Creating and Using Opportunities

Business Contact Manager is geared primarily to people in sales, and the inclusion of the Opportunity item type illustrates that focus. You can use opportunities to track sales leads at various stages, from the initial inquiry through to the placement of the order.

To create a new opportunity, open the Opportunities folder and click New on the toolbar; or chose File, New, and then Opportunity. As Figure 19-23 illustrates, the General page for an Opportunity item includes a name for the opportunity, source for the lead, stage of the sale, and product list, among other sales-related fields. The User-Defined Fields page enables you to include additional fields to specify additional information in your Opportunities form, and the Details page provides a place to add comments.

An Opportunity item defines a sale or a potential sale.

Figure 19-23. An Opportunity item defines a sale or a potential sale.

Like the other forms discussed in this chapter, the Opportunity form starts with you specifying a title describing the nature of the opportunity, and then choosing to whom the opportunity is assigned. Each opportunity must be associated with an account or a business contact by the Link To options on the opportunity’s General page, just under the Opportunity title.

Business Contact Manager displays the Link To An Account Or A Business Contact dialog box (see Figure 19-24), in which you can either Search (using the Search box) or select a category—either Accounts or Business Contacts under the Folder heading. After you have selected a category (Accounts or Business Contacts), select a name from the list for the opportunity to be linked to. Alternatively, you can choose to create a new account or business contact by clicking New and completing the information for the account or business contact. Choose the desired Account or Business Contact and click Link To and then click OK to link it to the opportunity.

Use the Link To An Account Or A Business Contact dialog box to choose a contact or account to associate with the opportunity.

Figure 19-24. Use the Link To An Account Or A Business Contact dialog box to choose a contact or account to associate with the opportunity.

If you choose the command to create a new account or contact, Business Contact Manager prompts you to enter the name and related information for the account or contact. After you enter the name and click OK, Business Contact Manager creates a new item of the selected type and associates it with the opportunity.

Creating and Managing Products

In addition to the general information included in an opportunity, you can also track specific sale-related information, including products and services. Business Contact Manager creates a product and service database in which you maintain your company’s line of products and services, and you can add items to the opportunity from this database. You can add existing items to the opportunity or create new items in the database as needed.

To manage this product and services list, from the Outlook 2007 toolbar, choose Business Contact Manager, Product And Service Items list to open the Products And Services dialog box (see Figure 19-25). This dialog box lists the existing product items in the database and enables you to add, edit, or delete products or services or import a list of products and services from another source.

Use the Products And Services dialog box to add or modify products in the database.

Figure 19-25. Use the Products And Services dialog box to add or modify products in the database.

To add a new item, click Add to display the Add Product Or Service dialog box or click Edit to display the Edit Product Or Service dialog box, shown in Figure 19-26. Enter information in the Item Name, Description, Default Quantity, Unit Cost, and Unit Price fields; select the check box next to Taxable if the item is a taxable transaction; and then click Save to add the information to the database. Repeat the process to edit or add other items to the product database.

Enter a new item or edit an existing item to manage your Products And Services database.

Figure 19-26. Enter a new item or edit an existing item to manage your Products And Services database.

Note

You probably already have a product database outside Business Contact Manager. If so, you can import the database to Business Contact Manager, instead of re-creating all the entries, and save a lot of time and effort. See the section "Importing Products" later in this chapter to learn how.

Adding Products to an Opportunity

As you learned earlier, an opportunity can include a list of products to be included in the sale. To add products, open the opportunity; on the General page, in the Product And Services section, click Add.

Business Contact Manager displays an Add Product Or Service dialog box that is similar to the Add Product Or Service dialog box you use to create products in the database, but as Figure 19-27 illustrates, you can enter additional information, including Quantity, Line Total (Before Discount), and Discount (%). The dialog box also shows the subtotal (Line Total) for the item.

Add a product, set quantity, line total, and other items with the Add Product Or Service dialog box.

Figure 19-27. Add a product, set quantity, line total, and other items with the Add Product Or Service dialog box.

You can create an item on the fly with this dialog box, but it’s more likely you will want to select an existing item from the product database. Click the down arrow in the Item Name field to edit a product. Business Contact Manager imports the product information from the database, and you can then set the Quantity, Line Total (Before Discount), or Discount (%) as needed. Click OK to close the dialog box and return to the Opportunity form, or click Add Next to add the current item, clear the form, and add another item.

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