Calendar Tab

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Calendar Tab

The Calendar tab combines your Outlook appointments and sales milestones in one calendar to give you one integrated view of your activities and important sales events. All appointments are kept in the Outlook calendar folder that you choose.

Accessing Outlook Appointments

Desktop Sales Manager will automatically search for appointments in Outlook (you can choose which Outlook folder to search) and display them in the Calendar. You can edit appointments, delete appointments, or create new appointments in Desktop Sales Manager and the results are saved in Outlook.

Note that recurring Outlook appointments are displayed in Desktop Sales Manager but cannot be edited or deleted by Desktop Sales Manager.

New Outlook Appointment

You can create a new Outlook appointment with the new appointment button on the Calendar tab. The appointment is stored in Outlook, just as if you had created it in Outlook. You can view and edit these appointments either from Outlook or Desktop Sales Manager.

These Outlook appointments are not connected to sales items/opportunities. You can create appointments that ARE linked to sales items/opportunities. The items are selected in the List tab, and then created using Action tab --> Appointments (in the Activities area) --> Create New Appointment.

Linked Outlook Appointments

You can create Outlook appointments that are linked to sales opportunities. Linked Outlook appointments are created from the pipeline window's List tab by selecting sales opportunities in the List area and then selecting Action tab --> Appointments (in the Activities area) --> Create New Appointment. The new appointment will list the sales opportunities that are linked to it.

Editing Appointments

To edit an appointment in the Calendar you choose the appointment you wish to edit, then select the edit button on the Calendar tab.

Adjusting Appointment Times

You can quickly adjust the start/end times of an appointment displayed in a day view of the calendar. Use the mouse to change the start or end of the appointment on the calendar.

Changing Appointment Dates

You can also quickly change an appointments date by dragging-and-dropping the appointment to the new date.

Sales Milestones

You will also see sales milestones displayed in the calendar.

Sales milestones are important dates that are associated with any sales item or opportunity. They are displayed in the Calendar and Milestones tabs of the pipeline window. Sales milestones display a checkmark icon.

Intrinsic Milestones

Two milestones are properties of a every sales item/opportunity. In other words, you don't have to create them; they come into existence when you create a new sales item/opportunity. The two milestones that exist for every sales opportunity are:

Date Created

Date Last Modified

This is a potential third intrinsic milestone. All of the templates that come with Desktop Sales Manager have a field that holds the booking date - the expected order date. When the booking date is defined by the template - and most templates have a defined booking date - then the Booking Date is also a sales milestone.

Journal Entries as Sales Milestones

Date/Time stamped entries in a Journal are also displayed as milestones. This is how you create you own milestones for any deal you are working on. This simplest method is to use the Journal's Date/Time stamp button to create date/time text like:

Feb 14, 2006 16:11 [Wilson Pickett]:

If you wish to set a milestone in the past or future, just change the text. For example, if you wish a future milestone, edit the above text:

Feb 28, 2006 13:00 [Wilson Pickett]: Expected closing on the house at 5903 Wycombe

Milestones for Email, Tasks, and Appointments

It is easy to record milestones for almost every critical communication or interaction with your client. Desktop Sales Manager can automatically create date/time stamped Journal entries for every email you send or for every task or appointment you make. These Journal entries are recognized as milestones and will be displayed on the Calendar and Milestone tabs.

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Editing Sales Milestones

Since sales milestones are - for the most part - derived from sales opportunities, you change milestones by changing the sales opportunity. Selecting a milestone and then pressing the edit button on the Calendar will open the sales opportunity for editing.

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