You might be thinking that we already have lead, prospect, customer then why do we need opportunity record?. The answer to this question is very simple you can not convert your lead to your customer directly without talking to the lead, asking their requirements and analyzing that if that lead is interested. If they are interested then they are your prospect. So you might think if that prospect is an opportunity to you ? if not then the status of lead will change to lead dead.
After getting in touch with your lead if you find that they are likely to be your customer you just need to create an opportunity from the lead, which will now be converted into prospect. Keep in mind that your new prospect is not yet fully convinced, to keep record of that you maintain the status of likely hood your prospect will be convinced to buy something from you.
There is a probability field in opportunity record which is used to keep track of your prospect.
There is also a Status field which you need to change and the probability will automatically change.
When you first create an opportunity Status is
- Opportunity identified, probability 10%
- In-discussion, probability 20%
- Identified decisions maker , probability 30% ( This the time you create estimate/quote from that opportunity)
- Proposal, probability 50%
- In negotiation, probability 75%
- Purchasing, probability 90%
When your prospect agrees to purchase from your estimate you can convert your estimate either into sales order or cash sale.
After creating cash sale or sales order your prospect is no longer prospect but is now your customer and the status of opportunity changes to closed won probability 100%
so we can say that we use opportunity for forecasting purpose and it is not necessary to create opportunity. You can directly create estimate from lead and it will be converted into prospect and if you create sales order then it will be converted into customer.
Hope your doubt is clear.
