Tracking opportunities in the pipeline

An opportunity is a deal in progress with an account, from the first discussion to the signature. It moves from stage to stage in a pipeline until it is won or lost. This article explains how to follow your opportunities in the kanban or the list, create one, move it to another stage, mark it as won or lost, reopen it, and what its record shows. It is intended for sales representatives, their managers and CRM administrators.

Before you start #

• The CRM module must be enabled for your workspace and open to you (see Enabling and administering the CRM module).
• Permissions in the role matrix, CRM menu: “Opportunities — View” to see opportunities; “Opportunities — Create” for the New opportunity button; “Opportunities — Edit” to edit, change stage, mark as won or lost and reopen; “Opportunities — Delete” to delete. The Access level is enough.
• Each permission applies within a scope based on the opportunity’s owner: Mine, My team or All. It is set per role in the CRM scopes card (see CRM settings).
• Pipelines and their stages are set in Settings › CRM › Pipelines and stages. With “CRM settings — Edit”, a Pipelines button leads there from the opportunities page.

Pipelines and stages #

A pipeline is a series of in-progress stages, each with its probability of signing, followed by two fixed stages: Won (100%) and Lost (0%). A stage can require fields before an opportunity enters it, and be marked as “committed” for forecasts.

When the module is installed, the CRM creates the “New customers” pipeline, with the stages Qualification (10%), Discovery (25%), Proposal (50%) and Negotiation (75%). Proposal and Negotiation require the amount and the expected signing date. Your administrator can change these stages and create other pipelines, for renewals for instance (see CRM settings).

The kanban #

Open CRM › Opportunities. The Kanban view opens by default, on the default pipeline; choose another one in the Pipeline list.

Each column is a stage, with Won and Lost last. These two columns show the opportunities closed in the last 30 days. Each column header gives the number of cards, the stage’s probability, the word “committed” where relevant, then the Total and the Weighted amount (amount multiplied by probability) of the cards shown, in the company currency. A card whose currency has no conversion rate is left out of these totals: the column shows how many cards are “left out” for lack of a rate to the company currency.

Each card shows the opportunity’s name, its account, amount, probability, expected signing date, owner and signals. Click the name to open the record.

Filtering #

• Search: enter part of the opportunity’s name, then confirm.
• Owner: Me, No owner or a person.
• Tag, Signal (No next step, Signing date passed), Signing from … to, Min. amount and Max. amount.

Filters are stored in the page address: you can bookmark it or share it.

The list #

Click List to see opportunities as a table: Opportunity, Account, Stage, Amount, Weighted, probability, Signing and Owner. The list adds two filters, Status (Open, Won, Lost) and, once a pipeline is chosen, Stage. Above the table, the totals cover every opportunity in the filter, across all pages: count, total and weighted total in the company currency.

With the “CRM import and export — View” permission, the CSV and Excel buttons export the filtered opportunities, with the columns of your choice (see Importing, exporting and using the API). In the kanban, the export covers the pipeline shown.

Creating an opportunity #

Click New opportunity, in CRM › Opportunities or in the Opportunities tab of an account’s record, which then fills in the account.

1. Enter the deal’s Name.
2. Choose the Account (at least two characters). An archived account is refused: reactivate it first.
3. Choose the Pipeline and the Starting stage. By default: the pipeline shown in the kanban or chosen in the filter, otherwise the default pipeline, and its first stage.
4. Enter the Amount and its Currency. The currency offered is the one for new deals, set in the CRM settings.
5. Leave Probability (%) empty to use the stage’s, or enter a value from 0 to 100.
6. Fill in, if needed, the Expected signing date, the Source and the Competitors, separated by commas.
7. The Owner is you if you leave Me. You can name someone else if your scope lets you edit their opportunities; they are notified.
8. Under Contacts, add the people involved and give each one a role (Decision maker, Influencer, User…).
9. Tick the Tags and fill in the custom fields, if there are any.
10. Click Create the opportunity.

If the starting stage requires a field left empty, nothing is created and the window says so at the top: “The starting stage requires:”, followed by the fields to fill in.

Moving an opportunity forward #

• In the kanban: pick up the card and drop it on another stage’s column. With the keyboard, go to the card’s handle, press Space, move it with the arrow keys, then press Space again. The card changes column at once, and goes back to its place if the move is refused or cancelled.
• On the record: choose the stage in the Change stage… list, which offers the pipeline’s other in-progress stages.

At each move, the probability takes that of the new stage, and a line is added to the opportunity’s history.

When the target stage requires fields that are still empty (amount, expected signing date, contacts, source, competitors or a custom field), the Fields required by the stage window opens: “To enter … needs:”. Fill them in, then click Save and change stage. If you cancel, the opportunity stays where it was.

Won, lost, reopened #

• Won: click the record’s Won button, or drop the card on the Won column. Confirm in the “Mark as won?” window with Won. The probability becomes 100%.
• Lost: click Lost, or drop the card on the Lost column. In the Mark as lost window, choose the Loss reason, which is required, and enter the Competitor chosen if you know it; the opportunity’s competitors are suggested. Click Lost. The probability becomes 0%.
• Reopen: on a won or lost opportunity, this button takes it back to the last in-progress stage it was in, or to the pipeline’s first stage.

Won and Lost can require fields too: the same window then asks for them. A won deal can then give rise to a project (see From a won deal to a project).

An opportunity’s record #

The header shows the status (Open, Won or Lost), the pipeline and stage, the account, the owner and the signals, then the buttons your permissions allow. Seven tabs follow:

• Overview: the Deal section (amount, probability, weighted amount, their equivalent in the company currency when the currency differs, expected signing date, In the stage since, and for a lost deal the reason and the competitor chosen), the CRM data section (source, competitors, tags), the custom fields and, if you can view commissions, the Deal split section.
• Contacts: the deal’s contacts and their role.
• Activities: the activities linked to the opportunity; New activity links it automatically (see Activities and “My activities”).
• Quotes: the deal’s quotes (see The catalogue and quotes).
• Pre-sales: the time and expenses spent on the deal before signing.
• History: each stage passed through, with its Entered and Left dates, its Duration in days and the person who made the move; the current stage is marked “current”.
• Timeline: the life of the deal, filterable by Event type: creation, stages, changes, activities, quotes and project.

The Activities and Quotes tabs only appear with the permission to view activities or quotes.

Signals and notices #

• No next step: the opportunity is open and has no task, call or meeting still to do, planned for today or later. To clear it, plan an activity from the Activities tab.
• Signing date passed: the opportunity is open and its expected signing date has passed. Update the date, or close the deal.

The Signal filter finds these opportunities. Once a day, the owner is also told in their notifications:

• “CRM: signing date passed”, once, then again if the date changes and passes in turn;
• “CRM: opportunity without a next step”, when nothing has happened for the number of days set in Settings › CRM › Pipelines and stages (14 by default): no activity, no stage change. This notice is only sent again after an activity has been planned once more;
• “CRM: an opportunity was assigned to you”, when a colleague makes you the owner of an opportunity.

Everyone can turn these notices off in Personal Settings › Notifications, row “CRM — opportunities: assigned, signing date passed, no next step”.

Editing or deleting #

Edit opens the entry window, without the account, the pipeline or the stage: the stage only changes through a move. The probability of a won or lost deal cannot be changed. The amount and currency of a won deal are greyed out: reopen it to change them. On a lost deal, the window lets you correct the Loss reason and the Competitor chosen.

Delete asks for confirmation. The contacts, tags, custom fields and stage history go with the opportunity; its activities stay on the account. An opportunity that has quotes, or that has become a project, cannot be deleted: the message invites you to mark it “Lost”.

Good to know #

• Each opportunity has its own currency. Totals are converted to the company currency with your workspace’s exchange rates; without a rate, the amount is counted separately and flagged “no conversion rate”.
• The names of the pipeline and of its in-progress stages are written in a single language; Won and Lost are shown in each person’s language.
• An opportunity outside your scope is shown as if it did not exist: “This opportunity does not exist, or it is outside your scope.”. A contact you cannot read appears as “Contact not visible” and stays linked.
• Each stage change, win or loss can trigger your company’s workflows: triggers “Opportunity won”, “Opportunity lost” and “Opportunity stage change”, in Settings › Manage Employees › Workflows.
• If your workspace submits the creation or change of opportunities for validation, the message “Sent for validation: nothing is written until a person approves it.” appears, with View the request: the opportunity is only created or changed after the decision.
• Forecasts and the sales dashboard are described in The dashboard and sales targets.

FAQ #

I cannot move a card. #

Moving a card requires “Opportunities — Edit”, within a scope that reaches its owner. Without it, the card has no handle and cannot be picked up.

Where are the deals I won several months ago? #

The kanban only shows opportunities closed in the last 30 days. Switch to List and choose the Won status.