This is an interesting discussion as it is venturing into CRM stuff that I can see end users being interested in so I am chiming in...
On Mon, 2013-06-03 at 17:53 +0200, Cédric Krier wrote: > On 03/06/13 17:48 +0200, Sergi Almacellas Abellana wrote: > > Al 03/06/13 17:33, En/na Cédric Krier ha escrit: > > > On 03/06/13 17:03 +0200, Sergi Almacellas Abellana wrote: > > >>> And the same record can be converted two times? For me the > > >>> important thing discussed in this thread is that the same lead > > >>> can cause one or More sales. > > > Why not bu duplicate the sale. But this is a very special cases. > > > > Great to duplicate the sale, but it's important to know that the sale > > is generated from the lead X, so for this reason it's better to add a > > One2Many. I tend to also agree with the extension of the schema as described above. There is more information attached to the sales cycle that is not captured through the simple duplication of a sales order. I have worked in environments where there is a "business development manager" who is responsible for generating leads, and when those leads in turn create sales there are sometimes other parties that handle the later stages of the sales themselves (typically a person with more technical knowledge) > > Indeed I don't care too much to such workflow as for me I can not even > image a real case. > And in some way, a lead generates 2 sales then it should have been 2 > leads at first. > In simple cases this is not a problem--there can be a 1:1 between sale and opportunity that are linked by parties, but there are more complex cases than that. For larger opportunities there are not only multiple sales over time but also broken down by the nature of the goods or services sold (for example, there will be a sale of programming services, a sale for instrumentation equipment and a sale for construction materials and services like wiring cabinets, server racks, cabling, etc). They are all bundled together as one bid package to the customer, but all parties involved want or need the components as separate sales (indeed some components are subcontracted out and are best treated as separate sales). Perhaps somehow this could be handled with project management modules (attaching sales to projects) but the project wouldn't really exist until the sale is made, long after a lead/opportunity is formed. Another situation is when a manufacturer bids on a job that has "options"--the customer proposes to commit to 10 small trucks now, with an "option" to buy 5 large trucks later). These could be treated as different opportunities for each sale but it becomes easier to lose track of what leads led to what business, especially if the same customer/party is involved in sending other proposals later (perhaps for maintenance contracts, parts or other products). I think in may cases this is all a bit of overkill, but there are business out here where I am that are not small but not really that big yet either (100 employees or so) that have had to deal with all of the above, and it is sometimes a pain point as companies of that size sometimes only have a very small sales team to manage their leads. Just my input. Perhaps there isn't sufficient demand to make it a base feature, but starting a "contrib"/optional module could be beneficial as long as it is well thought out.
