Work an opportunity through its stages
Before you start
The opportunity must be open. A won or lost opportunity is stopped, and stopped opportunities cannot even have their assignee changed until reopened.
Creating one
New opportunities are raised from the Opportunity tab of a contact, not from the opportunities index. The index is where you work them once they exist.
Steps
- Go to CRM → Opportunities. Use My Opportunities, or a rep's saved filter, to get to yours.
- Pick the stage tab you are working — or All to see everything.
- Open the opportunity and step forward as it progresses. The stage can be changed from the index or from the menu in the opportunity's own toolbar. Each step sets the probability automatically; you do not enter it.
- Before moving to Proposal, fill in the estimated value and the forecast close date. The move is refused without them.
- Before marking it Won, fill in the actual value. Same rule.
- Mark it Won or Lost when it closes.
What winning does
Winning an opportunity promotes its account to customer automatically. You do not also need to progress the account by hand — and if you find yourself doing that, check whether the opportunity was ever closed.
Advancing to Qualified or Prospect promotes the account the same way, as far as that stage. See How accounts and opportunities drive each other.
If you moved it too far
Step backward reverses one stage at a time. A won or lost opportunity can be returned to Verbal, which reopens it.
If the value is not known yet
Leave it. An opportunity reading "est. Value unknown" is honest, and it will stop you at Proposal until there is a figure — which is the right place to be stopped.