Understanding Opportunities
An opportunity is a record that represents a potential sale or deal at any point in your pipeline — from a brand-new lead to a signed contract. Opportunities capture prospects who have shown interest in your organization's products or services and are ripe for conversion into paying customers, moving through stages in a sales pipeline until the deal is won, lost, or abandoned.
What each opportunity stores
Each opportunity holds the prospect's contact information, the deal value, and historical notes. Having all of this in one place ensures everyone on your team has context and can take action quickly, without hunting through separate tools or email threads. For step-by-step instructions on working with opportunity records, see Create an Opportunity and Edit an Opportunity.
Pipelines and stages
Opportunities are managed within pipelines, which are series of consecutive stages. You can customize pipelines to align with your organization's unique sales process and goals. As a deal progresses in the real world, the opportunity advances from one stage to the next, reflecting its position in the sales cycle. Stages typically include Prospecting, Qualification, Proposal, and Negotiation.
A contact becomes an opportunity when there is a prospect of a sale or deal associated with that contact and it is added to a sales pipeline.
Opportunity statuses
Every opportunity carries one of four statuses. You can use these statuses to prepare filters and focus on the deals that need attention.
Open — actively being pursued and still in progress. The deal has not yet been won, lost, or abandoned and remains viable for conversion.
Won — successfully converted into a sale or deal. The lead has made a purchase or signed a contract, resulting in revenue.
Lost — the deal was unsuccessfully concluded. The lead decided not to move forward or chose a competitor's offering.
Abandoned — the opportunity has been neglected or disregarded, either by the lead or by the sales team. No further action or follow-up is planned, and it is effectively removed from active consideration.
Why opportunities matter
Opportunities give your team five core advantages over tracking deals in a spreadsheet or inbox:
Centralized tracking — all notes, tasks, and communications live on the opportunity card, eliminating data silos.
Stage-based forecasting — predict revenue by looking at how many deals sit in each stage and their expected values.
Automation triggers — fire workflows when an opportunity is created, moves stages, or changes status, saving hours of manual work. See Automate Opportunities with Workflows for details.
Team collaboration — assign owners, tag teammates, and track activity history without endless email threads.
Performance reporting — use dashboards and reports to see win rates and bottlenecks across reps or products.
Data management
Robust data management within opportunities tracks opportunity source, contact details, opportunity value, and notes. You can streamline communication and task assignment under opportunity-linked contacts, enhancing workflow efficiency and timely engagement. To narrow your view to specific deals, see Filter Opportunities.