Editing Workflow Step Actions – Sales Data (Admin)

Modified on Fri, 28 Jun at 4:15 PM

When setting up a workflow step, you can choose specific actions that should take place. This article covers how to adjust Sales Data-related step actions.

Sales data is the information that you gather around the likelihood of a matter becoming a 'sale'. This is especially useful for firms that focus on / have a given process for attracting and engaging new clients. This works best when you are working with a potential customer and want to track the likelihood they will engage your services.

Each matter has fields that capture how much the matter will be worth if the client engages (how much they will pay you), the likelihood of them engaging with you, when you expect the engagement to happen, and so forth. You can view this information for a matter by viewing the Billing tab of the matter and then viewing the Sales and marketing page:

To set up sales data-related step actions:

In Actionstep, go to Admin > Matter types. The Matter Types page appears.
Click Settings for the matter type you want to set up a workflow for.
Click Manage in the Workflow section. The Workflow page appears.
In the Steps list (right side of the page), select the step you want to edit. The Edit workflow window appears.
NOTE: To learn how to add a step, see Creating Steps For Your Workflow.
In the Step actions section, toggle Sales data to on.

In the Sale Status section that appears, select from the following options:

Show sale amount: Toggle this option to on and enter what your organization might expect the Default sale amount to be. For example, if you always charge a fixed amount of $1,000 for an estate planning matter, you could pre-populate this field with $1,000. If you have matter types where the amount will vary depending on the services the client needs, you can leave this blank for users to fill in.
Show Probability: Toggle this option to on to allow users to set the Minimum probability and Maximum probability of the sale. These percentages automatically increase or decrease the probability of a sale as you move to a step. To learn more, see "Using Minimum and Maximum Probability Example" below.
Sale Date: Toggle this option to on to prompt the user to enter the date they expect the sale to happen (e.g., when you would expect the client would agree to engage with the firm and undertake to pay any fees for the services the firm provides).
Marketing Medium: Toggle this option to on to allow users to link the matter to a marketing event or campaign so its success can be tracked. See Marketing Campaigns Overview for more information.
Payments: Toggle this option to on to allow users to create a schedule of billable fees for the matter. See Setting Up Billing for a Specific Matter for more details.
NOTE: Payments will only show on a step change if the matter has the following fields set on the matter billing options: 1) Billing arrangement is set to Fixed Fee, and 2) the Fixed fee bill frequency is set to Custom schedule.

Linked Quote/Estimate: Toggle this option to on to prompt users to choose a sales quote to link to as part of the step change. The available sales quotes are limited to those entered in Actionstep Accounting and linked to the matter in question. If there are no quotes in the system linked to the matter, none will be available.

WARNING: The quotes that are used in this section are sales quotes which are used as a type of accounting transaction. As an accounting transaction, sales quotes are seldom used by law firms and because of this, this function is only available for some Actionstep systems. To find out if this option is available for your firm's use, contact Actionstep Support. The linked Quote/Estimate field will only be displayed on a step change if the sales status of the matter is set to Sales Pipeline.

Linked Sales Order: Toggle this option to on if you want users to be prompted to link this sale to a sales order. Available sales orders are limited to those entered in Actionstep Accounting and linked to the matter in question. If there are no sales orders in the system linked to the matter, none will be available.

When finished making changes, click Save.

Using Minimum and Maximum Probability Example:

Mike has a matter type specifically for engaging with high-value clients. In the workflow of this matter type, he's set up the following steps:

- Initial contact
- Scoping
- Quote
- Quote follow-up
- Engaged
- Did not engage

As the matter moves from step to step, the likelihood of the client engaging goes up.

For the Initial contact step, Mike knows that he can get a broad range of contacts. Some are curious only while some are very keen to engage. Historically, Mike knows that no matter how excited a prospect seems, they don't always work out. To reflect this, Mike sets the Minimum probability on this step to 0% and the Maximum probability to 60%. This means his users can select a probability of up to 60%.

For Scoping, Mike has qualified the client better and is willing to invest more time into seeing what would be involved in engaging with this client. He is still not confidence they will engage but he is more sure. To reflect this, Mike sets the Minimum probability on this step to 20% and the Maximum probability stays at 60%. This change reflects that if his users are not at least 20% sure of the chance of a sale, they shouldn't bother moving to this step. They can only select between 20% to 60%.

For the Quote step, Mike normally has a pretty good idea of how things are going. He is more confident that anyone who reaches this step will engage with him. To reflect this confidence, he makes the Minimum probability 30% and changes Maximum probability to 80%.

The Quote follow up step can change the probability. If Mike needs to follow up with the prospect, his confidence can increase or decrease. Either way, the percentages will remain the same.

On the Engaged step, the client engages. so Mike sets the Minimum probability to 100%.

On the Did not engage step, Mike knows the client did sign on with him. He closes the matter at this step and chooses not to show the probability at all. However, he chooses to keep the probability recorded for the matter so that as he reviews lost opportunities each month, he can use the information to improve his conversion rate.

Editing Workflow Step Actions – Sales Data (Admin)

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