Yes, we use opportunities with our SDR team.
When one of the SDRs has a MQL, they create a Stage 0 opportunity in CRM. Sales then reviews the opportunity, connects with the prospect and decides whether to accept the lead, which they do by changing the opportunity to Stage 1, or rejecting the lead, which they do by closing the Stage 0 opportunity as lost.
Only SDRs can create Stage 0 opportunities, so we don't have any issues with confusion. If I'm a sales rep, I only see Stage 1 when I go to create an opportunity.
This works well for us for a few reasons:
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It provides excellent visibility for sales. They spend their time in opportunities, not leads.
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It provides easy reporting for our SDR performance -- any opp that goes from stage 0 to 1 is a bonus payment for them.
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We designate every opportunity that the SDRs create in a custom field, so it is very easy to track the progress of SDR-created opportunities vs. sales-created opportunities.
The only downside we've seen is that some sales reps are reluctant to accept an MQL into a stage 1 opportunity unless they are sure there's a real opportunity in the account. Although our stage 1 definition is basically "prospect has a pulse and has expressed interest in one of our products," some sales reps don't want anything in their pipe unless better qualified. It is something we've been able to manage, however.
Hope this helps. Feel free to reply back with questions.
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