Managing a Corporate Sale Opportunity - Stock Only

The following guide covers how to manage Salesforce Opportunities - through quoting, to placing an order for stock items. 

1. Finding the Customer

The first step is to find the Account for which you would like to create an Opportunity. The fastest way to search for an Account is to click on the Accounts tab and use the search bar at the top of your screen. Simply type the name in the search box and indicate in the box next to it that you're searching under:

You don't have to search by name. You can use an email, phone number or even a related Contact. Anything that will help track the Customer down.

You can tell if an account is actively trading with us, because the second column (highlighted below) is the total sum of opportunities closed on their account for the current financial year.  

Remember: If in doubt, please check with a colleague or your direct manager. E.g. Boral C/- St John NPSU has duplicated accounts (listed below) when their main account to be used is: MYOB Account no. SJA-004109. 

  • If the customer wishes to purchase a product(s) from us as a one-off, please use the "Walk In Customer" accounts. There is one Walk-In account for each area (e.g. Brisbane, Townsville, etc.)

If the Account does not already exist you may need to create a new one. If so, you should read this guide to help you - Salesforce Accounts and Account Hierarchy.

2. Creating a New Opportunity

Once you have selected the correct Account, click on the Related tab. Here you will find a list called 'Opportunities'. This will display any Opportunities relating to the Account, past and present. 

You will notice on this page that there are a number of other lists that are related to the account:- Contacts, Bookings, Cases. This is a great place to get an overview of what is happening with your Customer.

From the 'Opportunities' list select 'New': 

You will be prompted to select an Opportunity type (the types that you'll see listed below depends on your system profile). Please select: 'Corporate Sales' and then 'Next'.

You can then start to complete your Opportunity details. There are a few required fields at this stage -

  1. Opportunity Name - Be sure to use something descriptive and try to be consistent with your naming conventions.
  2. Close Date - This is the date you are aiming to close this particular sale. It does not have to be accurate, it's just an estimate. You can always change it later.
  3. Stage - This should be 'Discovery' in the first instance. As the Opportunity progresses through the sales cycle, the Stage will be updated accordingly.

Once you are done, select 'Save':

2a. Creating an Opportunity with an alternative Shipping Address

In the scenario where you either:

 a) Want the order to be delivered to a location which is NOT the same as the account shipping address but will be paid for by the billing account holder.  

b) Want the order to be delivered to the same shipping address as specified on the account but for the attention of someone 

c) Want the order to be emailed to a different email address other than the "Email Address for Invoice" as specified on the account 

You will need to create a "Shipping Address" against the opportunity: 

Note: Always select "Product Shipping Location" when prompted as per below

Refer to the below sample when completing the Shipping Location:

1 - This is the name of the business where the order will be delivered to 

2 - This is who you want the order to be delivered to (you can put your account contact name if unsure)

3 - The internal Salesforce name for this new record (e.g. this can be the same as the business name)

4 -  City = Suburb. Do NOT enter the suburb on any other field 

6 - Address Line 1 - Enter the street number & name here. If there's a unit number or floor, enter here too

7 - Enter the email address for the invoice to go to. This could be the same as the email address for invoices on the account. (Please make a note of the email address on the account before completing this step).   

Once you have saved your Opportunity, you will be returned to the related area on the Salesforce Account. 

You will see your newly created Opportunity in the 'Opportunities' list. Click on it to open it up. Alternatively, you can open the opportunity by clicking on it from the green message shown below.  

3. Adding Products

Before you can send out a quote to the customer or complete your opportunity, you need to define the Opportunity Products - what are you selling? You'll see a 'Products option on the right-hand side of your screen. Select the little arrow highlighted below and then select 'Add Products':

You'll then be prompted to select the correct Price-Book. The price-books available to you are absed on your level of access and the State that you reside in. E.g. If you're based in Queensland, select: St John 2019 - QLD - Current and if you're based in Northern Territory, select: St John 2017 - NT - Alice Springs/Darwin or St John 2017 - NT - Katharine/Tennant Creek:

After you click Save, you'll be presented with the product selection screen. You can add as many products as you like. 

Important Info: 

Step 1- The best way to add multiple products to your opportunity is to enter the product code or product name in the search bar and then click on the magnifying-glass as shown in first screen-shot below. 

Step 2 - Then select the products by checking the tick-box (second screen-shot below)

Step 3 -Go back to the search box, enter the name of the next product and repeat steps 1 & 2 above

Step 4 - Click Next

Once you have clicked Next, you can define a quantity for each product. Once you are done, select Save

4. Add a Contact Role

The next step is to define to whom the quotation should be sent to. You can do this from the 'Contact Role' option, which you will find on the right-hand side of your Opportunity screen. As with the products, use the drop down arrow and select 'Manage Contact Role':

Use the 'Contact' field to lookup the contact within Salesforce to whom you would like to send the quote. This will most likely be a contact attached to the Account defined on the Opportunity. You can search for the Contact simply by typing their name. Salesforce will begin to suggest the contact it thinks you are looking for. If you can't find the Contact easily, select the magnifying glass to perform a more exhaustive search:

If the Contact doesn't exist you can select 'New Contact' from the bottom of the list and add them. Once saved, this contact will be attached to the account you created the opportunity against.  

5. Send your Quote

Before proceeding to the next step, please ensure the following:-

1) The Warehouse showing on your opportunity record is the correct one. If not, amend accordingly. E.g.: The default warehouse for the QLD Corporate Sales is BNE01

2) Enter a valid Purchase Order number and if none provided, enter the account contact person's name (this is best practice for SJAA QLD).  

Next Step: Use the 'Send Quote' button in the top right-hand corner of your screen:

You just need to complete a final few details -

  1. Select a Contact (the recipient) - Select the quote recipient from the drop-down list
  2. You have the option to include an attachment with your quote, e.g. the image below is showing us that you can also send the client the 'About us' QLD marketing material
  3. Choose a delivery method - You have 3 options: (1) Attach the quotation to the ""Notes & Attachments" section on the opportunity record - (this is also the option to use for iPad's in place of the 'Download' option). (2) Download: This is a great way to check the quote before you send it out to ensure that everything looks in order. (3)Email: You can email the quote directly to the client.
  4. After selecting your deliver method, click Run. 

The first page of a quote will look something like this:

After you have sent the quote, you need to update the Opportunity 'Stage' field to 'Follow up Quote'. Just click on the stage you would like to update to and select 'Mark as Current Stage' on the right of the screen:

6. Follow up your Quote

When you send a quote out, you can create a reminder task to follow it up. You can create the task under the 'Activities' tab: 

Under the activity tab you will notice there are some other useful actions you can take. You can quickly create an Event, Task, Send an Email or Log a Call against your Opportunity. These tools are really easy to use and are specially designed to help you log and keep track of all the actions undertaken on your Opportunity. 

You can use the 'Tasks' tab in the Salesforce navigation bar to keep track of all the tasks you have logged or that Salesforce has created automatically for you (including those to follow up on quotes). 

You can easily keep on top of your task list and tick them off as you complete them.

7.a Quote Declined - Closed Lost

If the customer decides they do not want to proceed with the quote, you should update the Opportunity Stage to 'Closed Lost': Select: 'Closed' from the status bar at the top of your Opportunity screen and select 'Change Closed Stage' on the right. From the resulting popup, select 'Closed Lost' and then 'Save':

7.b Quote Accepted - Order Stock

Important Information:-

At SJAA QLD it's imperative that you have received from the customer either a signed quote or a purchase order document prior to placing the order. Please upload the document or signed quote against your opportunity in the "Notes & Attachments" section

- Click on the Notes & Attachments section and then click on the drop-down arrow on the right-hand side and upload document:

Process for ordering stock: 

1) Ensure you enter a Purchase Order number in the "Purchase Order" field (use your contact's name if required)

2) Check that the products & quantities are correct before carrying out Step 3 (below). Amend accordingly. 

3) Click Order Stock on the pathway and then click on Mark as Current Stage as shown in the 1st image below

Changing the Stage to 'Order Stock' automates a number of things (refer to the 2nd image below) -

  1. An order for the stock items will be created and the Supply Chain team will be automatically notified to approve it's integration with MYOB. Your product order will be linked to your Corporate Sale Opportunity. To view it,  navigate to the 'Product Summary' section under the details tab (highlighted in the 2nd image below). You can click on the 'Product Opportunity' to open it up and see the details. 
  2. The Opportunity Stage will automatically be changed to 'Closed Won - Product Ordered'

For accepted quotes, it is important you check that the customer's 'email for invoice' is up to date. If this is incorrect, the email will not reach the customer when it is triggered for invoice. You can check the 'Email for Invoice' from the Account linked to your Opportunity. Hover over the 'Account Name' field from the details section in your Opportunity to quickly see it. If you need to update this, you can do so from the Opportunity itself, from the buttons in the top right hand of the screen (you may need to select the downwards arrow icon to see all the buttons). You will find a 'Update Invoice Email' option. Select this, type in your new email and select 'Save'.