Sales stages are hugely important for the opportunity management process. On an opportunity, when sales stage change, a lot of things happen as already explained in the post about the sales coach.
But there is more! One of the things that also changes on an opportunity when a sales stage changes is the win probability. This happens when on a sales stage definition, a win probability is set for each of the stages as shown in the screenshot below.
Whenever an opportunity reaches any of the above sales stages, the win probability on the opportunity will change accordingly. If no win probability on the sales stage was set, then the win probability on the opportunity will not change.
Here are the 2 different scenarios, based on the example in the screenshot above:
- When a new opportunity in stage ’01 – Qualification’ progresses to stage ’03 – Building Vision’, the win probability on the opportunity will NOT change since as there is no win probability linked to the sales stage in the screenshot above. The win probability field for the second sales stage is empty. The win probability on the opportunity will remain what it was before the change.
- When the opportunity progresses from ’03 – Building Vision’ to ’05 – Agreement’, the moment the sales stage changes on the opportunity, the win probability on the opportunity changes to ’70’ as this is the value for win probability that is linked to the fifth sales stage as can be seen in the screenshot above.
In case you do not want the win probability on opportunities to change when a sales stage is changing, all you have to do is not link a win probability to the sales stage definition.
How to make these changes?
- log on to Sales Cloud as Administrator
- choose ‘Setup and Maintenance’ from the navigator
- search for the task with name ‘sales method’
- drill into the sales method for which you want to change the sales stage
- drill into the sales stage for which you want to empty the win probability
