Working with your opportunities

What is an Opportunity?

During the initial stages of the sales process, a sales representative assesses whether an interested individual (called lead) has the potential to become a customer. This assessment and validation phase is referred to as Qualification. Once a lead is deemed qualified and is considered to have a higher probability of converting to a customer, it is then classified as an Opportunity.

Working with Your Opportunities

Partners can manage opportunities created within their CRM systems and synchronize them with AWS Partner Central using the AWS Partner Central Selling API. This allows partners to track and manage opportunities from initiation to closure.

Creating an Opportunity

The first step in managing opportunities is creating an opportunity using the CreateOpportunity action. This creates an opportunity with the Lifecycle.ReviewStatus set to Pending Submission. However, the opportunity is not yet submitted to AWS for validation.

Once created, partners must associate at least one Partner Solution with the opportunity using the AssociateOpportunity action. This action clearly defines what the opportunity is attempting to sell. Partners can view the complete list of available solutions in their account using the ListSolutions API, and they can associate between one and ten solutions.

Optionally, partners can also associate relevant AWS Products with the opportunity using the AssociateOpportunity action. This step helps AWS sales teams understand what AWS products are expected to be sold in conjunction with the opportunity.

Once the required Partner Solution is associated and, optionally, AWS Products are linked, partners can start engagement on the opportunity by using the StartEngagementFromOpportunityTask action. The is when the opportunity gets submitted for starting an engagement.

Review Process

After starting the engagement on the opportunity using the StartEngagementFromOpportunityTask action, the opportunity enters the AWS validation phase, and its Lifecycle.ReviewStatus is set to Submitted. No changes can be made to the opportunity until the review process is complete.

During this validation phase, AWS ensures that the opportunity details are accurate and complete. While the validation is in progress, the Lifecycle.ReviewStatus is set to In-Review.

If there are changes or additional details required from the partner, AWS sets the Lifecycle.ReviewStatus to Action Required, and any required updates are communicated via the Lifecycle.ReviewComments field.

Once the opportunity passes validation, the Lifecycle.ReviewStatus changes to Approved, making the opportunity ready for co-selling activities.

Partners should monitor the Opportunity Updated event using Amazon EventBridge. This will notify them of any status changes or feedback from AWS. Upon receiving the event, partners can use the GetOpportunity API action to fetch the latest opportunity details and verify the Lifecycle.ReviewStatus field.

Resolving Validation Issues

If the Lifecycle.ReviewStatus is set to Action Required, partners need to address the issues highlighted by AWS. To resolve these, partners can update the opportunity using the UpdateOpportunity API action.

During the Action Required state, only certain fields are editable. These fields include:

After making the necessary changes, the opportunity re-enters the validation phase, and the process repeats until the opportunity's Lifecycle.ReviewStatus is set to Approved or Disqualified.

Post-Approval Updates

Once the opportunity is Approved, partners can continue to update the opportunity as needed using the UpdateOpportunity action, facilitating seamless co-selling activities.

Partners should continue monitoring the Opportunity Updated events through Amazon EventBridge to remain updated on any changes. For more information on tracking AWS updates, refer to the "Working with opportunity updates" section. Partners can also update select fields based on the business validation rules.