Using Sales Process Manager

The Opportunity Progress Summary shows you key information about the progress of the opportunity.

Timeline area

• Measure of Progress: This percentage value is calculated automatically. It gives you an estimate of how far you have progressed through the sales cycle.
• Start Date: This is the date that the opportunity was first created.
• Today: This shows you today’s date and its position relative to the start date and projected close date.
• Projected Close Date: This value is calculated automatically.
• "days earlier"/"days later": This tells you the difference between the "CRM close date", which is set in the Salesforce opportunity, and the projected close date calculated by Sales Process Manager.

Sales process, dates, and value

• Dealmaker Pipeline Stage

The current stage is automatically determined by the software. It can't be set manually. It is the stage for which:

• You have reached the qualification threshold in all previous stages.
• You have answered all mandatory qualifying questions in previous stages.
• You have made a start on the stage.

In the example above, the stage is Target Selected.

Note: You can complete activities in any stage at any time. However, the software progresses the opportunity to the next stage only when you have made sufficient progress in a stage, as defined in the sales process.

• Sales Process

The sales process that applies to this opportunity. A particular set of qualifiers and verifiable outcomes is associated with each pipeline stage in each sales process.

• Add Pause Date

If the opportunity is delayed for some reason – such as postponed decision-making or the buyer being on vacation – you can use the Pause Date field to specify the date on which the opportunity will next be worked.

When you pause a deal, the software automatically pushes out the projected close date by the duration of the pause, and adjusts the relative position of today’s date.

• CRM Close Date

The value in the Close Date field in the Salesforce opportunity record.

• Projected Close Date

This is calculated automatically by the software based on the sales process rules and the progress of qualifiers and verifiable outcomes in this opportunity.

• Opportunity Value

This is the total value of the opportunity.

• Process Superseded

Suppose that you edit an existing sales process.

If you have Write access to an opportunity, and its sales process has been updated since the opportunity was last saved, values such as Measure of Progress and Days to Close are automatically recalculated by the software the next time you refresh or open the opportunity.

Until this happens, the Process Superseded symbol is shown. This indicates that the calculations may currently be out of sync. With Write access, you can click the symbol if you want to refresh the opportunity straight away.

Projected to Close, Deal Size, Sales Cycle

• Projected to Close

Indicates that the deal is not projected to close based on the currently available information.

Indicates that the deal is projected to close based on the currently available information.

• Deal Size

This indicates the relative value of the opportunity. The three categories are Large ($$$), Average ($$$) and Small ($$$).

• Sales Cycle

This graphic indicates the velocity of the opportunity through the sales process.

The sales process defines how long it should take for the sales process to progress from one stage to the next.

This duration is the sum of the previous stage durations. It doesn't take into account work done in the current stage or the duration of the current stage.

So you may be well advanced in the current stage, but until you actually progress to the next stage, this is not reflected by the velocity calculation.

The sales cycle is considered to be on schedule if the age of the opportunity is within 10% of the amount of time the sales process specifies it should take to reach the current stage.

• Three arrows indicates that the opportunity is ahead of schedule. (It has reached its current stage in less than 90% of the expected time.)
• Two arrows indicates that opportunity is on schedule.
• One arrow indicates that the opportunity is behind schedule. (It has reached its current stage in greater than 110% of the expected time.)

A well-crafted sales process is an accurate reflection of the customer’s buying process.

Within each stage, the sales process includes suitable qualif and verifiable outcomes. In simple terms, these are just questions that you need to ask yourself.

• A qualifier is something that the sales person does, a best-practice step that can progress the opportunity.

A typical qualifier is: “Have you confirmed that the target customer is in our sweet spot?”

• A verifiable outcome is something the customer does, evidence that the buying process is moving forward.

An typical verifiable outcome is: “Has the customer confirmed the date by which the project needs to be completed?”

Qualifiers and verifiable outcomes are usually self-explanatory. However, you can use the info (i) icon to get further clarification if necessary.

When a qualifier or verifiable outcome is of particular importance, it may be mandatory. If so, it is marked with a red asterisk.

The opportunity can't progress to the next stage until all mandatory qualifiers and verifiable outcomes are completed.

Each stage in each sales process has a particular set of qualifiers and verifiable outcomes. In this example, the Qualification stage has five qualifiers and verifiable outcomes: