By now you're probably chomping at the bit in anticipation of creating a new opportunity. If you've already followed the previous recipes in this chapter you have all the tools you need to start adding an opportunity. You've created your process and the corresponding stages, added in your products and possibly even included a new field or two. There's only one thing missing: you need to try to sell someone something!
Many ACT! users get a bit confused as to when they should begin to add new opportunities to their database and start to create opportunities for any and all of their prospects. If that's the case you might consider this rule of thumb: don't add new opportunities until you have qualified a prospect to determine that he's interested in doing business with you and that you're interested in doing business with him. The opportunity area is the only area of ACT! that performs calculations so there's no sense creating an opportunity until you have some idea of the value of an opportunity unless you're using opportunities to track projects.
- Perform a lookup to find the contact for whom you're creating an opportunity.
- Create a new opportunity by clicking the Opportunities tab and then clicking the New Opportunity icon on the Opportunities tab icon bar. The Opportunity Detail view will open like the one you see in the following figure:
- Give the opportunity a name. If you don't give the opportunity a name, ACT! automatically assigns one: New Opportunity.
- Select a process from the Process drop-down list.
- Select a stage from the Stage drop-down list. If you don't select one, ACT! will default to the first stage of the process.
- Change the probability of closing (optional). By default, the probability you assigned to the sales stage when you set up the sales process already appears.
- Enter the estimated close date. By default, today's date appears but you should change it to your best guess as to when you'll actually be able to close the opportunity.
- Click the Contacts tab and click the Add/Remove Contacts button on the Contacts tab to associate additional contacts with the opportunity (optional).
- Click the Products/Services tab and click the Add button. The Add/Edit Product dialog window will open like the following figure:
- Choose a product or service name from the Name drop-down list and then fill in the quantity if you are adding more than one of the product to the opportunity. Optionally, you can change the price if necessary.
- Click OK to close the Add/Edit Product dialog window.
- Repeat Steps 9, 10, and 11 above to add more products to the opportunity (optional).
- Fill in any additional opportunity fields that are pertinent to the opportunity (optional).
Your new opportunity will now appear on the opportunity tab of the contact's record and in the Opportunity List view. You'll also notice that ACT! automatically filled in several fields including the creation date and the name of the person who created the opportunity. The person who created the opportunity is automatically listed as the Record Manager of the opportunity; they can reassign the opportunity to another Record Manager if needed, or wait until a Manager or Administrator changes it. The Days Open counter starts running so that you'll know exactly how long the opportunity has been open.
Because an opportunity is a separate entity you can work with it in much the same way that you work with other records types. You can head to the Notes tab and add a note, schedule a follow-up activity, and even associate the opportunity with existing groups and companies. You'll also want to check out the opportunity's history tab where you'll find a running list of all the changes that you've made to the opportunity.
New ACT! users are often confused about the probabilities that are associated with the sales stages. By using probabilities you'll be able to have a better idea of the amount of revenue you can expect to see in the coming months. Probabilities are based on the assumption that even the best sales person can't close 100% of their projected sales. For example, the first stage in your process might be Initial Communication and you might give this stage a 10% probability of closing. Of course you can change that probability on an individual opportunity basis if you want to.
The weighted total gives you a more realistic idea of the amount of future earnings. When you create a new opportunity the probability percentage is multiplied by the total value of the opportunity to give you a weighted total. The status bar at the bottom of a contact's Opportunities tab and the one that runs along the bottom of the Opportunity List shows the weighted total as well as a grand total of all the opportunities that are listed.
Feel free to overwrite the default price of a product as you create the opportunity. You can |also lower (or raise!) a price if you're extending special pricing to a customer by using one of these methods:
- Enter a new price in the Adjusted Price field of the Add/Edit Product dialog window. ACT! will automatically calculates the discount percentage.
- Enter a discount percentage in the Discount field of the Add/Edit Product dialog window. ACT! automatically calculates the adjusted price.