How to use Opportunity AND RLI with more flexibility ?

Hey Frédéric Rinaldi ,

Normally you either want to use RLI or not, and after an initial decision, it is a bit complex to go back due to data migrations, training, user adoption, forecasting, and process changes to name a few (see one-way two-way doors decisions).

In saying that, when at Sugar, I architected and brought to market the DealHub integration for the then-called SugarIntegrate offering (a great CPQ system) and ran into this exact challenge.

When dealing with organisations that have both SDRs and AEs, (or however you want to call the flavour of the day for the sales titles ) you would have someone just understanding if there is an Opportunity or not (SDR), and then someone else doing deeper level engagement and understanding of the actual opportunity (AE).

To be able to solve this problem, you would first have a budgetary line item that the SDR would put in place, and then the AE would create a quote in the CPQ system. The integration would then replace the budgetary line item with the correct ones, based on the quote.

To allow that to be optional, there is a new hidden setting in Sugar's front-end framework that allows no RLI on an Opportunity since a recent version of Sugar. I believe the setting has been available since version 12 or so, and you should find that code that can be extended, within the create subpanel view. The setting is not (or was not) exposed to changes via the UI, only via code extensions.

Personally, I would make it part of the sales process for sellers (SDRs) to have to create a budgetary line item and not need that customisation so that the company can forecast some amount for the sale, even if with low probability. Or alternatively, create a feature request to be able to optionally disable it. SDRs normally do not create quotes but they could ballpark the value of a deal.

In my opinion, a CPQ solution is the way forward to sell with a CRM.

Use the CRM to track Opportunities and the CPQ to churn out multiple quotes and offers with different flavours.

That's how you could have also different catalogues, but rarely do those solutions come integrated out of the box.

And there, I can definitely help!

Cheers

Hey Frédéric Rinaldi ,

Normally you either want to use RLI or not, and after an initial decision, it is a bit complex to go back due to data migrations, training, user adoption, forecasting, and process changes to name a few (see one-way two-way doors decisions).

In saying that, when at Sugar, I architected and brought to market the DealHub integration for the then-called SugarIntegrate offering (a great CPQ system) and ran into this exact challenge.

When dealing with organisations that have both SDRs and AEs, (or however you want to call the flavour of the day for the sales titles ) you would have someone just understanding if there is an Opportunity or not (SDR), and then someone else doing deeper level engagement and understanding of the actual opportunity (AE).

To be able to solve this problem, you would first have a budgetary line item that the SDR would put in place, and then the AE would create a quote in the CPQ system. The integration would then replace the budgetary line item with the correct ones, based on the quote.

To allow that to be optional, there is a new hidden setting in Sugar's front-end framework that allows no RLI on an Opportunity since a recent version of Sugar. I believe the setting has been available since version 12 or so, and you should find that code that can be extended, within the create subpanel view. The setting is not (or was not) exposed to changes via the UI, only via code extensions.

Personally, I would make it part of the sales process for sellers (SDRs) to have to create a budgetary line item and not need that customisation so that the company can forecast some amount for the sale, even if with low probability. Or alternatively, create a feature request to be able to optionally disable it. SDRs normally do not create quotes but they could ballpark the value of a deal.

In my opinion, a CPQ solution is the way forward to sell with a CRM.

Use the CRM to track Opportunities and the CPQ to churn out multiple quotes and offers with different flavours.

That's how you could have also different catalogues, but rarely do those solutions come integrated out of the box.

And there, I can definitely help!

Cheers