The old sales rule says: “The opportunity is a deal that you have the possibility to close!” And when your business falls in the large, medium or small level sector, we are talking about a very large number of possibilities.
To manage these ‘possibilities’, we have Opportunity Management on Salesforce which helps us remarkably, but inspired by the demands of thousands of Salesforce users, people have come up with some really good Apps on Appexchange to make this even more simpler, easier and way more direct in approach.
Algoworks Opportunity Manager, or AWOM, is not the only fish in the sea and many of our clients have asked about what sets it apart from its competitors. So we thought about addressing the issue. After a brief study and careful research into some of the most prominent apps of the related field, we managed to compare AWOM with the rest of the apps. The result of our research is summarized in this blog which will help you choose the best app for opportunity management for you.
AWOM Vs. AXIOM Opportunity Manager
AXIOM Opportunity Manager was launched with some unique ideas and features, the feature-set of which is pretty different from AWOM and is focused on predicting a lead’s future and guessing the win probability calculatedly. It allows you to enter an impressive amount of detail about each individual lead and based on that information the app predicts the win probability and allows sales teams to forecast their performance. The AXIOM Opportunity Management provides various integrations with tools such as Coaching Wizard and Cloud Learning Library. The focus is obviously on improving sales via these tools. Hence it does equip you with better forecasting besides other things. AWOM instead takes the focus to improving visual interface and the related experience. For example, it is powered by dynamically generated info-graphics tool. Plus all of the functionalities that AWOM has to offer are on a single-page which means it involves no page-reloads by implementing sectional updates instead.
AWOM vs Enodo Pipeline Manager
One of the main features of Algoworks Opportunity Manager is its pipeline view that allows you to view you opportunities in a linear stage as-they-progress view. Enodo Pipeline Manager performs the same function however the efforts on the visual representations is intense for the pipeline view. It provides more than one presentations of the pipeline view and presents the information in graphs and bars as well. AWOM’s graphs (Bar-graph and pie-chart) are effective at being able to load instantly (without page or delayed refresh) based on the three filters. The point of differentiation between the apps is that Enodo does not have AWOM’s other features of opportunity analysis and detailed table views, pagination views and advanced filter system for tables. While AWOM supports a standard drag-and-drop powered pipeline view, Enodo’s pipeline is presented with more details.
AWOM vs. Dealmaker Smart Opportunity Manager
Dealmaker Smart Opportunity Manager is one app which comes closest to having AWOM’s features and it is equipped with many exclusive features. The point of differentiation lies in that the Dealmaker Smart Opportunity Manager seems to explore the qualifying of the opportunity, better navigation into the buyer’s organization using Political Maps and intelligent deal coaching via Coach Me. Besides it provides additional feature of recommending best competitive strategy per deal and a political map which eventually helps you determine decision criterion for each key player. AWOM seems to make a point with filters though. The types of filters provided for the user are basically at three levels. The first level is for the overall table generation at first-go. The second filter is to generate dynamic charts and graphs to better understand and study trends. AWOM’s third level of filter is provided within each column of the pagination view. This is as smart as the first two but way more detailed. On each column with string values, it generates results related to exact (is equal to), is not equal, contains, does not contain, ends-with and starts-with type of search queries for filters. Similarly the columns with date-entries provide advance ways of choosing filters by providing calendar-selection method, date-before and date-after methods of filtering information. Also columns with numbers and values care capable of handling various types of exact and relational search queries.
AWOM Vs. Campaigner Playbook
Campaigner Playbook is another paid sales process management app available on AppExchange. The app focuses on easing the sales process management by providing a more graphical and user-friendly opportunity status. AWOM does the same but the Campaigners Playbook has some other features such as customizable sales-process determination access to process-specific sales playbooks and job aids within the sales opportunity. AWOM seems to make a point via paginated view of opportunities with fully customizable columns positions and display on the home page itself supported with a very user-interactive pipeline view and an advanced visually-appealing meaningful representation of data via charts and graphs.
Various feature set has been highlighted in the table-view.
| Features | AWOM | AXIOM | ENODO | SMART | CAMPAIGNER |
| Full Version FREE on Appexchange |  |
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| NATIVE Salesforce application, hosted on the salesforce.com® | |
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| Armed with information like key Influencers, Business state and Gaps | |
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| Analyze Pipeline Performance | |
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| Goal Planner | |
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| Robust and easy-to-use pagination and record-view mode | |
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| Qualify the opportunity and navigate the buyer’s organization | |
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| Behavior-change learning content | |
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| An editable and interactive pipeline view of opportunities | |
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| Collaborate with your buyer to visualize their business problems | |
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| Planning and tracking features to establish pipeline targets | |
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| Use Coach Me for intelligent deal coaching | |
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| Better predict win probabilities | |
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| Coaching Wizard | |
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| Advanced Category-Specific Filter each for date, string and number type column values | |
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| Increase Forecast Accuracy/Better Prediction in Sales | |
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| Export-to-Excel and, Custom-Record-Additions, Editable pipeline build | |
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| Political Map, navigate buyer’s organization | |
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| Highlights ‘Danger Zones’ | |
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| Analyze opportunities via robust graph features using bar graphs and pie charts | |
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| Dedicated Forecast Tool | |
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| Optimize close ratios and reinforce sales coaching and guidance | |
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| Visually depicting YOUR sales process and opportunity status | |
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| Immediately connect to the Cloud Learning Library | |
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Conclusion
All of the above mentioned apps have explored a specific area while catering to the general demands of most salesforce users. Indeed, each has its own entire niche. None carries the burden of incorprating all the features and this is not due to incapabilities but due to the requirement of users. On the pricing department, while some have fixed priced, others provide multiple pricing options, negotiated price deals or even provide a free trial for first few days of use. AWOM or Algoworks Opportunity Manager itself does not have an exhaustive set of features however it is totally free on appexchange.
I hope you can benefit from the research of my team so that you can be the best judge that suits your requirement. Feel free to drop me a mail or a comment below if you would like to add to the findings above or suggestion for new ideas that can be implemented into AWOM.
Pratyush Kumar
