Salesforce – Similar Opportunities

A company uses salesforce crm in their organization where users deal with opportunities on day to day basis. A user has come to you with a request of finding similar opportunities. How can this be done?

In opportunity, you will find an option called "Similar Opportunities" this option lets you search Closed/Won opportunities that match attributes of the current opportunity. We have to enable similar opportunity with matching criteria and fields to be displayed. Here you can search maximum 10,000 matching closed/won opportunities. A closed/won opportunity’s relevance is depended by the number of attributes that match the current opportunity.

To access similar opportunities go to:

Setup > Customize > Opportunities > Similar Opportunities

Initially Similar Opportunities is not enabled in the Salesforce. There are three steps to configure Similar Opportunities.

Step 1: Enable Similar Opportunities

                By default Similar Opportunities is not enabled, hence we can’t add similar opportunity related list to the opportunity detail page. Enable the Similar Opportunities, then go to Opportunity page layout and in related list drag and drop similar opportunity related list to opportunity related list.

When Similar Opportunities is not enabled, similar opportunity related list is not available on page layout setup page.

Step 2: Specify Match Criteria

                Here we have to select and add opportunity fields and related lists. Then these fields are used to search to match against other opportunities. We can select 3 to 10 opportunity fields in match criteria.

Step 3: Select Fields to Display for Similar Opportunities.

                The fields which are selected will be displayed on the Similar Opportunity Related List. You can select up to 15 opportunity fields to be displayed on the similar opportunity related list which appear in the list as columns. Using the arrows we also arrange the order of the fields displayed on the related list.

 Step 4: Click Save.

Step 5: Now go to Opportunity Page Layout and add the Similar Opportunity related List to opportunity detail page.

I have 3 Closed/Win Opportunities. I have created a new opportunity and now I want to find out similar opportunity to this current opportunity. On the Similar Opportunity related list click “Find”.

Following page is displayed. Three opportunities are displayed which are similar to the current opportunity. On left side we have Match Criteria and the fields we had selected in the Similar Opportunity settings.

Now I select Match Criteria: Account Name. No similar opportunities are displayed with respect to Account Name match criteria.

I can select more than one match criteria. I have selected Opportunity Owner and Probability. 3 similar opportunities are displayed.

Close Date Within: You can select Last 3 /3 – 6/ 6 – 9/9 – 12 months. Select the relevant opportunity and click Bookmark.

On related list Similar Opportunity are displayed.