>
>
> > > I would appreciate some more feedback on this proposal, especially
> > > from the participants of the discussion. Does it reflect the ideas
> > > you had in mind?
> >
>
> > For me every opportunity will have two amount fields:
> >
> > - Expected amount -> The one that exists nowadays.
> > - Won amount -> The sum of the amount of all the confirmed sales. This
> > will be a function field and will only be evaluated when the state is
> > won. All the reports should use this amount for Won amount, and won
> > rates to get the real revenue of the sale, not the expected amount (as
> > it's done nowadays)
> >
> > Thoughts?
>
>
>
> The expected amount is helpful for sales control. You would estimate the
> rate on recurring clients. Measuring the rate on leads and opportunities is
> rarely helpful, because you cannot really assess the quality of the
> particular leads. The rate on leads won/lost is no substantial KPI, except
> perhaps in door to door sales, where you can assume an equally distributed
> low quality of leads. What you want to see are the available capacities of
> your salesforce.
>
> Estimating the expected amount on current active leads can be misleading,
> as leads can be active up to two years. During this period of time, you
> would need your salesperson to update chances regularly on all active
> leads. That may accumulate to several hundred active leads at any point in
> time. Unfortunately, I have not met one sales person that cares about
> updating sales chances, because the incentive systems naturally tend to
> focus on actual sales participation.
>
> My recommendation would be to have an option to determine the percentage
> chance of making the deal and to determine the expected time frame.
>
> 50% chance for sale within the next 90 days
> 25% chance for sale within the next 30 days
> etc.
>
> Please note that this is a feature that is being used and worked with in
> the controlling department for sales forecast and cash flow projections.
> And it is regularly subject to controversies amidst the sales team. It
> should be treated carefully and delecantly in order to avoid controversies
> arising from wrong projections.
>
> You should decide whether you want to make the sales and opportunity
> module an operative addition to controlling or to sales. For the operative
> management of sales, you will not focus a lot on the chance, because it is
> so hard to estimate at all and at some point unserious. The controlling and
> sales department will focus on these issues to plan working capital
> requirements and forecasts for finance operations. It has been shown that
> forecasting these financial cash flows is well covered by the controlling
> department and not the sales department.
>
> My recommendation would be to focus on the module as an operative addition
> to sales, where the responsible sales person can manage active leads.
>
> Please let me know if I can be of further help on this issue.
>
> Cheers,
> Denis
>
