Qualify State for Opportunity

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What is the point of having a Qualify state for an opportunity? Since they are already a customer and have interest in your products, do you really need the qualify stage. I'm new to CRM system in general and do not have any sales experience. I guess this is more of a sales theory question.

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Nadeeja Bomiriya 6,804 on at

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Hi biggtimber,

Generally in CRM, a "Lead" is qualified, not an Opportunity. Once the Lead is qualified, it may be converted to an "Opportunity". Opportunity can be "Lost" or "Won".

Leads = Leads are potential sales, and you or your company can get leads from many different sources. For example, you can generate sales leads from marketing campaigns, inquiries from your website, mailing lists, social media posts, or in person at a trade convention.

Opportunities = When you qualify a lead, it becomes an opportunity, or a deal that you’re getting ready to close.

Source: www.microsoft.com/.../manage-accounts-contacts-leads-and-opportunities-in-dynamics-365-for-phones-and-tablets.aspx

Not sure how your system has been configured. Also remember that if you are using Dynamics CRM's Business Process Flow (BPF), you will see multiple entity types in one BPF. First stage may be a Lead, once the Lead is Qualified, a Contact and Opportunity record gets created and displayed in the next step.

Dynamics CRM is highly configurable. Therefore, companies usually, configure it to suit their business processes.

Below article discusses Leads and Opportunities in bit more detail.

www.crmsoftwareblog.com/.../microsoft-dynamics-crm-sales-leads-vs-opportunities

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Neil Benson 7,369 User Group Leader on at

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Hi biggtimber, the standard system sales process involves two qualification steps. Neither are perfectly or rigidly defined and it's up to you how you use or whether you use them at all.

The first qualification step is the lead qualification: is the enquiry real? is the lead data valid? is it ready for a sales person to follow up?

The second qualificaiton step is the opportunity qualification: is the prospect in our target market? does the prospect have the budget and a real need? does the prospect have the authority? can we win?

Hope this helps.

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Community Member on at

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I appreciate the responses. sorry, was pulled away on another project. So I guess the main confusion was that, in the default install, the process flows for both Lead and Opportunities have the same stages. Both have a 'Qualify' stage. However, when you 'Qualify' a lead, it is no longer an opportunity. Being new to CRM, does there need to be an assigned process flow for these object? Can you just have a lead, that once it is 'Qualified' is converted into an opportunity and starts out in the 'Opportunity' process flow. Or does having the extra steps in the 'lead to opportunity' process allow for more reporting?

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Nadeeja Bomiriya 6,804 on at

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Hi biggtimber,

Below article explains how the "Lead to Opportunity Process" and "Opportunity Sales Process" work.

www.powerobjects.com/.../customizing-sales-process-flows-in-crm-2013

It all depends on where the process starts. If starting as a Lead, then "Lead to Opportunity Process" is used. If an existing account then you would start with a Opportunity where you would use "Opportunity Sales Process". Ideally, the stages in Opportunity should match in both BPFs.

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