Opportunities
An Opportunity is a specific deal you're working on — a chance to sell something to a customer (or in some cases, a lead). Where Customers represent relationships, Opportunities represent the money moving through those relationships.
What an opportunity carries
- Name — a short label for the deal (e.g. “Annual subscription renewal”, “Pilot — warehouse module”).
- Amount — expected value of the deal.
- Expected close date — when you think it'll land.
- Stage — where the deal is in your sales process (e.g. Qualification, Proposal, Negotiation, ClosedWon, ClosedLost).
- Parent — the customer or lead this deal is for.
- Notes — freeform context (what's blocking, who's championing, expected discount).
Why opportunities are separate from customers
A customer can be a recurring relationship with many deals over many years — an annual renewal, an upsell, a one-off services engagement. Tracking those as one big customer record would erase the timeline. Opportunities give each deal its own line item:
- Multiple in flight — a customer can have three opportunities open at once; you can see each amount and close date independently.
- Historical record — ClosedWon and ClosedLost opportunities stay attached to the customer so you can see the full deal history.
- Pipeline forecasting — sum amount of open opportunities by stage to project the quarter.
Where opportunities come from
- Added manually — from a customer's detail panel, expand Opportunities and click Add Opportunity.
- From a qualified lead — when promoting a lead to a customer, you can create the first opportunity in the same step.
Tips
- Set the close date even if it's a guess. You can always update; an empty date hurts pipeline forecasting more than a rough estimate does.
- Use the Amount field consistently — either always ARR / annual value, or always one-time contract size. Mixing them breaks the totals.
- When a deal closes (or dies), move it to ClosedWon or ClosedLost rather than deleting. The win/loss record is one of the most useful artifacts your CRM produces.
- Keep the Name short and human — you'll see it in lists and reports; "Q3 expansion" beats "Opportunity for ACME Corp dated 2026-09-01."
Leads keep the prospect funnel honest, Customers keep the relationships warm, and Opportunities keep the revenue forecast real.