM can track competitors associated with your opportunities and sales literature, which provides rich information to your salesforce when working with either of these records. In addition, as previously explained in the “Opportunities” section of this chapter, closed opportunities that are lost can be associated with competitors. When you make this association, you provide the underlying data for the default Competitor Win Loss report.
A competitor record is a high-level overview of the competitor’s company, related analysis, and associated products (see Figure 7.29).
When working with competitor records, you can easily add key information about the competitor and include overview information as well as strengths and weaknesses. Any opportunities associated with a competitor will be listed on the form as well.
You can easily manage and track what competitive products might exist by adding that information to the Products section for a competitor (as shown in Figure 7.30). Be aware that the list of competitive products is limited to product lines that you maintain in your product catalog.
Note
If you want to show information related to other product lines or similar ones, consider including that information in the Notes section or creating a new entity to track that information.
Products
Products in the Sales area show the products available to sell. You can create new products directly from this interface, provided that you have the necessary security permissions to do so. You can also add products by selecting Settings > Product Catalog.
SEE CHAPTER 17 for more information about working with products.
You can now create product families and product bundles to group products. You can also use dynamic properties to let the user select the values when they are creating quotes, orders, or invoices.
Quotes, Orders, and Invoices
Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes functionality for working with the following:
Quote—A quote is a proposed offer for products or services for an existing customer. A quote can include specific payment terms, a discount, and delivery terms.
Order—An order is an accepted quote.
Invoice—An invoice is a billed order.
Additional features apply to these entities:
Multiple pricing lists/models
Line-item discounting based on volume, customer type, or manual overrides
Quote-level discounting
Note
It is important to understand how quotes, orders, and invoices work with Microsoft Dynamics products, particularly product inventory. Although Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables you to create orders, quotes, and invoices, it is not designed to be a stock-control application. If you want to affect inventory levels (quantity on hand, for instance), you must do this either with custom workflows or by integrating an accounting/ERP system. That system should also be used to handle additional calculations, such as sales tax and value-added tax (VAT).
Working with Quotes
As the name implies, a quote in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an offer to sell your product(s) or service(s) for a certain price. When working with a quote from an associated opportunity, you can generate the quote using some, all, or none of the product items on the opportunity. This means you have the flexibility to create quotes based on a number of criteria, such as mixed product-delivery dates, other optional products (referred to as write-in products), and discounts.
Several common scenarios and statuses arise when you’re working with quotes and existing opportunities. For example, say that you have an opportunity that might be realized within the next three months for $25,000. During this time period, you might prepare a quote and submit it to the customer for review. The customer might decide to move forward with the quote and agree to the sale. You would complete the sales process and close the opportunity as won.
Another scenario might be a 12-month opportunity with multiple sales activities associated with it. In this example, it could be product sales every 30 days. Instead of creating 12 opportunities, you could create one opportunity for the total amount and then create 12 associated quotes (and orders and invoices). This is a little tricky from a forecasting perspective, however, because your realized/earned dollars will be represented on the invoices, and your estimated revenue will be consistent with a single close date.
Working with Quotes with Associated Opportunities
A quotes does not need to have an associated opportunity. However, some advantages apply to working with quotes that have associated opportunities:
Quotes can easily get product information from the opportunity.
When a quote is spawned from an opportunity directly (by selecting Quote from the opportunity record rather than selecting Quote from the Sales area), the quote information is autopopulated with the underlying customer and product information.
Although it might not apply to your organization, business rules can be enforced if you require a quote to have an active/open opportunity.
As with the previous version of Dynamics CRM, the ability to reflect both negative quantity and sales amounts exists.
You can create a quote by selecting Sales > Quotes > New (see Figure 7.31).
When working with quotes, it is important to understand their status options:
Draft
Active
Won
Closed
Figure 7.32 illustrates how a quote correlates to an existing customer, products/price lists (required), and opportunities (optional), and also shows the status options.
Draft Status
A quote is likely to be revised many times, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM has built-in functionality for this via the draft status and active status.
When a quote is in draft status, it has been created but is generally not ready to be submitted to customers. This is the only time quotes can be completely modified with products added or removed and discounts applied as well as deleted (see Figure 7.33).
Revising Quotes
After a quote is created, CRM automatically sets the Quote ID field by using the auto-numbering set up by the system administrator. You can change this by configuring Auto-Numbering in the Settings area. The Revision ID field is automatically established and set as 0 when first created. If the quote is revised, it goes from active to draft status, and the Revision ID setting automatically increases. You can modify the Name field, but it is the same as the name of the opportunity that spawned it and blank if it is not associated with an opportunity. The Potential Customer, Currency, and Price List fields must be selected and are also the same as for the opportunity that spawned the quote; with the exception of the Currency field (which defaults to the base currency), these fields are blank if there is no associated opportunity.
Refer to CHAPTER 17 for more information about working with the auto-numbering option.
Quote Details
The quote form includes the following sections:
Shipping Information section—The Shipping section has the Shipping Method, Payment, and Freight Terms fields (see Figure 7.34)
Addresses section—The Summary tab includes address information that enables you to easily set the billing and shipping information for the quote. By default, this information is blank, regardless of whether the customer has this information on file. You can either manually enter it here or select Look Up Address on the navigation bar. If you select Look Up Address, the dialog box shown in Figure 7.35 appears.
From this dialog, you can select to autopopulate either the Bill to Address or the Ship to Address information with address information from customer records. When you select the lookup option, you can see the addresses that you have on file, listed by address name.
Tip
When CRM autopopulates, it pulls only from the More Addresses section of the selected customer.
This example has only one address on file for the customer, but you select it as the address for both the Bill To and Ship To addresses. After you select it, click OK. The address information is then populated in the Addresses section.
Tip
The Look Up Address option overwrites any existing address information entered. If you want to edit or add information related to the addresses, be sure to perform the lookup first and then edit it.
Options in the draft status—When in draft status, a quote has a large amount of flexibility. Options exist to add products (both existing and write-in) and perform a number of actions from the navigation menu. These options include the following:
Add Existing Products
Add Write-in Products
Look Up Address
Get Products
Activate Quote
Print Quote for Customer
Run the Quote Report
Add Existing Products—You can add products to a quote in several ways:
If the quote is spawned from an opportunity, the products are automatically listed on the Existing Products tab.
You can add an existing product to the quote, regardless of whether the product is on the underlying opportunity, by selecting the + in the Products section and then selecting Existing Product (see Figure 7.36).
You can select + in the Products section and then select Get Products. This option automatically adds the product list from any existing opportunity (see Figure 7.37).
Add Write-in Products—If your product catalog doesn’t have the product, you can manually create it on-the-fly by selecting Write-in Products > New Quote Product. From this screen, you can add virtually anything and complete the necessary fields. The quote reflects the new total, including this information.
Delete the Quote—To delete a quote, select Delete from the navigation bar.
Activate Quote—When the quote has been completed and you are ready to send it to the customer, you must activate it. This changes the status of the quote to active and prevents further modifications. To activate a quote, select Activate Quote from the navigation bar. When a quote is active, it must be revised before it can be modified. Revising a quote is explained further in the bullet “Active Status” below.
Print Quote for Customer—You can print a quote for a customer at any point in time by selecting the Print Quote for Customer option from the navigation bar. When the Print Quote option is selected, a mail merge is started that enables you to merge data fields from the Quote into a Microsoft Word document (see Figure 7.38). With the mail merge you can select a template language and merge to either a blank document or an organizational or personal template, and you can also select the data fields. By default, Microsoft Dynamics CRM comes with an organizational template for quotes called Quote for Customer.
If you select the Print Quote option, be sure you have customized it for your organizational layout requirements by modifying the quote template report.
Active Status—When a quote moves to active status, it has been or will shortly be submitted to the customer and therefore can’t be edited. Figure 7.39 shows an active status quote that indicates that it is read-only mode (at the lower-right corner).
If modifications are necessary, you can revise the quote by selecting Revise from the navigation bar. Revising a quote closes the existing quote, opens a new quote with a status of draft, and assigns a new revision ID. The quote ID remains the same, however.
Revise, Close, or Convert the Quote to an Order—A quote can be revised, closed, or won (converted to an order). To convert a quote to an order, select Create Order from the navigation bar. Selecting Create Order opens the Create Order dialog (see Figure 7.40).
The Create Order dialog enables you to select the date the order was won and to calculate the revenue or enter it manually; you can also close the related opportunity. After you click OK, the status of the quote changes to Won, and the corresponding order opens.
A quote that is in won status generally has an order associated with it, but you can select Create Order and create another order, if necessary. Quotes that are in closed status can be revised and reactivated for approval or made active.
Working with Orders
An order is created when a customer is ready to make a purchase. The customer either has accepted the quote or is ready to make a purchase, regardless of a quote.
Tip
Keep in mind that a quote is not required to create an order. While an order can be spawned from a quote, orders are separate entities and many have no quote correlation.
Figure 7.41 illustrates how an order correlates to an existing customer (required), products/price lists (required), opportunities (optional), and quotes (optional).
When working with orders, it is important to understand their different status options:
Active
Fulfilled
Canceled
An active order can be deleted, canceled, and edited (see Figure 7.42). Editing an active order includes updating products associated with the order, as well as discount, shipping, and address information.
An order that has been fulfilled has had its products shipped or delivered. To fulfill an order, select Fulfill Order from the navigation bar. The Fulfill Order dialog appears (see Figure 7.43). This dialog enables you to indicate that the order has been shipped.
When selecting how to fulfill an order, remember that you cannot edit the order after you select any option, including Partial Fulfillment.
You can select whether an order should use current pricing or whether to lock the pricing. This is a helpful option when there are price fluctuations and the order might remain unfulfilled for a period of time. By default, the prices are locked if an order is created from a quote, but you can change that by selecting Use Current Pricing from the navigation bar.
Finally, you can create an invoice from an order by selecting Create Invoice from the navigation bar. When you create an Invoice from an order, the order remains in active status until it is fulfilled.
Working with Invoices
When the terms of a sale have been completed, the sale is recorded in the system using an invoice. When working with invoices, it is important that you understand their different status options:
Active
Closed
Figure 7.44 illustrates how an invoice correlates to an existing customer (required), products/price lists (required), opportunities (optional), and quotes (optional).
An invoice is very similar to an order, in that you can perform the following actions:
You can add new products from your product catalog.
You can perform various functions on the invoice, including selecting whether to use current or locked pricing and recalculate accordingly.
Figure 7.45 illustrates an active invoice. The tab options for Shipping, Addresses, Administration, and Notes are similar to those defined in quotes.
As with order fulfillment, if you mark an invoice as paid, you have the option to select Partial or Complete (see Figure 7.46). After you mark an invoice as Paid or Partial, you cannot edit it.
Note
When working with a back-end accounting or ERP system, you might often create and manage orders in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and have them posted (when approved) in the back-end/ERP system. Doing so can enforce more complex business rules (such as VAT calculations), and the back-end/ERP posting process should be responsible for creating an invoice record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM so that sales staff can see the process status without having to navigate to the ERP system.
Extending functionally of sales quotes, orders, and invoices to specific back-end/ERP systems is beyond the scope of this book. You can learn more about extending functionality in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Integration Unleashed.
Goals, Goal Metrics, and Rollup Queries
Goals allow an organization to capture and track achievements. A nice aspect of goals is that they are not singularly revenue based (that is, the total sum of something sold for a given period) but rather can be aggregate based (such as the total number of cases closed). As such, they provide a robust format for capturing performance metrics.
To create goals, you first need to create goal metrics and rollup queries. Goal metrics are used to determine which metric you want to use to measure your goal (count or amount), and rollup queries are the specific field you want to pull the data from.
By default, you can find at least three goal metrics included with the system (see Figure 7.47):
No. of Cases
No. of Product Units
Revenue
Defining Goal Metrics
To create a new goal metric, select New and then follow the steps on the Goal Metric interface (see Figure 7.48):
1. Define the metric by completing the Name and the Metric Type fields. The Metric Type field can be either Count or Amount. For this example, you want to track the dollar amounts of new leads created.
Note
The Metric Type field can’t be changed once the record is created.
If you select the Track Stretch Target check box, you have the option of using this metric to have a stretch target field, which means the main goal has two target values: a regular (target) value and a stretch target value. If you leave this unchecked, you’re assuming a single target for the salesperson, and there isn’t an option for stretch on the salesperson’s fixed goal.
Think of stretch targets as “overachiever” goals for salespeople. Organizations typically use stretch targets as extra incentives. I’ve worked with organizations that have set up stretch goals, and if they’re hit by all the salespeople, then everybody gets a prize such as a new Microsoft Surface.
2. Create a new Rollup field that tracks the metric data by selecting File > Add New Rollup Field (see Figure 7.49).
Tip
You cannot create a new rollup metric or add a new one until the form is saved and you are presented with the List Tools ribbon menu, as shown in Figure 7.49.
3. Set the field for Rollup Field to Actual (Money).
4. Complete the source data fields.
5. Complete the date field for the rollup. Figure 7.50 shows an example of a created rollup field.
6. Click Save to finish creating the goal metric and the rollup query associated with it.
Creating a New Goal
You can create a goal by completing the following steps:
1. Select Goal > New from the navigation bar. The New Goal interface opens (see Figure 7.51).
2. Complete the following fields on the form:
Name—The name of the goal.
Parent Goal—Whether this is a child goal.
Goal Metric—Reference to the previously created goal metric.
Goal Owner—Who owns this goal.
Manager—The user’s manager for a team goal.
Goal Period Type—By default, Fiscal Period, but you can select any custom period you define (by selecting Custom Period).
Fiscal Period—The period for which the goal should be applicable.
Fiscal Year—Either current or future years. (This is set in Settings > Business.)
Targets are not shown on the goal form unless the Track Target Stretch Goal option is selected on the goal metric. If it is selected, populate the target with the goal’s target value and stretch target with the appropriate value for the stretch goal.
You can add additional child goals to the goal. Because goals can have a parent/child relationship, the child goal shares its data with the parent goal when it is rolled up to the parent level.
Results of the goals are shown in the Actual section on the form.
Tip
Actuals data is run once every 24 hours (as found on the Goals tab in System Settings); however, you can click the Recalculate button at the top of the form to refresh the data.
Setting Goal Criteria
You can set goal criteria that are used for rolling up actuals data against the goal:
Roll Up Only from Child Goals—Sets the goal as a summary of only child goals or as a summation of both child and parent goals.
Record Set for Rollup—Limits the rollup to include only the owner or all records and has an effect on the underlying data, depending on desired results.
Rollup Query—Selects the query used for rollup: Actual, In-Progress, or Custom Rollup Field.
The usual scenario with parent/child goals is a manager who has multiple salespeople comprising the manager’s total/overall goal, and the salespeople’s goals are usually child goals summarized into the manager’s goal.
Summary
This chapter shows how to work with the Sales area of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The most important aspects to remember from this chapter are that leads are separated from the regular customer base and that you can convert them to accounts, contacts, or opportunities by using the included sales force automation.
In addition, this chapter explains how to manage and use opportunities, and it thoroughly examines the quotes, orders, and invoice functionality. Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not designed to be a stock control, accounting, or invoicing system, you should consider integrating with other applications (ERP/accounting systems) if necessary.
The chapter concludes with a review of the features provided with goals and goal management. It is important to remember that a number of sales charts available by default on the dashboards use goal data for performance indicators.