About Lead Qualification, Sales Methods, and Stages

When you, as a sales representative, accept a lead, you can begin to work on the lead in the Opportunities screen. The records in the Opportunities list include both leads and opportunities. Leads are defined as opportunities that have not yet been qualified.

Lead qualification status is indicated in the Sales Stage field. The list of values in the Sales Stage field varies depending on which sales method you are using.

A sales method is a formalized approach or methodology used during the sales process. A sales method can encompass all activities associated with the sales process, from prospecting to forecasting to closing deals. This approach allows sales representatives to use the method most appropriate for their opportunities.

The system administrator establishes values in your application that represent the sales methods and sales stages for your company. It is a recommended business practice to designate a default sales method in your application. This practice allows a sales method to be associated with each opportunity and aids in charting and reporting accuracy.

Sales methods can differ within a company. For example, a sales method for managing a complex multimillion dollar opportunity might include 15 stages, while a sales method for a simple low-dollar opportunity might require only four stages.

Your application administrator creates and implements the sales stages that your company uses. For more information about creating or implementing sales methods, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

The following table shows sales methodologies (Accelerated, Default, Standard), and the associated sales stage (for example, 01 - Prospecting) for each methodology. The table also shows if the record is a lead or is an opportunity at each sales stage.