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Sapamrm Opportunities implementation problems
We are currently trying to implement the Opportunities-object in our SFDC environnement. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be as easy as we expected, so we can certainly use some help from more experienced Salesforce users.
Our company is active in the construction sector (we are a supplier of aluminium profiles for doors and windows).
We've got 2 sorts of accounts: fabricators (=direct customers) and building deciders (=architects, general contractors, building owners)
For our company, an opportunity is considered as any kind of building project (school, hospital, flats,...).
One opportunity is linked to multiple accounts (just like one account can also be involved in multiple projects).
--> Each opportunity has a link to the 3 building deciders + each opportunity is linked to several (possible) fabricators. In the end there is however only 1 fabricator who books the project and places an order with us.
Our 2 major problems are:
- at the start of the project we do not know which account (customer) eventually will get the project, so the "account name"-field on the opportunity page layout can not be filled in (we should find some workaround for this)
- tasks/events related to the the opportunity should be linked to or one of the accounts or one of the building deciders. Now opportunity-related events/tasks are linked to the account filled in in the "account name" field.
Your opinions and suggestions for implementing Opportunities in our organisation are more than welcome.
Best regards.
It sounds like you are doing a bidding. So first make sure you have account with contacts where each contact is person that works for the fabricators or building deciders.
Ther are 2 way to this:
1
On an opportunity is related to account that is the customer [building project] you are building for.
on opportunity there is related list contact roles which you select contacts [building deciders] that related to the account [building project ].
on opportunity there is related list partner roles which you select contacts [fabricators] that related to the account [fabricators ].
Now you can relate tasks/events to the opportunity and the contact for the account. Plus for events you can invite many contacts.
2 similar to option 1.
Use campaigns where you can add many contacts (recall contacts are related to the account).
opportunities can be related to a campaign.
Hi Grimview. Thx for your reply, but I don't seem to fully understand your explanation.
Accoring to you, what should be filled in in the "account name" field ?
What about just make Account not required on the page layout? the underlying field is certainly nillable
It is possible to make it not required.
HOWEVER
suppose the account is not filled in (since it is not yet known at the very beginning of a project)
Events/tasks that are created and linked to the opportunity + related to a contact (since it is not possible to make a link to an account) will result in an activity log for the opportunity (ok), an activity log for the contact (ok), but not in an activity log for the account to which the contact is related (not ok!).
Furthermore, when at the end the account is eventually filled in, all the created tasks/events will be transferred to this account, which is not the purpose/goal at all!