In our view, an opportunity occurs when the target/lead/account becomes interested in a proposal and is used only once they indicate they are interested.
However, since we have many new proposals going out all the time to existing accounts AND unconverted leads, we dont have a great way to track who received which proposal, and their status (unsent/bad fit/in progress/converted) in regards to a specific proposal
How do others track (unsent/bad fit/in progress/converted) on a mixture of targets/leads and accounts? Do we use a new module similiar to opportunity but dont convert to an account or expand the functionality of the opportunity module, or is this related to campaign tracking?
Are you not using the quotes module? it does exactly that. Tracks who got the quote, when, and what the status is?
This is my definition of leads/contacts/opportunities, and it keeps me and my clients straight. I realize others do it differently.
In general, you convert leads into contacts and opportunities. If you have a customer who is already a contact and an account, you can just create an opportunity and attach it to the account/contact.
An already converted client who has a business opportunity is not a LEAD, it is an OPPORTUNITY (if meets criteria below).
A LEAD, is a mostly unknown person/company who has expressed interest either via web or email or phone.
A TARGET is someone you know essentially zero about. Just a name and email.
An OPPORTUNITY can be attached to either an existing ACCOUNT/CONTACT or converted from a LEAD. My definition (which makes is different from a lead) is that not only do they have to express interest (just a LEAD) but also have 2 things. 1) Timeframe and 2) Budget for your goods and services. If they Interest, Timeframe and Budget, they are an Opportunity.
Special Case: Where you have a “potential” OPPORTUNITY with an existing customer, you kind of want to treat it more like you would a LEAD rather than an OPPORTUNITY. I create an OPPORTUNITY and put them in the stage of “Qualification” which means to me that it’s kind of like a LEAD in that timeframe and budget has not been established.