Sales Opportunity Management

It might be simple enough to qualify a lead, but managing an opportunity is more complex. Why? For one thing, it means higher stakes–a salesperson’s valuable time must be invested in working an opportunity. In the end it has the potential of becoming that which everyone on a sales team is after: a closed sale.

All efforts are focused on getting that opportunity to pay off, but there is always a risk factor. Not all sales close. Will this one be wasted costly effort, or will it (as everyone hopes) turn to profit? How can you improve the odds in favor of your company and sales force?

For opportunity management, the essential key is in accurate evaluation of risk factors. Know all about your target prospect company–or at the very least the industry and the general patterns of most companies within it. Know which job titles you need to reach and engage as part of the sales process. Have some understanding of your target company’s buying process. Have all your qualifying questions well lined-up before investing serious time and effort.

Knowing the Buyer

In sales strategies, the key component is opportunity management. In opportunity management, the key component is risk evaluation–having as much information as pssible to weigh the sale on side of a win.

Sales Rep Flexibility

Today it is best to allow salespeople to utilize their “on the ground” judgment and sales techniques, allowing them to make opportunity management decisions with relative freedom. Today sales requires a focus on results–not process.

Analysis of Lost Opportunities

Many miss that an analysis of sales must not only include wins, but losses as well. When losses are taken into account as part of opportunity management, it can provide plentiful data contributing to new sales strategies, improved closing ratios and increasing sales velocity.

Vital Qualities of a CRM Solution

A CRM solution is the backbone of both a sales force and a business. As an opportunity moves through the steps of the sales process, the precision of that CRM applications becomes more important. When you’ve truly reached opportunity management–where a sales rep is all-in–your CRM solution had better be fully supportive, or you run the risk of losing opportunities.

The Viewing of Opportunities

The hands-on handling of sales opportunities is an important subject–but there is an underlying factor that has an impact on opportunity management: the way an opportunity is viewed.