Work with sales guides

• 11 minutes to read

The Sales guide will take you through the different stages of a predefined sales process, automatically provide suggestions and templates for documents that need to be created along the way, and highlight follow-up activities that need to be performed.

If you have not already done so, learn how to set up a Sales guide here. You can use the SuperOffice Sales guide or set up your own.

Watch this video to learn how easy it is to use the Sales guide (video length - 1:24):

Behavior when a sale has a guide

The first stage in the sales guide is selected in the Stage field on the main Sale card.
Follow-ups and/or documents for the stage are listed on the Sales guide section tab.

The sales process

Click the Create button in front of the follow-up/document name.
In the dialog that appears, you create the follow-up or document in the usual way. Many of the fields are prefilled, but you can change the information, or add more information.
When you have completed the follow-up, check Completed in the relevant dialog, or in the checkbox in front of the follow-up name on the Sales guide section tab. By default, documents are marked as completed.

Tip

To create several follow-ups of the same type, right-click the activity and select Create another.
After all follow-ups and documents for a stage are completed, go to the next stage on the main Sale card.

Note

If you wish, you can go to the next stage without creating or performing all the follow-ups/documents in a stage.
Repeat the above procedure for all follow-ups/documents in each stage of the sales guide.

How to advance the status

You can move the project to the next status in two ways:

From the Sales guide:

Right-click the button for the next status in the Sales guide section tab and select Move to this status.

From the Sale tab:

Click Edit on the Sale tab.
Click the arrow next to the Stage field.
Select the required stage from the list that appears. Apart from the statuses Sold and Lost, the options in the list are defined in Settings and maintenance.
Click Save.

Why does the Sales guide dialog open when I mark a follow-up as completed?

In Settings and maintenance, it is possible to specify that a follow-up in a sales guide should be suggested automatically when the preceding follow-up is marked as completed. In that case, the Sales guide dialog opens when you mark the previous follow-up as completed.

In the Sales guide dialog you have three options:

Click Create to create the next follow-up in the sales guide. This takes you directly to the dialog for follow-ups.
Click Cancel if you do not want to create the follow-up at the moment. The Sales guide dialog closes and you should remember to create the follow-up later on.
Check Always create follow-up? Do not show this dialog again if, in future, you always want to create the suggested follow-up. The dialog for follow-ups will then open automatically next time.

Tip

To reset this option, so that the Sales guide dialog opens, go to icon Personal settings > Preferences > Sale and select Yes for the Confirm creation of suggested follow-up option.

Example

Keep in mind that your sales guides may be configured differently in Settings and maintenance.

Enter a new sale and select a sale type

You record a new sale and select the Sale to new customer sale type, which is linked to a sales guide. The sales guide contains the following stages, follow-ups and documents:

Stage	Follow-ups	Documents
First meeting	Customer meeting (Meeting (External))	Meeting confirmation (Email)
Quotation	Quotation preparation (Task)	Quotation (Letter)
Signing of contract	Set up contract meeting (Phone-Out) Contract meeting (Meeting (External))	Signed contract

The First meeting stage

You have agreed a meeting time and want to create the Customer meeting follow-up in the Diary and invite attendees.
1. In the sales guide, you click Create next to the Customer meeting follow-up. The Follow-up dialog opens, with Meeting (External) specified as the type and the name of the sale and company prefilled.
2. Complete the information and invite attendees.
3. Click Save.
For the sake of good order, you want to send an email confirming the time and location of the meeting.
1. Click Create next to Meeting confirmation. The Document dialog opens with Email already selected as the document type, and the name of the company and sale prefilled.
2. Complete the rest of the information in the fields in the Document dialog.
3. Click the Create button to create and send the email.
After the meeting has taken place, you want to confirm this in the sales guide.

In the sales guide, check the box next to the Customer meeting follow-up.

Tip

You can also do this from the activities list in, for example, the Diary and the Company screens.

The Quotation stage

All of the follow-ups and documents in the First meeting stage are completed and you want to go to the next stage in the sales guide.
1. Click the Edit button on the main Sale card.
2. Click the arrow next to the Stage field and select Quotation from the list.
3. Click Save. The follow-ups and documents for this new stage are now displayed in the Sales guide section tab.
Tip

You can also right-click the Quotation button on the Sales guide section tab and select Move to this stage.
You want to create a task in your diary to remind you that you need to prepare a quotation.
1. Click Create next to the Quotation preparation follow-up. The Task dialog opens, with Follow-up specified as the task type.
2. Complete the information.
3. Click Save.
4. After preparing the contents of the quotation, mark the activity as Completed.
You now want to create the quotation for the company.

Click Create next to the Quotation document and create the document.

The Signing of contract stage

After all the follow-ups and documents you want to use in the Quotation stage are completed, go to the last stage in the sales guide, which is Signing of contract.
1. Click the Edit button on the main Sale card.
2. Click the arrow to the right of the Stage field and select Signing of contract from the list.
3. Click Save. The follow-ups and documents for this stage are now displayed in the Sales guide section tab.
You want to create and perform the first follow-up in this stage.
1. Click Create next to the Set up contract meeting phone call and create the phone call in the usual way.
2. After completing the phone call, check the box.
3. In the Sales guide dialog you have three options:
  - Click Create to create the Contract meeting follow-up, which is the next follow-up in the sales guide. This takes you directly to the dialog for follow-ups.
  - Click Cancel if you do not want to create the follow-up at the moment. The Sales guide dialog closes and you should remember to create the follow-up later on.
  - Check Always create follow-up? Do not show this dialog again if, in future, you always want to create the suggested follow-up. The dialog for follow-ups will then open automatically next time.
Note

The Sales guide dialog opens because Automatically suggest this follow-up is set for the Contract meeting follow-up in Settings and maintenance. You can choose to not have this dialog appear, so that the next follow-up is suggested automatically.
You want to create the Contract meeting follow-up from the Sales guide dialog.

Click Create in the Sales guide dialog. The Follow-up dialog opens, where you can create the meeting in the usual way.
Then you want to create the contract to take to the meeting.
1. Click Create next to the Signed contract document to create the contract.
2. After the contract meeting and the contract is signed, mark the Contract meeting follow-up as completed.

You can now change the stage to Sold. After all the required follow-ups and documents for the sale are completed, you can set the sale status to completed.

Tip

If you want the sale to remain visible in, for example, the Activities section tab in the Sale screen and the Sales section tab in the Diary screen, you must not set the sale to completed.

Set up a sales guide in Settings and maintenance