Guide to Modify Opportunity Stages of an Existing Sales Process in Salesforce

With changing times - How we engage with our customers change and also the way we go about our business processes tend to change.

When we review our  processes to see what is the best fit for the current market - we will periodically come up with a different way to track our sales/opportunity pipeline stages.

New team members and managers are able to suggest better processes based on their previous experience.

Salesforce is well know for its flexibility in allowing businesses to customize it as per their unique business requirements.

The scenarios listed below assumes our existing implementation has multiple Opportunity record types linked to multiple sales processes (in use) tailored to specific business needs. The steps provided outline ways to customize the existing implementation with minimal negative impact for business moving forward.

Listed below are common scenarios 

Drop Stages from the Sales Process:

1. Open Opportunities in the dropped stage should be moved to an active stage. We can inline edit on a list view filtered on record type to quickly manage this if records are few. Alternatively use data loader.
2. Remove “dropped stage” from Sales Process.
3. Ensure both Closed Won and Closed Lost stage are defined.

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Example:

Universal Containers has hired several new Sales Managers on their team and would like to revamp their Sales Process- They have conducted several internal meetings and agreed on the new process. They have finalised the requirement  to remove a stage "Proposal Review" completely in the new process.

These are the activities we need to perform:

1.  Identify a refreshed Sandbox where you can perform the changes and test. Perform all Steps listed below on this Sandbox.
2.  On the Sandbox identified in Step 1 above , Remove "Proposal Review" from the Opportunity object- Stage field Picklist. Test by editing /creating new opportunities and checking that the “Proposal Review” Stage is not visible on the picklist.
3.  Identify Opportunities to be updated as part of this change (all open opportunities in “Proposal Review”)
4.  Identify the stage to be updated on open opportunities in “Proposal Review” - This will need interaction with business/sales team/opportunity owners to identify which active stage they would like to move this opportunity.
5. Update the Opportunities in “Proposal Review” stage with the stage identified in Step 4.Use data loader if number of opportunities to be updated are high.
6. On the Setup Home screen Quick find box search for “Sales Process”. Navigation: Feature Settings-> Sales -> Sales Processes. Remove "Proposal Review" from your Sales Process. Test on sandbox.
7.  Plan release date for Production to be the start of a new period like next Fiscal Year,Quarter or Month. This is important because dashboards will look clean when “Proposal Review” does not show up- and we can avoid confusing the users.
8. Communicate the Planned changes to all stakeholders and train users on the sandbox.

Add New Stages in the Sales Process:

1. Define / add “New Stage” in Stage picklist on Opportunity Object with Probability %
2. Add “New Stage” in Sales Process
3. Ensure both Closed Won and Closed Lost stage are defined

Example:

Universal Containers has hired several new Sales Managers on their team and would like to revamp their Sales Process- They have conducted several internal meetings and agreed on the new process. They have finalized the requirement  to adding a new stage "Negotiation" to the existing process.

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These are the activities we need to perform:

1.  Identify a refreshed Sandbox where you can perform the changes and test. Perform all Steps listed below on this Sandbox.
2.  On the Sandbox identified in Step 1 above , Add "Negotiation" on the Opportunity object- Stage field Picklist. Test by editing /creating new opportunities and checking that the "Negotiation" Stage is visible on the picklist.
3.  On the Setup Home screen Quick find box search for “Sales Process”. Navigation: Feature Settings-> Sales -> Sales Processes. Edit the Sales Process you wist to modify and Add "Negotiation"  on this Sales Process. Test on sandbox.
4.  Plan release date for Production to be the start of a new period like next Fiscal Year,Quarter or Month. This is important because dashboards will look clean when "Negotiation"  shows up from a new period - and we can avoid confusing the users.
5. Communicate the Planned changes to all stakeholders and train users on the sandbox.

By following this step-by-step guide, we can easily add new opportunity stages and delete opportunity stages from  an existing sales process in Salesforce. Customizing our sales process allows us to align Salesforce with our unique business requirements and make it effective and easy to use for our Sales team. It is a best practice to regularly review and refine our sales processes as our business evolves to ensure optimal performance in Salesforce