Understanding Sales Process in D365.

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In our previous blog we have seen what is Lead and types of leads. Today we are going to understand Sales Process.

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Sales Life cycle begins with Lead. Business captures leads through advertising, marketing, trade shows, mailings etc. Whenever organization gets any new lead, Sales Person captures the information of the lead in Lead entity available in Dynamics 365. For creating lead we require only two things, Lead Name and a Topic describing the lead.

Once lead creation is completed, Sales Person performs follow up activities by sending emails, appointment and phone calls to collect more information about the lead. Microsoft Dynamics 365 stores these activities in the Activities entity in the system.

Leads can be qualified or disqualified. A disqualified lead indicates that the lead is not a good candidate for sales opportunities. A disqualified lead will have a status reason of lost, can not contact, no longer interested, or cancelled.

A qualified lead automatically creates a default contact and an opportunity in the system. If lead is having company information then an account is also created where this new contact is associated. When a lead gets disqualified, the system stops sales process. But system stores this information for future campaigns.

Some organization do not follow this lead creation process rather they directly use creation of opportunity in the system to start the sales life cycle. So it depends how we want to organize our sales data.

Opportunity

Opportunity represents a potential sales for a specific customer. The creation of an opportunity adds this potential sale to the sales pipeline and therefore puts it on the radar of the sales manager who may be holding the team responsible for the opportunity.

In addition to creating a pipeline, opportunities allow organizations to track the success of marketing efforts by tracking sales back to the original lead source and source campaign. When a customer agrees with the quotation then the opportunity is said to be won and order is placed. In the same way if customer disagrees with the quotation then opportunities are said to be lost and sales process stops. When opportunities are lost, reasons for lost and competitors are captured for future sales process.

Quotes

In most of the CRM systems, the term quote designates a formal offer for customers. It includes products or services with a defined price list and discounts in which customer is interested. Once customer is satisfied with the quote, order is placed for sales process.

Quotes are usually integrated with CRM product catalog and can be converted into invoice. Online payment options for accepted quotes are also available. We can create quotes in two way either from an opportunity using system calculated pricing or by creating new quote. It is possible to create multiple quotes from single opportunity which includes special pricing offers.

Product Catalog

Dynamics CRM enables you to maintain a product catalog with multiple customizable prices and discount lists for all of the business’ needs. You can create quotes, invoices, and orders directly from Dynamics CRM and include various factors including territory-based pricing, discount lists, product or price bundles, and more. You can keep the information of the product in Product entity.

Orders

In Dynamics an Order is a confirmation of a sale that is to be invoiced and placed for further processing in terms of logistics. Since they are accepted quotes, they document what specific products or services the customer is buying. In Dynamics CRM, orders can be created by selecting the “Create order” button on an active quote. An Opportunity converted into an order if it is won.

Invoice

In Dynamics Invoices represent the final stage of the sales cycle. After an order is placed successfully, an invoice is generated in the Dynamics CRM system. You can either create an invoice directly from a specific order screen or navigate to the invoice section and select a new invoice. You can create more than one invoice for an opportunity or an order. Payments are being collected with ERP systems.

Hope it helps...