Within Salesforce, there are many different processes that you can automate to save time and manpower. In an earlier article, we covered how to automatically set revenue schedule start dates to correspond to opportunity close dates. However, automation like this requires deep Salesforce administrative knowledge. If you do not have this expertise, we recommend checking out Trailhead for educational resources or considering a third-party consultant’s assistance. In this article, we will discuss one of our most popular automations: automating the creation of renewal opportunities.
The Use Case
Many companies using Sales Cloud don’t sell one-off products. Instead, they sell contracts or subscriptions that need to be renewed after the initial terms are fulfilled. This is especially true for SaaS companies, as customers pay for access to their software on an ongoing basis. But what happens when a contract completes and the SaaS company has to contact the company once more for a renewal? Losing out on this revenue would be hazardous. Luckily, we can solve this with automation.
By using the Process and Flow Builders, we can automatically create a renewal opportunity within Salesforce after the current opportunity is closed. Additionally, we can set the date on the renewal to correspond to when the original opportunity’s terms expires! Let’s learn how.
How To Set It Up
Basic Administration
Before you jump into the Process and Flow builder, you need to take two administrative steps:
- Create 2 record types: Opportunity and Renewal Opportunity.
You need to do this because Opportunities have different pipelines than Renewal Opportunities. Typically, a new Opportunity will require more work and consequently more stages than a Renewal, as a customer is already familiar with your offerings in the renewal scenario. Additionally, separating these two record types allows you to report on each one individually.
- Create a custom lookup field on Opportunity to correspond to the Renewal Opportunity.
This connects your Opportunity to the Renewal Opportunity, allowing you to easily access the Renewal from the original Opportunity. This also allows you to check if a Renewal already exists to prevent the system from automatically creating multiple accidentally.
Process Builder
Within the Process Builder, you want to create a Process that runs when an Opportunity is edited or created.
The Process should determine if:
- Stage is Closed Won
- Stage is changed
- Renewal Opportunity custom field is null
If these are all satisfied, then the Process should call the Flow.
Flow Builder
Within the Flow Builder, you want to create a Flow that will create the Renewal Opportunity using information from the original Opportunity without creating an exact copy. You can do this by creating a Flow that:
- Collects field data from the original Opportunity and stores them in a variable
- Collects Products associated to the original Opportunity and stores them in a variable
- Takes field data from step 1 and assigns certain values (like record type, dates, ID, stage, etc.)
- Creates Renewal Opportunity with inherited and edited field data
- Update old Opportunity custom field to include the Renewal Opportunity ID
- Collects Contact Role data from the original Opportunity and stores it in a variable
- Loops through all Contact Roles, separating them into individual entries, assigning them to the new Opportunity, and then compiling them back into a variable
- Insert Contact Roles into the Renewal Opportunity
- Loops through all Products, separating them into individual entries, assigning them to the new Opportunity, and then compiling them back into a variable
- Insert Products into the Renewal Opportunity
- Finished!
Additional Tools
The steps above simply create a Renewal Opportunity with inherited data once an Opportunity is closed. You can configure anything beyond this automation to directly match your sales process. If you’d like to create list views that show open Opportunities and Renewal Opportunities with upcoming close dates, you can do this. If you’d like reminders or notifications to alert your team when Renewal Opportunities need further action, this is possible as well. And if you want to assign the Renewal Opportunities to specific teams automatically as they approach, you can do so with automation too.
Need A Hand?
If you’d like assistance setting up automated renewal creation, Ntegro is here to help. In fact, our team is happy to take a look at any automation requests that you may have. Simply get in touch with us online to schedule a free consultation, and we can tell you the best way to get started. For any Salesforce consulting, implementation, integration, or development, Ntegro has the resources to get you where you need to be.
