How to Make It Easy to Add Products to Opportunities

It’s true. For a sales person, to add Products to Opportunities in salesforce can be a bind.
It’s even more of a hassle if your sales people have a lot of products to select from. Let’s face it, it’s not the most user-friendly piece of functionality salesforce have ever invented.
But the fact is, if you’re using salesforce.com to manage your pipeline, then you almost certainly should be adding Products to Opportunities. And that’s true even if your products are services and not tangible items.
At the very least, the result of not adding Products to Opportunities is reduced management visibility of the sales pipeline. And it’s difficult to streamline the sales process by generating quotes and proposals directly from salesforce.com if products are not attached to opportunities. It probably means you can’t use electronic signature applications such as Echosign or Docusign to make it even easier for customers to buy.
Not adding products to opportunities also rules out a whole batch of downstream process improvements. This includes the automated creation of customer assets together with streamlined fulfilment, delivery and installation processes.
So what can you do about it?
The answer is a product selection wizard.
Standard product selection in salesforce
You’re probably already familiar with the standard way to add Products to Opportunities in salesforce. Here’s a recap.
The sales person clicks the Add Products button on the Opportunity…

…and is taken to the Product Selection page.

In the example above, there are 550 Products in total in salesforce, which means the full product set spreads over a total of 11 pages. It’s possible to filter and sort the columns, but nevertheless, it’s still not particularly easy to add the right products to the opportunity.
Salesforce product selection wizard
Here’s an alternative. This time, when the sales person clicks Add Products, he’s presented with a high level selection of the Product Families.

Expanding a section shows all the products within each Sub Product Family.

The sales person can now begin selecting products. The Quantity and Discount are entered in the pane on the right.

As more products are added, the bottom right pane shows the running total value of the Opportunity and the list of products that have been selected.

Click Finish, and the Products are now added to the Opportunity in the normal way. Clicking the Add Products button again re-opens the product selection wizard so that other products can be added to the opportunity.

The product selection wizard used by many companies makes it relatively easy for sales people to add products to an opportunity. It means managers get a significant improvement in their visibility of the sales pipeline and sales performance. And it opens the door to significant process improvements in quote and proposal production, delivery, fulfilment and customer service.
So adding Products to Opportunities is no longer a hassle! And remember, using Products is the gateway to other benefits including improved pipeline visibility and streamlined business processes.
Want a demo? Just get in touch to find out to implement the product selection wizard or to find out how it can be adapted to meet the specific needs of your business.
More about Products
Need a primer on how Products are used in salesforce? Check out Learn the basics about using Products in salesforce. And for something more advanced, Use Product Schedules as a Revenue Recognition Game Changer. Learn how you can be sure sales people add the right products to the right price with The Ultimate Guide to Product Price Books. And stop salespeople having to use spreadsheets or ring binders — there are four ways to calculate volume based pricing directly within salesforce.
This post was originally published by The Gary Smith Partnership at http://garysmithpartnership.com/add-products-to-opportunities/.

About the Author
Gary Smith is a CRM industry veteran and implementation specialist. He has extensive experience in delivering both the technology enablers and the business change required for full benefit realisation. Follow Gary on LinkedIn
As well as our own events and webinars, Gary regularly speaks at conferences to share his experience and expertise in helping businesses all over the world significantly grow revenue.
Gary is a certified salesforce.com Sales Cloud and Service Cloud Consultant and a Marketo Certified Consultant. He also has an MBA gained with Distinction from London’s City University.
Gary is also a British Cycling qualified coach and you’ll find him most Saturday mornings at the Lea Valley Youth Cycling Club in east London teaching kids how to get down a steep mountain biking course quickly and safely!
Find out how Gary and his team work with clients around the word by visiting our website www.garysmithpartnership.com.
