Someone
asked me this question a week ago. I may have answered it several
times over the years. The answer is a bit more complicated, and it
starts with understanding how your customer buys.
In most
cases, you would create an opportunity when you speak to your customer
and establish that he has a need that you may possibly be able to
fulfill at a specific time. Speaking to your customer allows you to ask
probing or qualifying questions, like the classic BANT: Budget,
Authority, Need, and Time.
In last
week’s scenario, a customer does have a specific need: to renew his
maintenance contract; and it is at a specific time, which is before the
end of his current contract. However, the customer can do this
completely online without even interacting with someone representing the
company. So, does that mean there is no need for an opportunity?
From a
transactional standpoint, the answer is you do not need an opportunity.
The purpose of recording an opportunity is to manage it through a sales
cycle, whether it is a long cycle with seven stages or a short cycle
with three, someone is managing it and taking action on the
opportunity. The human interaction is recorded on an opportunity.
Now,
most companies that use Salesforce Automation use opportunities to drive
pipeline management and forecasting. The next question is, without an
opportunity, how does a company forecast this type of business? This
becomes a problem when these transactions drive a significant part of
your business. The standard Salesforce.com Collaborative Forecasts
requires opportunities to feed the forecast. So what should you do?
This is one topic to explore further, maybe in the next blog post.
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