Opportunity Categories & Lost Reasons

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Click here for information on using Opportunities

 

 

Opportunities are used to track pending, won, and lost sales. In order to use this feature, Opportunity Categories must be configured. The categories are used to define different products or services that your company provides. This is helpful when running reports to see how much you are selling for each product/service.

For example, insurance agents may list Auto, Home, Renters, etc. A cleaning company may list Floors, Windows, etc. A mortgage broker may list Conventional, FHA, Refinance, etc.

Setup Instructions for Opportunity Categories:

1. Navigate to Administration > Opportunity Categories
2. Click +Add New Category, enter the category, and click Save. Repeat for each category.

Opportunity Category Default settings

Opportunity categories can have associated values pre-set that automatically fill out the opportunity box when chosen.  Each opportunity category can be associated with a preset Value, Quantity, Type, Sales Cycle Days, and Chance To Win rating.

Setting up Opportunity Default settings

1. Navigate to Administration > Opportunity Categories
2. Either create a new opportunity or edit an existing opportunity
3. Enter values in each box across the row based on the following criteria:
   • Value - This is the cost of your product/service. It’s recommended to set a default value if you offer the same rate each time this product/service is sold.
   • Quantity -  This is the number of products/services being sold. This generally defaults to “1” unless products are sold in a specific bulk.
   • Type - This is the billing cycle (one time, monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or yearly) associated with the value and quantity.
   • Sales Cycle Days - This is the average number of days from quote to sale, and will set your “Estimated Close Date” on the Opportunity. For example, if you enter 15 days as a default, when you create a pending opportunity on 10/1, the estimated close date will be 10/15. The estimated close date determines where the projected sale appears in Opportunity reports.
   • Chance To Win rating - This is the percentage chance that the sale will be closed, and will affect sales projections in Opportunity reports. For example, if you set all Opportunities to 50%, the report will project that you’ll sell 50% of pending Opportunity values. For the default, it’s recommended to enter your average close ratio for the product/service.

Lost Opportunity Reasons

When you mark an opportunity "Lost," you can set up your account to prompt for a reason (i.e. Cost). This will allow you to track the biggest obstacles your sales team is encountering closing sales.

Setup Instructions for Opportunity Lost Reasons:

1. Navigate to Administration > Lost Opportunity Reasons
2. Click +Add New Reasons, enter the reason, and click Save. Repeat for each reason.