MTS Training Manual - MT Services Limted Manuals/Opera... · 06/01/2016 1 Sales Pipeline Management ... MTS Training Manual 06/01/2016 2 Sales Pipeline Management Introducing the

MTS Training Manual

06/01/2016 1 Sales Pipeline Management

INTRODUCING THE MODULE ....................................................................................................................................... 2

KEY BENEFITS OF SALES PIPELINE MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................... 3

SALES PIPELINE MANAGEMENT IS STRUCTURED INTO THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS ................................................................... 3

MY RECORD ............................................................................................................................................................ 4

MAIL MERGE TEMPLATES .......................................................................................................................................... 6

REFERRAL METHODS (SALES OPPORTUNITIES) ............................................................................................................... 6

GROUPS (CONTACT PROCESSING) ............................................................................................................................... 7

MAIL MERGE (USING GROUPS) .................................................................................................................................. 8

SCHEDULE ACTIVITIES (USING GROUPS) ..................................................................................................................... 10

COMPANY PROCESSING ........................................................................................................................................... 11

Contacts ........................................................................................................................................................ 11

Activities ........................................................................................................................................................ 11

History ........................................................................................................................................................... 11

Opportunities ................................................................................................................................................ 12

Quotes ........................................................................................................................................................... 12

NEW OPPORTUNITIES ............................................................................................................................................. 13

SCHEDULING NEW ACTIVITIES................................................................................................................................... 14

RECORDING CORRESPONDENCE ................................................................................................................................ 14

RAISING A QUOTE FROM AN OPPORTUNITY ................................................................................................................. 15

PROGRESSING A QUOTE TO AN ORDER ....................................................................................................................... 16

MTS Training Manual


Introducing the Module

Sales Pipeline Management is a tool used for monitoring potential sales; it allows the entry of prospective sales,

companies and competitors. It enables the entry of company analysis information to aid reporting.

It also enables user specific sales opportunity entry, along with scheduling activities to achieve a successful sale.

Integration with Microsoft products allows the update of outlook calendars and contacts. It also integrates with

Microsoft word via mail merge for easy mail shots or marketing promotions.

Sales Pipeline Management allows you to enter Opportunities/Activities in many different areas:

My Record, Company Processing, Contact Processing and Opportunity Processing.

The process flow within SPM is as follows:

The Sales Pipeline Management application is an integrated contact management system that allows you to

create tasks for your employees, and track all the activity between your business and existing customers,

suppliers and prospects.

You can easily import your customer and supplier details into Sales Pipeline Management.

The application allows you can monitor activity and communicate with prospects using documents, email and

mail merge. This can be at your customers or prospects’ company level so only details specific to them are

displayed, at the individual contacts’ level, or at the level of an individual opportunity.

MTS Training Manual


Key Benefits of Sales Pipeline Management

Company details can be maintained with a single point of entry for new prospects and existing

customers

Unlimited contact details can be maintained including different site addresses for each company

New contacts can automatically update your Microsoft® Outlook address book

User-definable fields and look-ups for can be created for contacts, companies and sales opportunities

Emails can be sent to a contact or groups of contacts using Microsoft® Outlook. They can also be

imported.

Mailshots can be generated for lists of contacts using Microsoft® Word

Notes and history can be recorded for all contacts. History is automatically updated by activities that

take place such as letters and mailshots

Sales opportunities can be recorded and tracked for all contacts

Quotations can be generated and associated with a sales opportunity

Appointments with a contact can be booked. These can be added automatically to your Microsoft®

Outlook calendar and recorded against the contact’s history.

Sales prospects can be converted to live customers

Sales and Activity reports are provided

Customer and supplier records can be imported from the Sales and Purchase Ledgers

Remote access is available using the SPM Remote feature for salespeople on the move

Sales Pipeline Management is structured into the following sections

Section Description

Company

Processing

This section is where you can setup your companies, record sales opportunities, and track

activities, notes, history, conversations and documents assigned to these companies. The

companies may be customers that you already deal with so will also be recorded in the Sales

Ledger. The companies could also be prospects that have not yet bought anything from you.

Contacts In this section you setup your contacts for the companies which are maintained on the

Company Processing for. Contacts can be allocated to different sites.

You can also update any custom user defined fields you have created for Sales Pipeline

Management, plus record any activities, sales opportunities and quotes, and history records.

Note: If you use the Service Management and Helpdesk Management applications, you can

also record Helpdesk calls, equipment items and service contracts for your contacts from this

form if you use Opera 3.

Sales

Opportunities

In this section you record your new business sales opportunities. These could be an individual

sales lead or a more complex project opportunity. When recording an opportunity you can

estimate the expected closure date, enter a description and up to three values. You can also

gauge the probability of the sales opportunity being converted into an actual sale based on how

confident you are of winning the business. This probability is reflected in the Sales Pipeline

Report.

Tasks This section includes a number of different views that allow you to see the tasks and activities

planned in Sales Pipeline Management

Reports This section provides listings of records maintained in the Sales Pipeline Management

application. These include lists of records maintained through the various forms and activities

generated as a result of postings. Reports can be used to view information on your computer

screen as well as printing. Most reports provide a number of options to determine the criteria,

sequence and range of records reported.

Maintenance This section is where you define your industry categories, company categories, activity types

and outcomes, departments, job titles, sales types and stages, lost & won sale reasons, bank

holidays, mail merge templates,

user defined fields and sales opportunity views.

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My Record

A record must be created for contacts and as a user of the system you are also yourself treated and a contact.

To allow access to the SPM module you need to configure your ‘My Record’, which can be located in the

contacts sections of SPM. The ‘My Record’ requires the following information to be populated:-

General Tab

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

Telephone

Extension (if used)

Direct Line (if used)

The ‘Employee’ tick box should be selected

Status Tab

Territory

Username

Issue Warehouse (only required if you work at a branch)

From within ‘My Record’ you can view and update your own activities, history, Opportunities & Quotes.

User Preferences

It is necessary to configure your ‘User Preferences’ in

‘My Record’ which can be accessed from the Action

button. It is recommended that you specify the

following on the General tab:

Default email font and email font size

Automatically transfer new activities to my MS

Outlook Calendar (only select this if you don’t have

constant access to Opera)

By default restrict the display of activities; contacts etc.

to those that I own (select this option if you only want

to see records created by yourself)

Default date display (set to ‘All Dates’)

Default activity type (set an activity type that is

commonly used by you)

Next remote quotation reference (this should only be

used if you work away from the office)

New record prefix codes (by setting these the system

will prefix any opportunities and company’s created by

you)

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Email Template

It is highly recommended that you copy your email

signature into the email template.

This enables the full email (including the signature)

to be sent directly from Opera via your email client.

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Mail Merge Templates

Mail Merge templates are used by the Mail Merge command to format the structure of the letters and emails.

You can define any number of different templates so that commonly formatted letters can be quickly created in

Sales Pipeline Management. These templates are stored as Microsoft Word templates (DOT), but are linked

into Sales Pipeline Management so you can quickly select the mail merge fields available from a drop down list

and insert them into the template.

To create a new mail merge template select ‘Mail Merge Templates’ in ‘Maintenance’. You can base your mail

merge template on either your list of contacts or opportunities. Once you have created your template and clicked

save, you will be asked if you wish to create a new template or link it to an existing template. When creating a

template you must ensure that the DOT is stored on a network drive where others can access it and the template

has provision for the contact mail merge fields. Once the template has been created link it to the mail merge

record and modify it to include the required mail merge fields.

MS Word document template linked to a Mail Merge Template

Referral Methods (Sales Opportunities)

Referral methods allow further analysis into the performance of promotions / campaigns. Although the referral

method can be stored against the companies (this shows how new prospects were introduced), this functionality

is mainly for monitoring Opportunities.

When creating a referral method you have a choice of linking an activity to it, if this option is selected the

system will create you an activity for this opportunity/contact. The activity can be set for a specific date in the

future by entering a number of days in the schedule field. Optionally you can specify and campaign end date,

cost and any notes detailing the referral.

The opportunities tab allows you to instantly analyse the performance of the referral method.

MTS Training Manual


Groups (Contact Processing)

When working multiple contacts at once it is beneficial to group them together, his can be done by creating

‘Groups’. Groups can be used to create activities, mail shots or mail merges.

Groups can be created and updated in three ways:

1. Accessing Groups via the ‘Contacts’ menu.

Create a new group and specify a name and

description.

Leave the owner set to “All” and click save.

Under the ‘Action’ button select ‘Add /

Remove Contacts’ and use the selection tool

to specify the contacts to be added to the

group.

The list can be updated at any time.

2. Accessing Groups via ‘Advanced Search’

You can use the Advanced

Search tool to create a Group

or add to an existing Group.

Use the any of the criteria

options within the company or

contact tabs to produce the

desired search results.

You can then manually untick

anyone not required in the

group.

On the ‘Action’ button you

can select ‘Group’ and specify

the group you wish to add

these contacts to, or create a

new group.

3. Adding individual contacts to a group.

Whilst in the ‘Company Processing’ screen, you can select the ‘Contacts’ tab. Highlight a single contact and

select ‘Add to Group’ from the ‘Action’ button.

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If you wish to view or change an individual

contacts group membership you can do so

from within contact processing and selecting

‘Group Membership’.

Mail Merge (Using Groups)

Using the email template created earlier we can send a mail merge to all or part of the contacts in a single group.

Select the group you wish to send the mail merge to. Then select the first contact in the list and then scroll down

to the last person in the list, whilst holding the shift key down click on the last contact. All of the contacts in the

list should be highlighted. If you wish to deselect any of the contact hold down the ctrl key and click on the

contact not required in the mail merge.

Now that you have the contacts

selected to receive the mail

merge, you can select ‘Mail

Merge’ from the ‘Action’ button

to initiate the mail merge wizard.

Step 1

From a list of all mail merge templates available,

select the required one by placing a tick and then

clicking ‘Next’.

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Step 2

Select the destination for the mail merge.

You have the option to modify the mail merge

template before sending.

Step 3

By default the system will create a history record

against the contact.

You can rename the subject for this history record

and add further details for this record.

A copy of the mail merge document can also be

stored in the history record if required.

Step 4

If emailing the document you can alter the subject

of the email.

The option to add the email as an attachment is

not recommended.

Click finish to start emailing the mail merge.

A progress of the mail merge status will be shown

on your screen (this may take several minutes and

MS Outlook may request access permission)

MTS Training Manual


Schedule Activities (Using Groups)

Using ‘Groups’ you can schedule multiple activities for contacts at once. This is ideal for setting reminders for

contacting members of groups.

By using the group function and selecting the members in the same manner as described in the previous section.

With the required members of the group highlighted, select ‘Schedule Activity’ from the ‘Action’ button. You

will be presented with a new activity form (as shown below).

When creating an activity ensure

the following fields are updated:

Type and subject are meaningful

If required a description of the

action can be entered.

By default the action will be

‘Scheduled For’ yourself to do,

although this can be changed to a

colleague.

Set the start date for the activities

to be completed on.

Where the contact is specified it

will show the first contact from

your list, but it will have a

number next to the icon for

multiple contact selection.

Select the ‘Multiple Contact’ icon. You will be presented with the multiple contact selection form.

Within this form you can confirm

the contacts you wish create

activities for.

By default it will create just one

activity for all contacts, but by

ticking the ‘Create a separate

activity for each participant’ the

system will create a separate

activity for each contact.

If any changes have been made

select OK and then close on the

new activity form.

The activities have now been scheduled.

MTS Training Manual


Company Processing

Is a list of all Customers, Prospects, and Competitors company types and is the ideal area of the system to search

for companies.

If the company is a known customer the

majority of fields will be disabled on the

general tab (these can only be updated via

the sales ledger).

On the bottom right of the screen is a

section called ‘What’s New’ this is a

summary of the most recent activities

with this company.

From the ‘Action’ button you can access

the S/L account, order processing for this

account and any special prices setup

against this company.

Contacts

To view any contacts associated with this company select the ‘Contacts’ tab, from here you can undertake any of

the following actions:

Create new contacts

Edit existing contacts

Add To groups

Schedule an activity

Send an email

Send a quick letter

Mail merge a template to the contact

Attach an email from MS Outlook

Transfer a contact to another company

Activities

From within the ‘Activities’ tab you can see all activities outstanding (these are better known as scheduled

activities) for this company, by default all outstanding activities are displayed, but by using any of the filtering

tools at the top of the form this list can be customised. To edit or complete an activity double click on it or select

the appropriate item on the ‘Action’ button.

Different colours can be associated with specific activities, this makes identify certain activities easier.

History

The ‘History’ tab is a list of cleared activities and/or recorded history (these could be the outcome of phone calls,

emails sent / received or document recorded against the company)

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Opportunities

This tab shows the opportunities (sales leads) against this company, by default it lists any current opportunities,

but using the filtering tools this list can be customised. Opportunities can be viewed in detail by double clicking

or by selecting edit on the ‘Action’ button, new opportunities can be created by selecting new on the ‘Action’

button.

Note that the value shown here is an adjusted value (calculated from the quoted value and multiplied by the

probability of it been won).

Quotes

Any quotes against this company can be show here, by default this is current quotes awaiting acceptance or

closure, but this list can be customised. From the ‘Action’ button quotes can be created, edited, printed or

marked as deleted.

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New Opportunities

To create a new opportunity for a company, locate the company in company processing and select the

opportunities tab. Select new from the ‘Action’ button and you will be asked to select one of the company’s

contacts.

Specify a short description for the

opportunity.

If this opportunity has been

generated from a campaign or

promotion, select from the list in

“Referral Method”.

Sales stages must be specified with

the stage (i.e. Initial), this will

update the closure probability.

The Type will need specifying

from the pre-defined list.

Update the Forecasted Closure

date

Click save to complete the creation of the opportunity.

If a referral method was selected and that referral method had an activity associated with it, you will now be

prompted to finalise a scheduled activity for this opportunity.

The scheduled will have had the

activity Type & subject populated

automatically.

The contact will have been

specified from the opportunity, but

this can be altered.

The activity will be scheduled for

you by default but this two can be

changed to a colleague.

The start date will be controlled by

the scheduled days in the referral

method.

Additional details can be specified

in the space above the contact.

By closing the form the activity

will be saved and scheduled.

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Scheduling New Activities

To schedule a new activity for a contact you can either select ‘Schedule Activity’ from the contacts tab of the

company processing screen or by editing an opportunity and selecting the ‘Activities’ tab and ‘Schedule

Activity’ from the ‘Action’ button.

Note: Activities for opportunities will appear against both the opportunity and the contact.

Recording Correspondence

If you wish to record a communication between yourself and a contact / opportunity, select the history tab on

either the company processing or the opportunity form. Select ‘Record history’ from the ‘Action button’.

Your default activity type will be used,

but this can be changed, along with the

subject.

Enter the details of communication in

the area above the contact.

Specify the time of the communication

(start – finish).

In the ‘Outcome’ field you can select

from a list of possible outcomes from

the communication.

MTS Training Manual


Raising a Quote from an Opportunity

If an opportunity requires a formal quotation, one can be generated directly from the opportunity, traceability is

the greatest benefit to raising quotes in this way. The opportunity number will be stored on the quote along with

the external and internal contact name.

Select the opportunity you wish to raise a

quote for by editing it.

Select the quote tab from the opportunity

tab and select ‘Raise New Active Quote’

from the ‘Action’ button.

All details relating to the opportunity are

populated.

You can optionally specify the date the

quote is valid till.

Select ‘OK’ and continue entering the lines

of the quote as per usual.

When you have posted to the quote it will

be stored within the opportunity.

If you wish to email the quote to the

contact, ensure the quote is highlighted in

the list and then select ‘Print Quote’ from

the ‘Action’ button.

You will be asked if further documentation is required to

be sent with the quote.

If required you can attach a covering letter to the quote

and additional documentation (i.e. terms and conditions)

By default the quotation will be stored as a history

record and the email will request you modify it before it

is sent.

On clicking ‘OK’ you will be shown the

publisher form, from which you will select

email and publish.

On the ‘Send Email’ form the ‘To’ will be

populated with the opportunity contact, but

this can be changed.

The signature will be added to the body of

the email.

The quote itself will be added as an

attachment.

Add any additional text and select ‘OK’ to

send.

Note: the process may take a few seconds as it files copies away to history

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Progressing a Quote to an Order

If the quotation is accepted by the contact you can update the opportunity and progress the quotation to an order.

Within the opportunity on the general tab we can now update the opportunity result to ‘Won’ (the reason field

does not need populating) and click save.

From the ‘Action’ button select ‘Order Processing’.

You will be taken to the SOP/Invoicing form for this account (if this is a prospective account you will need to

‘Create Sales Ledger Account’ from the ‘Company Processing’ form.

Within SOP/Invoicing in the ‘Order’ view locate the quotation for the opportunity and progress it to an Order. If

required edit the order and make any changes.

MTS Training Manual - MT Services Limted Manuals/Opera... · 06/01/2016 1 Sales Pipeline Management ... MTS Training Manual 06/01/2016 2 Sales Pipeline Management Introducing the

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