The ten items in this article cover the basics for getting started working with the Sales features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The Resource Center also includes many articles for taking full advantage of the Sales features—for a complete list, visit the Resource Center by clicking Resource Center on the left navigation pane. And, for yet more information, see the Help.
Key steps
Understand the difference between leads, opportunities, accounts, and contacts- Accounts represent companies that your organization does business with.
- Contacts are people who represent an account.
- Leads are potential or prospective customers.
- Opportunities are not a specific customer, such as a lead, contact, or account, and therefore require a customer record to be added to the opportunity.
Customers can be accounts, contacts, or leads. You can also use relationship roles to define how specific account, opportunity, and contact records are be related to one another in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
- Create and save personal views
From any list, you can click Advanced Find and modify the query that created that view. You can then save it with another name. The next time you use that list, in the View list, in the View box, in the My Views section, select the saved view. Unfortunately, these new views cannot be saved as the default view.
- Import leads and contacts
You can import leads and contact records into Microsoft Dynamics CRM. You may have these records in a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet, a comma-separated values (.csv) file, other CRM software, or in Microsoft Office Outlook. You can use the Import Wizard to import these records into Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
- Convert a lead to an opportunity, contact, or account
As part of the lead process, you can convert a lead to an opportunity with associated accounts or contacts, or into new accounts or contacts. To disqualify leads, you close the leads without converting them.
- To convert a lead, open the lead record, on the toolbar, click Convert Lead and then select the type of record you want to convert the lead to.
This diagram shows how a lead can become an account or contact and then an opportunity.
- Understand the cycle of quotes, orders, and invoices
A draft quote is a formal offer for products or services, proposed at specific prices and related payment terms, which is sent to an opportunity, account, or contact. When the quote is ready, it is activated and sent to the customer. A quote frequently undergoes several revisions between the salesperson and customer before it is accepted.
After the quote is accepted, an order is generated from the quote. The order is used to fulfill the agreement of goods or services that were offered in the quote. Finally, after the order for the goods or services is shipped, an invoice record can be generated. Unless your organization has integrated Microsoft Dynamics CRM with invoicing software, this is only a record that an invoice was created, not the invoice itself. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, quotes, orders, and invoices are considered to be the same item, but in different states of transition. This diagram shows the life cycle of a quote.
- Create a quote, order, or invoice based on an opportunity
At some point in the sales process, you will want to send a quote, an order, or an invoice to a customer who started out as an opportunity. It's easy to create a new quote, order, or invoice using the opportunity record.
- In the list of opportunities, open the opportunity to which you want to add a quote, order, or invoice. Under Sales, click the record type you want to create: quotes, orders, or invoices. On the Actions toolbar toolbar, click New Quote, New Order, or New Invoice. Complete the form as needed.
- Print Quotes
In Microsoft Dynamics CRM quotes can be printed as a Microsoft Office Word document mail merge.
- Open the quote, on the Actions toolbar, click Print Quote for Customer.
- Recalculate an opportunity
Modify the list of products associated with the opportunity. When opportunities are saved, Microsoft Dynamics CRM recalculates the estimated revenue value based on any changes to the products or product quantities associated with the opportunity.
- In the Estimated Revenue section, verify that System Calculated is selected, and then on the Actions menu, click Recalculate.
- Send an e-mail to a customer or another person in your organization
- To send quick mail to a customer, in their account, contact, or lead record, on the Actions toolbar, click Send E-mail. Complete the form and then click Send.
- To send a quick e-mail to the owner of a record, on the Administration tab of a record, double-click the name of the Owner. When their record opens, click Send Direct E-mail, complete the form and then click Send.
- To instant message anyone with a presence jewel. If you have Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook installed, you may see the presence jewel. You can click the jewel and send instant messages or e-mail.
- Assign and share records
What Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer information you can work with is determined by permissions and ownership. If more than one person needs to work a record, it can be shared or assigned. When you share a record with another user, you are giving that user specific permissions, such as Read, Write, or Delete, to that record. When you assign a record to another user, you are making that user the owner of the record.
- On the Actions toolbar, click More Actions, and then click Sharing.
- On the Actions toolbar, click the Assign button.
Related Links
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