Solicitors vs. opportunities vs. actions - what is best practice for the donor pipeline in raisers edge?

We are still working on fully implementing this within our development team but the goal is to get all of our fundraisers to use opportunities and actions for every donor or prospect they have contact with.  If they are approaching someone with an ask (even if we don't know what that looks like), the fundraiser puts in an opportunity (even if there are very few details fleshed out - they can add detail later or edit the opportunity as needed).  Then, when they put in actions or notes related, they are tied to the opportunity.  This way, we have record of all of the steps that were necessary to get to that ask.  Then, if the ask is funded, we have record of how that gift was landed.  If the ask is a no-go or the answer is no, we have record of why.  In addition, all opportunities are tied to a fundraiser (as well as the actions).  Many times, one team member has relationship with a donor because of a corporate sponsorship, promotion or event while our grants person is applying to their foundation for a grant.  Two totally separate functions and points of contact, but they can each "see" what the other is doing based on the open opportunities and actions tied to each.  In addition, the opportunity is visible to gift entry person (called proposals in database view).  Within the opportunity lies all of the information that they need in order to properly record that gift (i.e. campaign, appeal, fundraiser to credit, etc.).  It helps cut down on the questions and data entry issues because it is all in the database.  


This is still a new implementation for our team (less than a year) and we are still working out kinks.  It takes a ton of my time helping our fundraisers learn to input the opportunities and actions, but now that they are starting to see the benefits, it is getting easier to convince them to stay on top of it.