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- Opportunity Management
Opportunity Management is a part of Customer Relationship Management, which enables you to control your sales process. You can also do this in CRM Mobile, Partner Channel Management and the Interaction Center. An opportunity is a recognized possibility for an enterprise, for example, for sales of products or services. An opportunity can, for example, result from a trade fair, a sales deal or a bid invitation. The Opportunity describes the sales prospects, their requested products and services, the sales prospects' budget, the potential sales volume and an estimated sales probability. This information becomes concrete in the course of the sales cycle, and can be displayed and evaluated in the system. Opportunity Management provides the framework for presenting sales projects from the very start, and tracking their progress. In this way, it provides the basis for an analysis and optimization of your enterprise. It is particularly recommended that you use Opportunity Management if: Many sales representatives work for you Large sales order values are distributed The sales cycle spans a long time period of time Opportunity Management allows you to construct a sales methodology to suit your sales processes. Your sales employees are coached through the steps of an ideal sales process from identifying the lead to closing the sale. For more information, see the documentation for Sales Methodology. You can insert documents into an opportunity, and manage them. For example, product presentations which you have received for the opportunity, correspondence or material such as sketches, building plans and so on. You can use integrated Content Management here.

Integration
To process opportunities directly using the sales organization, and for the sales control to work efficiently, it is important that you also have access to a front end solution for offline business. SAP offers such a solution with CRM Mobile. An exchange between the two systems takes place through interfaces. Opportunity Management works with SAP Business Partner and is integrated into CRM Partner Processing and CRM Organizational Management. The following is contained in the CRM documentation: Business Partners Organizational Management Partner Processing

Example
1. A lead has been created by an employee in Marketing, as a result of a campaign, for example, an e-mail campaign. This lead has been designated as a hot lead by a sales representative. The lead is forwarded by workflow to the sales employee responsible, such as the sales representative or sales manager. 2. You receive the lead in your workflow and then check it and accept it. The system creates an opportunity automatically, and copies the data from the lead according to the

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copying control defined in Customizing. This data could include, for example, a description for the new opportunity and a business partner. You contact the prospect, and enter further data relating to the opportunity, such as the estimated date of close, expected sales revenue, status, products, and members of the sales team. The system creates an activity plan according to the Customizing settings, which proposes specific activities for the different phases of the opportunity. For more information, see the documentation for Sales Assistant. You activate the required activities, and add new ones as required. You put together a specific activity plan for this opportunity. For opportunities which last over a long period of time, you plan the distribution of the expected sales revenue and order quantities, for the following months or the next quarter. You qualify the opportunity using the Opportunity Assessment, together with the chance of success calculated by the system resulting from the assessment. Based on this, you decide whether the project can be continued: Go/No Go Decision. You work with other elements of the Sales Methodology, such as the Buying Center, Project Goals and Competitor Information. You present the solution to the sales prospect, and create a quotation. After successful sales negotiations, you create an order. You set the status of the opportunity to won. For the analysis of the completed sales projects, you can carry out an assessment based onwon or lost opportunities in SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence.

Opportunity
An opportunity is a recognized possibility for an enterprise, for example, for sales of products or services. An opportunity goes through a sales cycle which is divided into various sales stages. The sales cycle is defined according to time, from the start date to the estimated end date of an opportunity. A sales stage is a section of the sales process, in which specific activities are carried out. A phase could be, for example: preselection, first contact, presentation, quotation phase, or contract phase. The sales process ends with a sales order or a rejection. The Opportunity describes the customers (sales prospects), their requested products and services, the total volume of the customer project, the potential sales volume, and an estimated sales probability. This information becomes more and more concrete throughout the sales course, and is to be updated regularly by the sales employee. An opportunity provides the framework for presenting sales projects from the very start, and tracking their progress.

Structure
The following sales information can be recorded in an opportunity:

Partner information

Customer (sales prospect), employee responsible

In the Parties Involved assignment block, other internal and external partner functions, such as sales representative and ship-to party. NOTE You can change a party involved by clicking Edit List, selecting the party to be changed and clicking Propose Alternatives. If a suitable alternative is available, you can select it from a dropdown list of results. Buying center This comprises the contacts who influence the buying process and the relationships between them.

Information about the sales cycle

Sales cycle Start date and estimated end date of the sales project Current sales stage within the sales cycle and date on which this phase began Estimated sales probability within the current stage Status of the opportunity and the date from when the opportunity has had this status Reason for status (won, lost)

Forecast Data
Expected (estimated) sales volume for opportunity Expected net value of products or services (this is the cumulated, expected product value from the items) Budget that the customer (sales prospect) has access to for the project In each stage of the sales cycle, you can decide whether or not the data for the expected sales volume is to be entered for the sales volume forecast. You set the indicator for forecast relevance only if you are sure that the opportunity is likely to be completed successfully.

Information about classification of opportunities

The following data is used for classifying opportunities, and provides the basis for global analyses and evaluations. Opportunity group This allows you to display various business areas or enterprise initiatives using different methods. EXAMPLE You can carry out an evaluation of all opportunities belonging to the New customersor Existing Customers group. This can be performed even if you work globally; for example, if different transaction types are used in the USA and Europe. Origin of the opportunity (for example, trade fair) Priority of the opportunity for your sales

Texts
In the opportunity, you can create, change, or display different text types for your own use or for your correspondence with business partners.

Organizational data
Opportunity Management is integrated into CRM Organizational Management. Here, you can define the data for the sales organization.

Products
In an opportunity, you can enter information about several products or services. This means that you can create your own item per product or service. You can enter the name of a product category that is maintained in the system. If you do not know the exact product name or product category, you can enter a rough product name first. You then receive an error message related to this in the message log. In this case, you can only save the opportunity as incomplete. You can enter the product quantity and expected product value at item level. If a product that has been maintained in the system is entered, the system creates the exact value from pricing.

Managing attachments
You can insert documents into an opportunity, and manage them. For example, product presentations that you have received for the opportunity, correspondence or material such as sketches, building plans, and so on.

Other Information
In addition, you can also maintain the following information relevant to opportunities: Competitors and their products Planned and completed activities for the opportunity Notes, attachments and milestones relevant for the opportunity Subopportunities In a product suboverview page, in the Subopportunities assignment block, you can link a subopportunity directly to the product in the master opportunity rather to the opportunity itself. Opportunity maintenance also allows you to Redetermine Parties. NOTE Partner redetermination depends on the settings you have made in Customizing for CRM by choosing Basic Functions Partner Processing Define Partner Determination Procedure. For more information, see the documentation for this Customizing activity.

Mapping of the Sales Cycle

The sales cycle of a product or service begins when an opportunity for sales is recognized. This can arise by chance, for example, if a sales employee finds out about a worthwhile investment project during a conversation. The process ends with a sales order or a rejection from the customer. In the meantime, various sales activities, such as sending information material, customer visits, product presentations, quotations or contractual negotiations, take place. An opportunity goes through a sales cycle that is characterized by different stages. Specific sales activities are carried out in these stages.

Prerequisites

You have defined sales cycles and the relevant stages in a sales cycle in Customizing, to suit the needs of your company. You have also defined a sales cycle for new- or existing customers. The sales cycle for new customers can incorporate stages such as initial contact, brochure dispatch, presentations or quotations. If necessary, other sales stages can be used in the sales cycle for existing customers.

You can find information about setting up sales cycles and sales stages for Opportunity Management in the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Customer Relationship Management by choosing Transactions Settings for Opportunities .

Reason for Status

In order to achieve quality opportunity analysis, you must be able to evaluate the result of an opportunity (won, lost), and, depending on the result, to document and evaluate the reasons. The reason depends on the status of the opportunity. EXAMPLE An opportunity has the status won. The reason for the successful result is because it is the best product on the market. Status: won Reason: best product

Prerequisites
Opportunity Management uses object status management for the reason for status. You can work completely flexibly with your customized status. In Customizing, you can set your system so that your sales employees receive default values for the reason, depending on the status of the opportunity. You can use the reason for status at header or item level. For more information, see Detailed Information at Item Level. You can find information about setting status reasons for Opportunity Management in Customizing forSAP CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities .

2.-Working with Products

In an opportunity, you can enter information about several products or services. This way, you can work with sales- and service products. You can create your own item for each product or service. In the course of the sales cycle, the information gathered helps to establish in detail which products or services the customer needs, and in what quantities. You may not know the product hierarchy or product category at first. The exact product ID becomes clear further on in the process. The opportunity enables you to work flexibly. If you do not know the exact product description or product category, you can enter a rough product description first. You then receive a corresponding message in the message log. You can only partially save the opportunity in this case. You can enter the product quantity and expected product value at item level. If you enter a product that already exists, the exact value is determined from pricing. From the Subopportunities assignment block, you can also create a new subopportunity that links directly to the product rather than the master opportunity. The expected total value of all items is displayed as a cumulative value on the overview page of the opportunity under Opportunity: Details. For more information about using products and product categories, see Products.

Detailed Product Information

The following functions and information are available at item level, that is, for each product: Item details Product information Conditions Product and competitor information Partners Configuration

Features
Item details
You can maintain the quantity, the expected product value and the item category for each product on the Opportunity Item page. You can set a status for each product (for example, in process, open, won and so on). For more information, see Reason for Status. You can also enter dates for each item. For more information, see Dates and the documentation for date management Dates in Business Transactions. NOTE If you want to work at item level with status management, you need to maintain status management in Customizing and assign a corresponding status profile for the item category. For more information, see Customizing for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) by choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Basic Settings Status Management . To maintain dates at item level, define a date profile in Customizing and assign it to an item category. For more information, see Customizing for CRM by choosing Basic Functions Date Management .

Product information
The three text types, product description, competitor item and item note, are available in the standard configuration in the Product information assignment block. The product description text already contains the product description from the product master data of the product and, if available, the product display specified in the master data. You can also enhance the product description text with your own text information. NOTE This assignment block is only displayed if you have entered a text determination procedure for the item category being used. For more information, see Customizing forCRM, by choosing Customer Relationship Management Basic Functions Text Management .

Conditions
The conditions for the product are displayed in this assignment block. NOTE This assignment block is only displayed if you have entered a text document pricing procedure for the transaction type being used. The Relevant for pricing flag must also be selected for the corresponding item category.

Competitor product information

You can specify possible competitors for each item in the Competitors assignment block. NOTE This assignment block can only be displayed if you have set up a partner determination procedure in Customizing that contains at least one partner function category competitor. This partner determination procedure must also be assigned to the corresponding item category.

Partners
You can specify partners for each item on the Partner assignment block. NOTE This assignment block can only be displayed if you have entered a corresponding partner determination procedure in Customizing for the item category of a product. This partner determination procedure must contain the partner function category sales partner in the procedure.

Configuration
If you have a material that can be configured, the Configuration assignment block is displayed.

Working With Competitor Products

Within the opportunity, you can search for competitor products for your own product. This enables you to maintain an overview of the market situation easily, and to prepare for customer visits in the optimum way. This function is also available to you in CRM Mobile. In order that you can search for competitor products for your own products that have already been entered, the product master data has to have been maintained accordingly. This means that corresponding competitor products have to be maintained for the products that you sell.

Prerequisites
Competitor products have to be entered as master data. You have made the required settings for displaying competitor products in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) under Transactions Basic Settings Define Transaction Types.

Activities
Depending on what you have specified in the above Customizing activity, the following is displayed on the opportunity overview page: If you leave the selection blank, you can display competitors without products at header and item level. If you choose Header Mode, you can display competitors with products at header level. In this case, the competitors and competitor products refer to the entire opportunity, not to individual items. If you choose Item Mode, you can display competitors with products at item level. In this case, the competitors and competitor products refer to only one item, that is, you can define the corresponding competitors and competitor products separately for each item in your opportunity.

The OPCP item category is not available for competitor products in the standard (it is not pricing-relevant).

2.1.-Transferring Data for Sales Volume Forecast

As a sales employee, you can enter the expected sales volume and chance of success as a percentage for each phase, when processing an opportunity. Using an indicator, you can then specify whether this data should be entered in the sales volume forecast. The data is sent to SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) as a basis for sales volume forecasts. NOTE You should only set the Relevant for Forecast indicator if you are sure that the opportunity will very likely be completed successfully.

2.2.- Classification of Opportunities

To use opportunities to perform evaluations or global analyses in the sales area, you can classify opportunities according to the following criteria: Opportunity group This allows you to display various business areas or enterprise initiatives by using different methods. EXAMPLE You can perform an evaluation of all opportunities belonging to the New Customersor Existing Customers group. This can be performed even if you work globally; for example, if different transaction types are used in the USA and Europe. Source (origin) of the opportunity (for example, trade fair) This classification offers the basis for analyses, such as the expected percentage of sales volume from trade fairs. Priority of the opportunity for your organization

Prerequisites
You can predefine these classification criteria for document processing in Customizing for CRM. The values defined in Customizing are then offered for the relevant fields in the document in the input help. For more information about setting the classification criteria opportunity group, origin and priority, see Customizing for CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities .

2.3.- Milestones
Date management enables you to use as many dates as you require in a transaction. You can specify dates, or the system can calculate dates using date types, time durations and date rules. You can define the date rules according to your requirements. You can use date management in the opportunity to define milestones in a sales project, for example. You can use date management at header or item level.

Prerequisites
You make the settings for date management in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management by choosing Basic Functions Date Management . Here, you define date types, duration types and date rules, and combine them with reference objects to make a date profile. Assign the date profile to a transaction type or an item category. If a date profile is assigned to the transaction type or item category, the Milestones assignment block, with the defined dates, automatically appears in the transaction at header- or item level.

Example
You can define the following dates for the opportunity or the sales project: Customer demo End of evaluation phase Submission of quotation Final decision

2.4.- Attachments
You can link documents you require, for example Microsoft Excel or Word files, or graphics, with opportunities and send them to business partners by using different channels (for example, by e-mail or fax). This functionality is available to you using Content Management. You can manage attachments on header or item level. Attachments are exchanged between CRM Server, and CRM Mobile. For more information, see Content Management in Business Transactions.

More Information
See Specifics for Mobile:Attachments

2.5.- Sales Stage History

The Sales Stage History shows the sequence and duration of all stages that the opportunity has been through up to the present time.

Activities
Use the Sales Stage History assignment block in the opportunity overview page to view details of the completed stages.

2.6.- Opportunity Hierarchies

You can link opportunities to each other, and, therefore, connect sales projects and opportunities that are related to each other. This is particularly useful if you split a sales project into several subprojects, but you want to link all subprojects to the main sales project. This also enables you to display complex hierarchical project structures. This functionality is also available to you in CRM Mobile. Later, you can display the links in the master opportunity and subopportunity, and branch to the linked opportunity directly. Opportunity hierarchies are specially useful if you want to: Combine several sales projects that are connected Structure clearly sales projects that consist of several subprojects Link a subopportunity to a product Link an opportunity to CProjects

Prerequisites
You use the object relationship profile in Customizing to specify which objects can be linked to an opportunity (for example, subopportunities). In this activity, you can also specify which relationships are to be displayed on the Details page, and which are also to be displayed in the product table on theProducts page. You then assign the object relationship profile to the required transaction type.

Features
Linking opportunities with opportunities

Linking Opportunities A master opportunity is linked to by a subopportunity at header level. This is useful if you want to group several corresponding sales projects (for example, projects in different countries), and you want to assign these to a master opportunity.

Linking Opportunity Items to an Opportunity The item for a master opportunity is linked to a subopportunity. This procedure is recommended, for example, if you want to manage a central opportunity and have separate opportunities for the relevant items. This allows you to enter all detailed information (for example, your own sales methodology) for all relevant opportunities assubprojects. You can also enter your own items for the subopportunity.

To link a new opportunity, in the Subopportunities assignment block, click New. The Opportunity: New page appears, where you can enter and save the details for the new opportunity. To link an existing opportunity, in the Subopportunities assignment block, click Add Existing Opportunity In the window that appears, browse to the opportunity you want to link.

NOTE When you link opportunities, no data is copied, no dependent data is determined and no status dependencies are checked.

Linking opportunities with products

Linking an Existing Opportunity to a Product A subopportunity is linked to a product in the Master Opportunity, not to the opportunity itself. Linking a New Opportunity to a Product A new subopportunity is linked to a product in the Master Opportunity, not to the opportunity itself.

Activities
You can only create relationships based on the master opportunity.

Relationships with appropriate Customizing settings are displayed in the opportunity on the Object Relationships page. Depending on Customizing settings, relationships are also displayed on theDetails page, and in the product table on the Products page.

2.7.- Follow-Up Transactions

When you create a new transaction that relates to an existing transaction, you can create the new transaction as a follow-up transaction. When you do this, data from the original transaction is copied to the new transaction and the transactions become linked. This linking provides you with information about the history of a particular business transaction. You can view this history in the Transaction History assignment block in each business transaction. EXAMPLE You receive information that a sales customer has accepted a quotation. You search for the original quotation and create a sales order as a follow-up transaction. From the sales order, you create an activity as a follow-up transaction, with a task to call the customer. In this example, the sales order is a preceding transaction of the activity, and the quotation is a preceding transaction of the sales order.

Prerequisites
Follow-Up Transactions You have set up copying control in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management, under Transactions Basic Settings Copying Control for Business Transactions . Here you define the allowed combinations of source and target (preceding and follow-up) transactions. You can only create a follow-up transaction if the preceding transaction does not contain errors. However, this does not apply if you are creating an activity or if you only copy individual items. Subsequent Assignment of Transactions You determine which transactions can be assigned to which by defining object relationship profiles in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management, under Transactions Basic Settings Define Object Reference Profile . You assign the profiles to the appropriate transaction types in Customizing.

Features

Creation of follow-up transactions When you create a follow-up transaction, you can select the items that you want to copy from the original transaction. You can only copy subitems together with the higher-level item. Subsequent assignment of follow-up transaction You can link a transaction to another transaction after both transactions have been created. You do this in the Transaction History assignment block. RECOMMENDATION We recommend that you do not subsequently assign sales quotations or sales contracts, since information about the relationship between the original transaction and follow-up transactions is missing, potentially leading to user errors when processing the follow-up transaction. If you subsequently assign a sales quotation to a sales order, for example, the transactions are linked, however, information is not available in the system that the

sales order was created as a result of the quotation being accepted. The quotation is not set to status Completed and no data is copied between the transactions. In the case of contracts, quantities are not updated when you make a subsequent assignment. Transaction history In addition to the transaction history at header level, you can also display the Transaction Historyassignment block at item level in service and sales transactions. In some cases, transaction links are not shown in the Transaction History assignment block. The following are examples: Related transactions that do not follow the pattern of preceding/follow-up transactions are displayed in the header details of the transaction. These include contracts and sales agreements. Billing documents are displayed in the Billing Transactions assignment block. In sales transactions, delivery documents are displayed in the Shipping Transactionsassignment block. Purchase orders, shipping notifications and goods receipts are displayed in the Shipping Transactions assignment block. In third-party order processing, the purchasing information record, purchasing contract, and scheduling agreement are also displayed at item level in the Shipping assignment block.

More Information
Specifics for Mobile Sales/Service (Laptop): Business Transactions Specifics for Partner Channel Management: Sales (Compared to CRM Enterprise)

2.8.- Content Management in Business Transactions

With CRM Content Management, you can link documents, for example, Microsoft Excel- or Microsoft Word files, with business transactions and send them to business partners over various channels (for example, e-mail or fax). The various functions of Content Management are available to you in the business transaction on header level. You can use Content Management in CRM Enterprise, and in the Interaction Center.

Integration
Content Management is a function of the SAP Web Application Server, which is used in SAP CRM in various areas, for example, for business partner- and product master data. To link with the business transaction, it was adjusted accordingly.

Features
You can use the following Content Management functions in business transactions: Create, change, copy, and delete documents Store documents in folders Import documents from a local PC Export documents to your PC Reference documents that are linked to other transactions Include URLs in the structure

Create and change folder structures

NOTE This function does not exist for the IC WebClient. Usage of the SAP Archive Link Version Management Search for available documents Exchange of Content Management documents with CRM Mobile NOTE In the standard system, not all documents are transferred automatically to the Mobile Client. In Customizing, you must first define a filter profile that you use to specify which documents are transferred for which business objects to the Mobile Client. For more information about profile settings, see Customizing of Customer Relationship Management under Basic Functions CRM Content Management Defining the Filter Profile for Exchanging Documents and Assigning a Filter Profile to a Business Object Type.

Constraints
When transferring business transaction with linked documents to SAP R/3, Content Management documents are not available.

More Information
For general information about Content Management in CRM, see CRM Content Management. For technical information about Content Management, see SAP Help Portal at help.sap.com SAP NetWeaver SAP Web Application Server SAP NetWeaver Components SAP Web Application Server Basis Services/Communication Interfaces (BCSRV) Knowledge Provider (BC-SRV-KPR) Content Management Service (BC-SRVKPR) .

2.9.- Pre-Sales Facts and Reminders

Use
The My Presales Activities: Facts and Reminders (for the individual user), and Presales Activities: Facts and Reminders iViews (for the company, available in partner manager role only) are used for partner roles, in order to enable them to quickly gain an overview of the leads, opportunities and activities they are involved in.
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1.

The following categories are displayed for channel activities in the My Presales Activities: Facts and Reminders: My Activities All All open tasks and business activities with the current user as processor (=User ID or related business partner of the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Channel Partner). The status is In Process at Partner, Transferred to Partner, or New at Partner. The selection is regardless of the timeframe. Newly Handed Over All open tasks and business activities with the current user as processor (=User ID or related business partner of the current user is entered in the partner

function Employee Responsible at Channel Partner) and that have the status Transferred to Partner, regardless of the timeframe Today All open tasks and activities with the current user as processor (=User ID or related business partner of the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Channel Partner) and that have the status In Process at Partner,Transferred to Partner, or New at Partner, where the current day is in the processing timeframe This Week All open tasks and business activities with the current user as processor (=User ID or related business partner of the current user is entered in the partner function Employee responsible at channel partner) and that have the status In Process at Partner, Transferred to Partner, or New at Partner, where some day during the next seven days is in the processing timeframe Overdue All overdue tasks and business activities with the current user as processor (=User ID or related business partner of the current user is entered in the partner function Employee responsible at channel partner) and that have the status In Process at Partner, Transferred to Partner, or New at Partner, regardless of the timeframe

Brand Owners Activities All All open tasks and business activities where the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Partner, and that have the status In process at Brand Owner, Transferred to Brand Owner, or New at Brand Owner,regardless of the timeframe Newly Handed Over All open tasks and business activities where the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Partner and that have the status Transferred to Brand Owner, regardless of the timeframe Overdue All overdue tasks and business activities where the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Partner and that have the status In Process at Brand Owner, Transferred to Brand Owner, or New at Brand Owner,regardless of the timeframe Completed this Week All tasks and activities where the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Partner, which were completed by the brand owner (status: Completed by Brand Owner) in the last seven days The same categories appear in the Presales Activities: Facts and Reminders, with the difference that the filtering is done on the partner company. This iView shows all business activities and tasks where the company of the current user is maintained in the partner function Sales Partners. 2. The following categories are displayed for channel leads in the My Presales Activities:: Facts and Reminders: This Week: Unfinished leads where the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Partner, with at least one day of the processing period in the current week All: Unfinished leads, where the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Partner, regardless of the validity period

Unfinished leads include all leads with a user status that is not: Won or Lost; that is, all opportunities with user status Open, In Processing at Brand Owner, Distributed to Sales Partner, In Processing at Partner, Taken Back by Channel Partner The same categories appear in the Presales Activities: Facts and Reminders, with the difference that the filtering is done on the partner company. 3. The following categories are displayed for channel opportunities in the My Presales Activities:: Facts and Reminders: New since last 7 days: Unfinished opportunities where the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Partner, for which the start date is in the last seven days Closing in next 7 days: Unfinished opportunities where the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Partner, for which the expected end date is in the next seven days All: Unfinished opportunities, where the current user is entered in the partner function Employee Responsible at Partner, independent of validity period Unfinished opportunities include all opportunities with a user status that is not Won, Lost, Stopped by us, Stopped by Customer; that is, all opportunities with user status Open, in Processing at Brand Owner, Postponed, Distributed to Sales Partner, in Processing at Partner, Taken Back by Channel Partner The same categories appear in the Presales Activities: Facts and Reminders, with the difference that the filtering is done on the partner company.

3.- Sales Methodology

The quality of the sales process has a huge impact on success. A structured sales methodology enables you to manage your sales projects optimally, and thus to increase the effectiveness of the sales process. Opportunity Management allows you to construct a sales methodology tailored to suit your sales processes. Your sales employees are coached through the steps of an ideal sales process from identifying the lead to closing the sale. Communication in the sales team in enhanced, and key problems can be easily identified. This increases your probability of winning the deal. A best practice example is supplied with the standard configuration, which you can enhance or change. The solution can be adapted to support your specific business requirements. That is, you can implement the sales methodology most effective for your customers, products and your sales team.

Prerequisites
The relevant elements of sales methodology (sales assistant, project goals, buying center, competitor analysis, opportunity assessment) are represented as assignment blocks in an opportunity. These assignment blocks are displayed when the corresponding Customizing has been maintained for the relevant transaction type. For example, the Assessments assignment block

is displayed if a template is defined for the opportunity assessment in the corresponding transaction type. You Customize for sales methodology in SAP CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities Sales Methodology .

Features
Sales methodology is incorporated in the following elements within Opportunity Management: Sales assistant Project goals Buying center Competitor analysis Opportunity assessment Opportunity plan

3.1.- Sales Assistant

The sales assistant leads sales employees through a structured sales process, and supports him in planning his sales activities, without restricting his freedom. The sales assistant provides the sales employee with a checklist of recommended activities and tasks that he should execute during this phase. This feature is also available in CRM Mobile. You can adapt the sales assistant to suit the specific sales processes of your enterprise. If you work with different sales cycles, you can define different activity guidelines for each in the system. For example, you can define one activity guideline for business with existing customers and another for business with new customers.

Integration
The activity plan is closely linked to CRM Activity Management. All activities and tasks from the personal activity plan (for example, sales calls, phone calls, e-mails and conversations) can be referred to and processed at any time in SAP CRM. Partner data (for example, customer, customer contact person and the responsible employee) or texts and notes are automatically copied from the opportunity into the activity of task. This saves time and makes all the sales activities for the opportunity transparent and comprehensible.

Prerequisites
The Sales Assistant is displayed only if you have made the required settings in Customizing. The recommended activities for each phase are defined as actions in Customizing. Define an action profile in Customizing, and assign the required activities and actions to it. Then, assign the action profile to the corresponding transaction type. Further information on this is available in Customizing forCRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities Sales Methodology Sales Assistant . Information on actions is available under mySAP Customer Relationship Management Components and Functions Basic Functions Actions in CRM Enterprise . An action profile with activities and tasks is delivered for the sales assistant in the standard configuration.

Functional Scope
You can display the recommended activities and tasks for each phase, and copy them to your personal activity plan for the relevant sales project. You can enhance your activity plan with your own activities at any time. For each activity, you can refer to tips or background information based on best selling practices. For example, a tip for an initial prospect visit could contain key questions to ask and topics to mention during the visit. In the activity plan, you can specify by what date an activity should be executed, who is responsible for it, and whether an activity is already completed. If an activity is overdue or not yet completed, SAP CRM automatically displays an icon as a reminder. You can use a selection box to restrict the display of recommended activities for a specific phase. The default value is the current phase in the opportunity. All the activities that you have defined in Customizing for the individual phases are displayed as recommended activities. Each line contains a recommended activity. The following data is taken from the opportunity: Partner (for example, employee responsible from the activity plan) Comment (description of activity) Texts (for example, note, if text determination has been set up accordingly) Date (completed by) from sales assistant as a proposal for the actual/planned date of the activity Reason for activity (reason for activity: opportunity) If an activity is generated from the sales assistant and copied into the activity plan, this activity is linked with the opportunity, that is, the document flow is updated.

Activities
The Sales Assistant option is in the opportunity overview page. You can generate required activities here. These are then copied automatically to the Planned Activities assignment block. The activity is also linked with the opportunity here, that is, the document flow is updated.

3.2.- Project Goals and Notes

You can create, change or display texts for your own use, or for your correspondence with business partners. The Notes assignment block allows you to choose text types, and to enter your texts. You can create the text type Internal note in the standard. This text can be assigned to a specific language. Texts can be transferred automatically into SAP CRM from master data records, reference documents, or from a text processing system. You can also store project goals here within the framework of sales methodology. In order to clearly establish how the customer could benefit from your solution, and to position your product strategically, it is important that you really understand customers' requirements and expected results. Only by doing so can you really sell from the customers' view point. You also need to clearly define the short and long-term objectives you hope to achieve. Both your customers' goals and your own goals can be recorded in predefined templates under Notes, and are accessible to all employees involved in the sales process.

Prerequisites

You have made the settings for text processing in Customizing for SAP CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Basic Functions Text Management . You have displayed the Notes assignment block in the opportunity by assigning the corresponding text profile to the transaction type. You have made this assignment in Customizing for SAP CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Basic Settings Define Transaction Types (Definition of transaction types Profiles Text Det. Procedurefield). NOTE Further information on Customizing is available under Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities Sales Methodology Define Texts for Goals, Competitor Analysis and Buying Center

Example
You can define the following texts, for example, when entering project goals: Our own goals Sales prospects' goals Comments In the sales prospects' goals text, you can, for example, specify questions that the sales employee is to answer in the opportunity. For example: Why is the sales prospect searching for a new solution? Which solution is the sales prospect currently using? What are his exact requirements? What milestones has the sales prospect defined for his decision making process?

3.3.- Buying Center

To win, you need to know how your customer is organized and who is involved in the buying process. Many sales processes fail because sales personnel underestimate the importance of this success factor, and do not come into contact with the right people. Early in the sale, it is particularly important that you recognize gaps and realize where further action is required. Key questions to ask are: Who makes the final decision? On whom does the approval of the project depend? Who benefits from your solution? What does the relationship network look like? That is, who influences whom, and in what way? What are the strengths and weaknesses from a customer view point? What do we need to do to establish positive relationships with the right people? The buying center functions in Opportunity Management provide you with optimal support to answer these questions.

Functional Scope
You can create a comprehensive buying center. That is, you can:

Identify those persons involved in the buying process, and determine their degree of influence Display the relationship network of those persons involved in the sales process, and Enter key attributes for each individual, for example, their opinion of your solution and personal value proposition

Identifying the key people

The standard delivery contains a set of predefined partner functions that represent the most important people in the sales process at the customer, for example: Endorser: The endorser is the person who gives final approval and can increase or decrease the budget. Decider: The decider recommends which of the alternative solutions is to be purchased to the endorser. The decider is responsible for the project and for keeping to budget. User: The user is the person who benefits from the decision to buy. The user judges the offered solution, based on how operations are impacted. Assessor: The assessor evaluates the alternative solutions, from a technical point of view. The user tends to block access to the decider or endorser. Coach: A coach is not necessarily an employee of the customer. The coach supports and guides you through the sales cycle, providing advice and information important for your success, for example, whether you have overlooked any key players. You can, of course, also define customer specific roles that are specially tailored to fit your business.

Understanding the relationship network

What type of relationship do the people involved in the buying process have with each other? Knowing this relationship network which goes beyond understanding the official hierarchy is a deciding factor for your success. You can define the following relationships at the customer: Formal relationships, based on the structure of the organization (person A reports to person B) Informal relationships, based on personal relationships and influences (person B influences person A) Through Customizing, you can define these relationship categories depending on your business requirements.

Establishing personal value propositions

Once you have identified the key players and their degree of influence on the buying process, the next step is to define and communicate the value of your solution. A common mistake is to substitute product features and benefits for specific value propositions. Important attributes for building convincing value propositions are: Being aware how each person perceives the importance and urgency of the project Understanding the business objectives, buying criteria, and personal goals of each individual Knowing how each individual perceives your solution You can record all of these attributes for each person relevant to the opportunity, helping you to identify gaps and required actions early in the sale. You can, of course, define further attributes important in your selling environment. You can easily highlight risks and missing information using warning signs.

Based on this information, you can tailor your sales campaign to the customer and the specific individuals involved. For example, knowing the business objectives and criteria helps you to prepare individual product presentations.

Prerequisites
For more information about defining texts, see Customizing for SAP CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities Sales Methodology Define Texts for Goals, Competitor Analysis, and Buying Center . Make the settings for the buying center in Customizing for partner processing. For more information, see Customizing for CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Basic Functions Partner Processing Partner Teams . The attributes, attribute values, relationships, and relationship categories can be predefined here. You can create notes for the individual roles/people in the buying center. Notes can also be predefined in Customizing, from which the sales employee can then choose. You can create additional texts for each person in the buying center. For example, this could be the person's value proposition or criteria for reaching a decision. For more information about partner teams, see Partner Teams. You can make the settings for text processing in Customizing for CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Basic Functions Text Management. So that these texts appear and can be maintained in the buying center for the opportunity, you need to assign the corresponding text determination procedure to the transaction type. Make this assignment in Customizing for CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Basic Settings Define Transaction Types (In Customizing header; Field: Texts: BC Partners)

Activities
The business user can maintain the buying center in graphical or tabular form. This functionality is also available with CRM Mobile. In the graphical buying center, the business user can do the following: Add, view, modify, and delete contacts for an opportunity, You can also add contacts that are part of the master data but not part of the buying center. When the business user clicks a contact in the graphical view, the system displays the contact details as a normal view in theDetails page area. The business user can now modify contact details in the normal view. Create, view, modify, and delete relationships between contacts associated with a buying center. When the business user clicks a relationship, the system displays the details in the normal view. The business user can then modify the relationship. Add and edit a note for the buying center. This note is for the buying center as a whole. NOTE Deleting a contact removes it from the buying center and not from the system. When the business user deletes a relationship, the relationship type is not affected. Only existing contacts, relationship types, and contact characteristic types can be used to define the buying center. They cannot be created in the graphical view.

Example
The graphic below gives an example of a buying center with the people involved on the customer side, their functions and characteristics, and the corresponding rating.

More Information
Specifics for Mobile Sales (laptop): Opportunities

3.4.- Competitor Information

You know your competitors, and you know their strengths and weaknesses. But how does this relate to the specific project and customer? Who are your competitors and how does your customer view them? Do you know which solutions they offer, and what strategies they are pursuing? All this competitive information can be recorded clearly in Opportunity Management. This helps you to define an effective counter strategy.

Functional Scope
You can display competitors and their products at both header and item level. For more information, see Working With Competitor Products. You can create master data for competitors, and create texts for each competitor. Predefined templates are available to help you record this information.

Prerequisites
You can configure settings for text processing in Customizing for CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Basic Functions Text Management .

For more information about configuring texts for competitor analysis, see Customizing for CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities Sales Methodology Define Texts for Goals, Competitor Analysis and Buying Center . To display and process texts in the opportunity on the Competitor analysis tab page, you must assign the corresponding text profile to the transaction type. Make this assignment in Customizing for CRMby choosing Customer Relationship Management Transactions Basic Settings Define Transaction Types (Texts: Competitors) . You must also assign a corresponding partner determination procedure containing the partner function category competitor at least once to the transaction type. You can make the settings for partner processing in Customizing for CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Basic Functions Partner Processing . For more information about partner processing, see Customizing for CRM and the documentation for partner processing (Partner Determination Procedures).

Example
You can offer the following texts as a description of competitors in the opportunity: Strengths Weaknesses Strategy These texts can be maintained by the user.

3.5.- Opportunity Assessment/Questionnaire

You can assign several questionnaires to an opportunity that can be found according to different criteria (status, priority, phase, opportunity group, origin, sales organization, distribution channel, division). You make settings for determination and criteria for determination in Customizing. You can use questionnaires in opportunities, for example, for project qualification, or to analyze won or lost opportunities. You can use questionnaires within the framework of sales methodology for opportunity assessment. This kind of assessment can be used for project qualification. Project qualification is used primarily to assess the costs and values of a project. Before considerable resources are invested in a sales project, it is necessary to assess whether the expected sales revenue and chance of success balance against the necessary investment. Through Customizing, you can define a threshold value for expected sales volume or expected total value. When this value is exceeded, an assessment is automatically triggered enabling prompt qualification of an opportunity. You should decide with your sales team which questions must be answered for the opportunity to be correctly qualified. Asking these questions early in the sale helps you to identify risks and to define corrective actions before embarking on an expensive sales project.

Chance of success calculated by the system

You can use one questionnaire to determine the chances of success as calculated by the system. Based on the weighting of the questions and answers, the system calculates the chances of success. The sales employee can use this information as help to take a decision.

You can specify various questions for each answer when defining the questionnaire in Customizing. You can also specify the same answers for all the questions. The questions must be weighted for the chance of success calculated by the system. Enter a weighting factor for each question (for example, 1 equals normal weighting, 2 equals very important, high weighting). Specify a number of points for each answer: for example, yes equals 3 points, no equals 0 points. The system then calculates for each question: weighting factor x points. The result is calculated for all the questions, and is then compared with the ideal result to be reached. The sales employee then receives the following message in the opportunity assessment: 225
points were reached from a maximum of 250 possible points. This corresponds to 90 percent. That means that in this case the chance of success is 90

percent. This data is displayed as Calculated Chance in the Opportunity Details

Prerequisites
The questionnaire is implemented with the CRM Survey Tool. You define questions, their answers and weighting in Customizing. Further information on the CRM Survey Tool is available under Survey Tool. Make the settings for the questionnaire in Customizing under Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities Sales Methodology Questionnaire for Opportunities Define Questionnaire. You also make settings for questionnaire determination in Customizing under:

Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities Sales Methodology Questionnaire for Opportunities Determination for Questionnaires . Customer Relationship Management Transactions Settings for Opportunities Sales Methodology Questionnaire for Opportunities Determination Criteria for Questionnaires .

Define

Define

CAUTION You can only use one questionnaire when the system calculates the chance of success. You must not only define the determination in Customizing, but you must also assign it to the required transaction type in Customizing.

Example
The following graphic shows an example of a questionnaire:

3.6.- Opportunity Plan

The opportunity plan combines all the key information about a sales opportunity. It provides you with an extensive overview of the current status of the project, and you can use it as a basis for presentations or discussions during internal project meetings.

Prerequisites
The actions component provides the technique for output issue. An action is also used to print and display the opportunity plan. This action must be created in the action profile for the sales assistant. An action then appears in the opportunity in the sales assistant for the opportunity plan. Information on output control is available under Output Determination or in Customizing for output determination. You can make the settings in Customizing for CRM by choosing Customer Relationship Management Basic Functions Output Determination Define Action Profile . The action profile must be assigned to the corresponding transaction type. Make this assignment in Customizing for transaction types. An action profile is delivered for the sales assistant in the standard configuration. This action profile already contains the action for printing and displaying the opportunity plan.

Functional Scope
You can display or print the opportunity plan at any time. You can define your own layouts. We offer various basic versions, from which you can choose. The opportunity plan contains the following information: Project overview (expected sales volume, customer budget, chance of success, phase in sales cycle, closing date, sales team, customer objectives and sales objective) Product overview (products, quantities, expected product value and net value) Buying center (buying center of the customer or prospect and roles with described attributes, such as influence, opinion, decision criteria and value proposition) Competitor analysis (strengths, weaknesses and strategy) Opportunity assessment (an estimate of the sales employee and the chance of winning calculated by system) Activity plan (an overview of all activities, the employee responsible, and the degree of completion)

Activities

To display the opportunity plan, select the action for the opportunity plan on the Sales assistanttab page in the list of recommended activities, and choose Preview. To print the opportunity plan, select the action for the opportunity plan and choose Activate action. If you wish to print the opportunity plan for several documents, or you wish to print in background processing, use the action monitor. For further information, read the action monitor section in the documentation for output determination.

3.7.- Opportunity Planning

Sales projects that last for a long period of time require target-oriented, scheduled planning of sales. You can enter planned sales figures directly in an opportunity. This enables you to carry out detailed sales planning (sales split) for the coming weeks, months, quarters or, if necessary, years. You can enter planned figures (for example, sales volume, market shares, sales quantities) for both the opportunity as a whole and for the individual products (for example, sales volume, number of pieces).

Prerequisites

You have SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) for opportunity planning. You have made settings in Customizing for SAP NetWeaver BI to define how planning is structured, and which rules should be used. This means that you have defined the planning profile in SAP NetWeaver BI. NOTE You can find information on creating a planning profile in SAP NetWeaver BI in the SAP Library under SAP NetWeaver BI Content Planning Content CRM Analytics Sales Planning Opportunity Planning . You have assigned the planning profile to the respective transaction type in Customizing for theCRM system, and have made settings for system communication. NOTE You can find information on settings for the CRM system for opportunity planning in Customizing for CRM under Transactions Settings for Opportunities Opportunity Planning .

Functional Scope
Opportunity planning is also available to you in CRM Mobile. Planning is based on SAP NetWeaver BI. The cumulated key figures can later be analyzed in SAP NetWeaver BI , and can be used for sales planning and production planning. The same simple-to-use interface is available to you for planning in opportunities using CRM Server, and CRM Mobile. Planned sales figures are exchanged with CRM Mobile Sales. The key figures that you plan depend on the processes and products of your enterprise. The Business Content for planning, delivered in the standard, can be enhanced and changed according to customer requirements so that planning can be adapted flexibly to the processes in your enterprise.