Creating and Managing Opportunities

Derek Torres
Derek Torres
  • Updated

Important Note: NorthBoundary is now SalesManager. SalesManager retains all of the customer relationship management and proposal automation benefits of its predecessor, allowing you to create proposals, manage your sales funnel, win and retain top customers. To read more about this exciting change, click here.

 

Opportunities in SalesManager, formerly known as NorthBoundary, can be created to help you and your staff track the stage of any Opportunity, Maintenance Proposal, or Project Proposal.

Opportunities can be created independently from Project or Maintenance Proposals. They are also automatically created when you create a Project or Maintenance Job. This allows you to track the opportunity stages of these Proposals.

This article will walk you through creating and managing Opportunities. 

 

Creating Opportunities

You can also create an Opportunity independently from Opportunity Management Page.

  1. On the Navigation Bar, click Opportunities.
  2. Click the New button to open the Add Opportunity Menu.
  3. Enter an Opportunity Name.
  4. Select the Stage of the Opportunity from the drop-down menu.
  5. Select the date of the Stage on the Stage Date menu.
  6. All of the other fields are optional, however below are a list of significant fields and their description:
    • Probability of Selling - this drop-down menu allows you to select from a list of options that will auto-fill Probability (%). If you have an Agreement Price $ entered, then the Forcast Amount will populate based on (Probability % x Agreement Price)
    • Current Yr Rev Fcst %  - This field allows you to enter your Current Year Revenue Forcast Percentage for this Opportunity.
    • Opportunity Owner - This field allows you to select the SalesManager user who owns this opportunity. It also determines who gets entered into the main Sales Split menu.
    • Account/ Customer Name  - Here, you can select from a list of your Customers or click + New Customer to create a new customer.
    • Strategic Account Plan  - Select a strategic account plan.
    • Stage Change Notification To - Enter the email(s) of the people you want to be notified when this opportunity's stage changes.
    • Send Notification - Checking this box will send status change notifications to the Opportunity Owner.
    • Sales Credit - This section determines which users get what sales credit for this Opportunity. Click here to learn more about this section.
  7. Click Save when done.

Note: Opportunities for PropoSAL are automatically created when you create Maintenance Proposals or Project Proposals in SalesManager.

They can be found on the Maintenance Job Page's Opportunity Tab.

or the Project Job Page's Opportunity Tab.

 

Setting Up the Sales Credit Section

The Sales Credit section determines which Sales users get credit for this Opportunity. It also determines how that credit is calculated.

Sales Split %

The Sales Split section allows you to split the sales credit up to three users. The Opportunity Owner will be the main Sales Split user, defaulting to 100% sales credit.

If any additional users are selected in Sales Split - 1 Rep and 2 Rep then the main user's Sales Split will be calculated as follows (100% - (sum of % of 1 and 2 Rep)).

Sales Recognition

Sales Recognition allows you to select and set up the method and values for Sales Credit. You can select between the three different methods:

If the Opportunity is associated with a Maintenance or Project Job, then selecting an option from the Sales Recognition Method drop-down menu will auto-populate the fields below with values from the Job.

Note: You can enter these fields manually for a stand-alone Opportunity, but this is a unique workflow.

 

Searching for Opportunities

You can filter your Opportunities by using the Search Bar on the Opportunities Manager Page.

 

List View and Sales Stages View

List View allows you to view, arrange, and navigate through your Opportunities in a list (spreadsheet style) view.

Sales Stage View lets you easily move your Opportunities through your preset Sales Stages.

Opps_Sales_Stage.gif

Note: You can adjust your Stage Configuration View, clicking the button below:
Screenshot_2023-04-19_at_9.22.57_AM.png
This will open a Stage Configuration Menu that allows you to check to select which stages you would like to be visible. Click Apply when done.
Screenshot_2023-04-19_at_9.23.22_AM.png

 

Opportunity Stages

Stage History

On the Opportunity Page, you can view the stage history. Near the bottom of the Opportunity Page you will see a Stage History section.

Stage_History.png

 

Edit List View Columns

You can add or remove what information displays in columns for your Opportunities.

  1. Click the Edit Columns button.
  2. Click to select an Available Field and click the right arrow to move it to the Selected Fields. *repeat as many times as necessary
  3. Click to select a Selected Field and click the left arrow to move it to the Available Fields. *repeat as many times as necessary
  4. Click to select a Selected Field and click the up and down arrows to set the arrangement order. *repeat as many times as necessary
  5. Click Save when done.
    • Note: Click Default Selection to reset the Selected Fields to their default order.

Column_Edit.gif

 

Printing Opportunity Lists

  1. To print an Opportunity list first, Search for your Opportunities.
  2. Then Edit List View Columns to include all information you want to print.
  3. Click the Print button
  4. Click Print on the Preview Menu.

 

Editing Opportunities

  1. Search for your Opportunity.
  2. Click on the Opportunity to open the Opportunity Page.
  3. Click the Edit button to open the Edit Opportunities Menu.
  4. Make the necessary changes.
  5. Click Save when done.

Adding Notes

You can add and view notes on the Opportunity page.

Notes.png

  1. On the Opportunity Page, scroll to the bottom and find the Notes section.
  2. Click New to open the Add Note Menu.
  3. Enter a note Title.
  4. Enter a Note.
  5. Click Save when done.

To edit a note, click the down arrow next to the note, then click edit.

To delete a note, click the down arrow next to the note, then click delete.

 

Submit for Approval

You can submit an Opportunity for approval.

  1. First, Search for your Opportunity.
  2. Click on the Opportunity to open the Opportunity Page.
  3. Click Submit for Approval.
  4. Click the Assign To button.
  5. Check to select the user(s) you want to send this submission to.
  6. You can edit the Comments section.
  7. Click Send when done. The Submit for Approval button will change to Approval Pending.
  8. An email will be sent to the selected users where they can Approve or Reject the submission with comments. See the image below:
    Screenshot_2023-04-14_at_9.57.15_AM.png
    • If the user rejects the submission, the rejection will appear on the Approval History with the user's comments. The button Re-submit for Approval will now appear. Use this button to resubmit.
    • If the user approves the submission, the Approval Pending icon will change to Approved. The approval will appear on the Approval History. A final approval .pdf will be uploaded to the Files section on the Opportunity Page.

Note: This email will be from esign@nbesign.com. If the user does not receive the email, have them check their spam folder and their allowlist settings.

Approval History

The Approval History appears at the bottom of the Opportunities page and gives you a historical record of your approval submissions.

Approval_History.png

Submit for Turnover

You can submit an Opportunity for turnover to create a Job Plan. This is typically done after the customer has signed the Project or Maintenance Proposal associated with the Opportunity.

To learn more about this process please go the article Creating and Managing Job Plans.

Convert an Opportunity into a Maintenance or Project

If you have a stand-alone Opportunity, you can convert it into a Maintenance or Project.

  1. Search for your Opportunity.
  2. Click on the Opportunity to open the Opportunity Page.
  3. Click the Convert drop-down arrow.
  4. Select either a Maintenance or Project.
    Convert_Button.png
  5. Enter the required info.
  6. Once you create the Maintenance or Project, they will be associated with Opportunity. See below:

Maintenance
Maintanence.png

Project
Porject.png

Merging an Opportunity

In SalesManager, you can merge an Opportunity associated with a Maintenance or Project into another standalone Opportunity. This is typically done because a standalone Opportunity was created and used to record a history of interactions with a prospect, but then a Maintenance or Project was created separately, and you want to merge the history from the standalone Opportunity into the new Maintenance or Project Proposal.

  1. Search for your Opportunity.
  2. Click on the Opportunity to open the Opportunity Page.
  3. Click Merge. This opens the Merge Opportunity Menu.
    Screenshot_2023-04-17_at_10.29.02_PM.png
  4. Select an Opportunity Owner and Select Opportunity.
    Screenshot_2023-04-17_at_10.29.17_PM.png
  5. Click Merge.
    Note: This will delete the standalone opportunity and merge its information into the current Opportunity.

Inactiving Opportunities

  1. On the Navigation Bar, click Opportunities.
  2. Click to open the relevant opportunity you want to mark inactive.
  3. Next to Status, check to select Inactive.
    Screenshot-2024-01-29-at-3-09-47-PM.jpeg
  4. Click Save.

Deleting an Opportunity

Note: You cannot delete an Opportunity that has been associated with a Proposal (Job).

  1. On the Navigation Bar, click Opportunities.
  2. Click the List View button.
    Screenshot-2024-01-29-at-3-12-31-PM.jpeg
  3. Search for all relevant Opportunities using the search fields.
  4. Check to select all Opportunities that you want to delete.
  5. Click the trashcan icon on the search bar.
    Screenshot-2024-01-29-at-3-14-42-PM.jpeg
  6. This will delete the Opportunity.

Activity Menu

The Activity Menu allows you to view your Opportunity Activity Timeline. You can also Log Calls and Add Reminders.

The Activity Timeline

The Activity Timeline list any Calls or Reminders for this contact organized in a most recent timeline view.

Click the drop-down arrow next to any entities to edit or delete them.

 

Log a Call

You can log your opportunity interactions to know what you discussed with a contact and when.

  1. On the Activity Menu, click the Log a Call tab.
  2. Enter details about the call in the Recap your call. field.
  3. Select an option from the Status / Last Results drop-down.
  4. Click Add.

 

Adding a Reminder

You can add reminders to follow up on something related to this opportunity. You can also send yourself a calendar invite (via an .ics file) for this reminder.

  1. On the Activity Menu, click the Add Reminder tab.
  2. Enter a Subject.
  3. Select a Due Date and Time.
  4. The reminder will be automatically assigned to you, but you can select another user on the Assigned To drop-down.
  5. *optional Enter a Comment.
  6. If it's a new reminder, the Status should be 'Open.'
  7. Click the Priority drop-down menu to select the priority level.
  8. *optional Check the Send to Schedule box to have a calendar reminder (.ics file) emailed to the assigned user.
  9. Click Save when done.

Note: If you select Send to Schedule, the calender reminder will be emailed to the assigned user's email address. This email will be from esign@nbesign.com. The calendar .ics file will be attached to the email. If you do not receive the email, check your spam folder and your allowlist settings.

 

Adding an Event

You can add events for you and your opportunities. This will send a calendar invite (via an .ics file) for this event to all selected attendees.

  1. On the Activity Menu, click the Add Event tab.
  2. Enter a Subject.
  3. *optional Enter a Note
  4. Select a Start/End Date and Time.
  5. *optional Enter a Location.
  6. Select from the Reminder drop-down an amount of time before the event you would like to be reminded of this event.
  7. On the Attendees menu, enter anyone's email you would like to be invited to the event and click Add. Repeat as many times as necessary to invite all attendees.
  8. Click Save when done.

Note: If you select Send to Schedule, the calender reminder will be emailed to the attendees' email addresses. This email will be from esign@nbesign.com. The calendar .ics file will be attached to the email. If you or your customers do not receive the email, check your spam folder and your allowlist settings.

 

Exporting Opportunities

  1. To export an Opportunity list, first, Search for your Opportunities.
  2. Then Edit List View Columns to add or remove fields.
  3. Click the Export button on the Search bar.
  4. This will download a .CSV file with the Opportunities you searched for.

Importing Opportunities

Read the following article to learn how to Import Opportunities.

Bulk Importing in SalesManager

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