Table of Contents

AE Opportunity Management

The purpose of this article is to document the process used by an AE to manage the opportunity lifecycle.

  1. AE's will create an opportunity once a prospect has engaged in a sales process or a demo has been scheduled. The opportunity is created by creating a quote in the quote generator. For more information on creating an opportunity, please see this article. In creating the quote, ensure that you select one of the following opportunity types:
  • New - net new customer opportunity
  • Add-on - opportunity to sell additional content to a customer in the first 90 days
  • Win back - opportunity to win back an expired account

After creating the opportunity, fill in the “New Sales Lead Source”.

  1. Even if a school does not belong to a district, a district/parent account must be related to a parent account before syncing to progress learning as this will prevent issues in the future. For example: A charter school that is not related to a district, still must have a district account created and related. To view how to create the district record, click here.
  1. On the right-hand panel, you will find a section for Quick Links. These links will provide you detail for quotes, products on the opportunity, and contacts
  2. Also on the right hand panel you will find the activities pane that provides a summary of all interactions and notes related to the opportunity. A user can also record new activities in this panel.
Opportunity Progression
  1. As the opportunity progresses through the sales process, update the stage. Click on the new stage. Click “Mark as Current Stage”.
Once you have the PO in hand, mark the stage as PO in Hand and email the PO to orders@progresslearning.com
To determine the correct stage, follow the below definitions:

Stage Name

Weighting

Prospect Interactions

Staging

0%

  • Any lead or contact that an AE wants to track via an opportunity

Qualification

2%

  • Pre-demo
  • Quote request

Exploration

10%

  • Demo in hand
  • Demo scheduled

Needs Analysis

25%

  • Post-demo
  • Customer provided feedback on what school(s) need

In Negotiation

50%

  • Customer has stated they are interested in having more discussions. needs to see pricing, bring in others, etc.

Approval Process

75%

  • Customer has stated they want to move forward and the deal is getting approved by the board, principal, etc.

Commitment

90%

  • Customer has stated that deal was approved, with a signing date.

PO in Hand

99%

  • We have received the PO from the customer (Send PO to orders@progresslearning.com)

Closed Won

100%

  • A completed opportunity has been processed, activated, and invoiced. This stage is selected by the processing team.
Capturing Competitor Information

All New sales team members are required to actively seek out information related to competitors or alternate solutions that an Account may be considering. We’ve set up a series of easy-to-use Competitor fields for you to capture this information.

When we first begin a direct conversation with the decision-maker at the Account (New sales) or when we first engage the decision-maker during the Renewals process, we want to explicitly ask if they’re using a competitor or considering any other similar resources. We have five pieces of information related to competitors that the Opportunity Owner should populate for each of her/his opportunities, based on this conversation with the Account:

  • Competitor Status - "Currently Using" and "Formerly Used" are straightforward. "Switching To" is there to indicate when an account chooses to leave us or to go to a competitor, so that we have context around Closed-Lost opportunities.
  • Competitors Used - you’ll find "Other" at the bottom of the scrolling list (not shown) so that you can enter a competitor name that may not be available in the drop-down.
  • Current Competitors - indicate here if you know that the Account responsible for this Opportunity is evaluating us against a named competitor. If they decline to share the name of the Competitor, mark this as “None.”
  • Competitor Details - this is an optional free text field for you to add color commentary. You might add here a comment the account makes about the competition, a feature they say they don’t like in a competitor’s tool, a feature they’ve indicated would say their decision, etc. 
Renewal + New Rooftop Splits

There are instances where a new sales Account Executive may be working an opportunity record that has both existing rooftops and new rooftops. In this case, the Opportunity Type of Renewal + New Rooftop should be selected on the opportunity. This is the case even if the existing rooftop is an upsell or a renewal.

Opportunity records with the Renewal + New Rooftop type selected will appear on the New Sales pipeline report.

Salesforce does not currently support tracking of splitting opportunity revenue credit between new sales and renewals. Those splits will need to be tracked manually.

How to Reschedule a Demo
  1. In Salesforce, Open the opportunity record.
  2. Check the pencil next to the Demo Status Field and select Reschedule.
  3. Check the pencil next to the Demo Date Field and select the new Demo Date.
  4. Check the pencil next to the Close Date Field and update the Close Date to three months after the rescheduled demo date. Click Save.
How to Change the Opportunity Stage to Closed Lost
If your demo was canceled, a no show, or needs to be rescheduled but you have no new demo date, mark the opportunity as CLOSED LOST. AEs should also mark the opportunity as closed lost if they need to merge the opportunity with another opportunity or to no longer work the opportunity.
  1. Open up the opportunity record.
  2. Click the pencil in the Demo Status field. Select no show or cancelled.
  3. Click the pencil in the Stage field. Select Closed Lost. Click Save.

How did we do?

AE Quote Approval Process

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