LTO business process overview

Process scope

Core LTO

flowchart LR
    A[Customer acquisition] --> B[Lead intake]
    B --> C[Lead assignment and validation]
    C --> D[Accounts and Contacts]
    D --> E[Opportunity progression]
    E --> F[Product configuration and Quoting]
    F --> G[Sales Order]

1. Where do prospects come from, and who follows up?
2. When should you Convert a Lead into an Account or Opportunity?
3. Is the Opportunity advancing through a consistent method, and is the likelihood of closing realistic?
4. Are the Product, Price, and Promotion correct, and has the order received the required confirmation?

Extended post-order chain

flowchart LR
    A[Sales Order] --> B[Inventory and shipping]
    A --> C[Receivable]
    D[Sales Contract] --> A
    D --> C
    B --> E[Actual delivery or Settlement]
    E --> C

Process foundations

Stage 1: Customer acquisition

Stage 2: Lead Management: intake, assignment, and validation

Lead statuses

flowchart LR
    A[Not Assigned] -->|Assign or Claim| B[Pending]
    B -->|Start follow-up| C[In Follow-Up]
    C -->|Successful conversion| D[Converted]
    C -->|No current value| E[Invalid]
    E -->|Reactivate| C
    A --> F[Voided]
    B --> F
    C --> F

• Not Assigned: An Assigned Owner has not been specified.
• Pending: An Owner exists, but follow-up has not started.
• In Follow-Up: A follow-up record or processing result exists.
• Invalid: The Lead currently has no follow-up value. You can reactivate it according to permissions.
• Converted: The Lead has been converted into downstream Account, Contact, or Opportunity data.
• Voided: The data is classified as spam or no longer used. Usually, only an administrator can restore it.

Stage 3: Account Management: create Accounts and Contacts

Account resource routing

flowchart LR
    A[Account in Account Pool] -->|Claim or Assign| B[Sales-owned Account]
    B -->|Continuous follow-up| C[Closed or continued development]
    B -->|Return or rule-based Reclaim| A
    C -->|Renewal, expansion, or new Opportunity| B
    C -->|Reassign for development| A

Stage 4: Identify and advance Opportunities

Stage 5: Configure Products, Sales Scope, Pricing, and Quotes

flowchart LR
    A[Products and Categories] --> B[Attributes and Sales BOM]
    B --> C[Selling Scope]
    C --> D[Price Book]
    D --> E[Quote]
    E --> F[Sales Order]

• Products and Categories determine what you sell and how users find it.
• Attributes and Sales BOM determine how complex Products are configured.
• Selling Scope determines which Products the current organization, Account, or Partner can sell.
• Price Book determines the source of the base Product Price.
• Pricing Policy determines whether Discounts, price reductions, Buy-and-Get Promotions, or other Promotions apply in transaction scenarios. It is different from a Price Book.
• Quote carries these results forward and can be converted to an order after Account confirmation.

Stage 6: Confirm the transaction

Fulfillment and receivables after the order

Inventory, shipping, and delivery

Create receivables

Primary responsibilities by role

Key data and analytics loop

Go-live and validation recommendations

Minimum viable process

1. Prepare a test Sales team and a small amount of test data.
2. Configure one Lead intake and assignment method.
3. Confirm Account Duplicate Rules, ownership, and basic permissions.
4. Configure one Opportunity Sales Process with In Progress and final stages.
5. Prepare basic Products and available Prices.
6. Run the chain: Lead → Account/Contact → Opportunity → Quote or order.
7. Check object relationships, Owners, Statuses, Amounts, and Data Access.
8. Add Account Pool Reclaim, CPQ, Pricing Policy, Credit, inventory, delivery, and receivables automation as needed.

Validation checklist

• Leads enter the target Lead Pool correctly and are Claimed or Assigned according to rules.
• After Lead conversion, Account, Contact, and Opportunity records have no unexpected Duplicates.
• Opportunities enter the correct Sales Process and follow stage criteria and task constraints.
• Users can select only Products within the current Selling Scope, and the Price source matches expectations.
• After Quote-to-order conversion or a Contract Associated Order, key fields and detail relationships are correct.
• Post-order shipping, Settlement, or receivable entry points match the enterprise model.
• Sales representatives, managers, commercial users, finance users, and administrators see the data ranges allowed by the permission design.
• Analytics Reports use real stages, Amounts, Dates, and close results.

Next steps

• New users should read Sales Management quick start and select a role path.
• Sales users should see Sales representative quick start.
• Sales managers should see Sales manager quick start.
• When you encounter an unfamiliar term, see Core Sales Management terms.