▥Opportunities

For everything you are working on or want to work on: an enquiry, a quote, an ongoing project, a tender. An opportunity is the record of an undertaking — with client, contact person, status, deadline and value.

A contact answers the question “Who do I know?”. An opportunity answers the question “What am I working on right now, and what comes next?”.

Opportunities come about in three ways: by hand, from a file or from the Opportunity search.

In three ways:

• Create them one at a time with “+ New opportunity” — for the undertaking you have just heard about.
• From a file: “↑ Import opportunities” above the list opens the data import. The same procedure as for contacts, with a dry run before anything is written.
• From the Opportunity search — a hit becomes an opportunity with one click, contact person included.

Nothing more is needed: a title and a client are enough to start with; everything else can be added later in the record.

By default, all open opportunities — that is, what is currently being worked on. Completed and lost ones are hidden until you change the filter.

Available are:

• A search field covering opportunity, client, location and contact person at the same time. It searches the entire stock, not just the rows displayed.
• Filters by status (all open, won, lost, completed …) and by source.
• “Load more” when the list is long.

The shortcut g s jumps to the opportunity list from anywhere.

Everything about one undertaking in one place:

• The status right at the top — it is saved immediately, without a separate save button.
• Details: title, client, location, source, link to the source, deadline, period and value.
• Notes — your free text about the case.
• Description from the source — the original text, if the opportunity comes from a file or from the Opportunity search.
• Contact persons with “→ Contact” and a form for adding more.
• Follow-ups for this opportunity.
• History — what was changed when, and by whom.

What the record does not have: mail sending, unsubscribes and categories. Writing is done from Contacts and Campaigns, not from the opportunity.

It says where the undertaking stands — from the first enquiry to the conclusion. The status controls two things: what appears in the list by default and what your evaluations count.

The selection is right at the top of the record and is saved immediately. One click is enough; there is no confirmation prompt.

Keep it honest, even when an opportunity is lost. A list in which everything is “open” is worthless after eight weeks — and the question “How much have I actually won?” can then no longer be answered.

For the three questions that come first with every opportunity:

• Deadline — by when something has to be submitted, offered or decided. This is the detail that loses you an opportunity if it is missing.
• Period — when the work takes place. Important as soon as several undertakings compete for the same weeks.
• Value — what the opportunity is worth. Only with it can a list be sorted by importance instead of by date received.

Rather enter a rough estimate than nothing at all. An approximate value is better for any evaluation than an empty field, and nobody will hold you to the estimate.

A deadline does not replace a reminder: also create a Follow-up, otherwise nobody will notice.

With a Follow-up directly in the record. It is linked to the opportunity and to the contact, appears in your follow-up list and links back to the opportunity from there.

When it is worth it — practically always, but at least:

• After the quote, a few days later.
• Before the deadline, with enough lead time to still do something.
• After completion, to ask about satisfaction and raise the follow-on assignment.

The third point is the one almost everyone forgets, and the one that brings follow-on assignments.

Every opportunity has contact persons — the people you talk to about it. They are listed in the record, and “→ Contact” leads to the full contact record.

Conversely, the contact record shows the “Opportunities” tab with the number, split into open and completed. It only appears if there are links.

If you enter a contact person with an email address, a contact is created from it where needed. Aurora Hive Sales checks whether the address already exists: the same email address does not create a second contact. Without an email address, first name, last name and company are compared.

This means contact persons from opportunities can later be added to a campaign in a targeted way — via the address book, not via the opportunity.

With a click on “Save as an opportunity” on a hit. Two things are created at once:

1. An opportunity with title, client, location, link to the source and the description from the advertisement. The source shown there is “Opportunity search (…)” with the name of the place where it was found.
2. A contact for the contact person, if the advertisement names one. It gets the tag “Opportunity search” — that is how you later recognise where these addresses come from, and you can add them to a contact campaign in a targeted way.

At the top of the hit list, Aurora Hive Sales counts how many you have saved, and links straight into the list with “→ view opportunities”.

If the contact already existed, no second one is created — empty fields are filled in, existing ones stay as they are. If it had been deleted, it comes back with its earlier history; the history then records what restored it.

If the address is on the blocklist, the opportunity is saved, but the contact is not.

With “↑ Import opportunities” above the list. The procedure is the same as for contacts: select the file, map the columns, look at the dry run, import.

Columns such as Opportunity, Client, Location, Link to the source, deadline, period and value are recognised; a sample file is available for download.

If the file also contains contact persons, two things happen: they end up in the opportunity record and in the address book, with the tag “Opportunity import”. Duplicates are detected by email address, and without an email address by phone, name and company.

The dry run counts exactly what the real run does — including the contact persons. A second run of the same file does not create anything twice, and “Undo import” takes opportunities and contact persons back out again.

Blocked addresses are skipped; the report says how many rows were affected.

It records where an opportunity came from — your own entry, a file, the Opportunity search, a particular portal, a referral.

The benefit shows after a few weeks: if you want to know which source delivers usable opportunities and which only noise, this is the only detail that can answer it. Without it, every opportunity looks the same.

Next to it is the Link to the source. It leads back to the tender or advertisement — handy when someone asks weeks later what exactly was required. The link must begin with http or https, otherwise it is rejected.

In the Company file. It shows “N opportunities” with the list below, together with the contacts, the history and the links to the company’s portals.

This is the view for the client conversation: you can see at a glance who enquires regularly — and who has not for a year.

You can also find opportunities via the quick search (the briefcase symbol, with the status as a badge) and as a tile and chart on the Overview.

No. No email goes out from the opportunity record — there is neither a send button nor an unsubscribe per opportunity.

Writing is done via Contacts and Campaigns. The way there is through the contact person: “→ Contact” in the record, then write from there or add the contact to a campaign.

Why it works like this: an email belongs to a person, not to an undertaking. Only in this way do unsubscribes, blocklists and deliverability rules take effect reliably — and nobody receives the same message three times because they appear in three opportunities.

With a fixed look every two weeks — opportunities age faster than anything else in the system.

What to check:

• Is the undertaking still current? A call clarifies that and is client care at the same time.
• Has anything changed? Scope, deadline, contact person.
• Is the status still right?

And the hard rule: anything older than three months that has not been confirmed has probably gone. Set it to lost or completed instead of leaving it open.

The side effect of the check: you talk to your clients every two weeks. That is the best client care there is.

More than most people use — and it is the basis for your acquisition:

• Which client enquires regularly? Those are your most important relationships, regardless of the individual opportunity.
• Which kind of undertaking comes up most often? Tells you what you should prepare for.
• Which source delivers? Opportunity search, referral, your own acquisition — with very different yields.
• How much is open, how much has been won? The figure management asks about first.

For this to work, you need three things kept up to date: status, source and value.

That is three clicks per opportunity, and the difference between a pipeline and a filing cabinet.

That happens when the same undertaking comes from two sources — once from a file, once from the Opportunity search, and the spelling of the client or the title differs.

It cannot happen from the Opportunity search alone: every hit carries an identifier of where it was found, and a second run recognises it and does not create it again. An opportunity from a portal and the same opportunity from a file, on the other hand, are two different things for Aurora Hive Sales.

Tidy it up as soon as you notice: set the superfluous entry to completed or delete it, and transfer the notes into the remaining one. Two records for one undertaking means two half histories.

They are now called Opportunities. The area has stayed the same but become broader: it suits a project, a tender or an enquiry just as well as an open position.

What has changed:

• The menu item is called “Opportunities”; old bookmarks to the vacancy list are forwarded there.
• New fields: deadline, period and value.
• Removed: mail sending from the record, the unsubscribe per vacancy and the categories.
• Vacancy mailing with duplicate checking is a separate area that is not part of the normal scope. If you do not see it in your menu, it has not been activated for your installation.

Your existing data is retained — the same records, the same history, a new name.