Guest Column | January 27, 2015

Using Opportunities In Your PSA To Track Leads

By Brad DeSent, Program Manager, HTG Online, HTG Peer Groups

The most common business issue we hear in serving our HTG peer group members is far and away: “How do we generate more business?” The marketing and sales functions are viewed as a necessary evil to people who get more excited designing, building, and fixing technology solutions. We all know the lifeblood of a business is generating new opportunities from prospects as well as our existing clients. It is critical to the success of the business. In most businesses, the flow of opportunities is managed using various combinations of email folders, spreadsheets, service tickets, and a great memory.

Every face-to-face member in HTG Peer Groups is standardized on ConnectWise as their PSA tool. We find the ConnectWise sales module, and particularly opportunity tracking, is usually underutilized. This post will explore a number of concepts and ideas to help you get started.

Definitions

In helping companies define and establish the sales function, we’ve found it valuable to start by defining some terms. These are three needed to get started.

  • Opportunity: Anything you are working on for a prospect or existing client that you need to convert from an idea to a revenue opportunity. Think of it as a “service ticket” bringing new revenue in the door.
  • Stage: This represents the stages (or steps) an opportunity goes through on its path from an idea to work (product sale, project or managed service) that needs to be done to create an invoice. An opportunity for a new prospect might go through the following stages: (initial contact, qualified prospect, solution proposed, proposal accepted)
  • Activity: The activity is the next action going to be taken to advance the opportunity through the defined stages. You should think of activities like tasks on the service ticket. Activities can be scheduled and placed on a team member’s calendar.

Getting Started

There are many purposes and options for using the ConnectWise Opportunity module. The key is to get started and use it to keep track of all the opportunities you are pursing to turn ideas into revenue. Consider the amount of time you allocate to ensure service tickets get completed and don’t fall through the cracks. Opportunities will give you the same control over the activities your team is working to make sure proposals get presented and followed up on in a timely way. 

Here are the steps we suggest to you use to get started.

  1. Define stages that will describe the path or journey you want a proposal to follow in your organization.
  2. Define activities (types and status) to be used.
  3. Enter all opportunities your team is currently pursuing.
  4. Use the “pipeline” view to see where in the journey the proposal is.
  5. Schedule activities and assign to the team member responsible for completing it
  6. Use the opportunities report to make sure you are moving the proposal along the STAGES you have established.

Getting started is the key to using the Opportunity module within ConnectWise. Once you get the basic process down, you can consider expanding you use with tracks, marketing campaigns and workflows. 

Working With The system

You now have a system in place to track and work with opportunities. These are different than your marketing list of prospective clients. These opportunities represent someone who has “raised their hand” with a need that you believe your company can fulfil. You have heard of the marketing/sales funnel concept and now you have one set-up yourself.  When trying to determine where to spend your limited time in a day, you now focus on moving opportunities through the stages (pipeline) you have set-up.

Using opportunities will help you keep track of the complete picture of servicing both sides of the business: finding the work and getting it completed.

A noted thought leader and synergist, Brad DeSent brings to HTG Peer Groups more than 25 years of senior management, technology consulting and business operations experience with expertise across a broad range of sectors. DeSent has played an integral role in establishing and propelling several highly successful start-up technology firms and communities. As program manager for HTG Online, his responsibilities include developing the HTG Online program framework and curriculum and recruiting members. DeSent works closely with HTG members helping them improve operations and improve results. He can be reached at: bdesent@htgpeergroups.com and on Twitter @bdesent.