Deals and Pipelines
Track sales opportunities through pipelines and stages.
Deals represent potential revenue. Pipelines define the sales process a deal moves through.
Use deals when there is a real opportunity to win revenue, not for every contact in the CRM.
If the work is only a support request, use tickets. If it is only a general relationship note, use contact or account notes. Deals should represent a sales process with value, owner, stage, and next action.
Create a Deal
Open CRM > Deals and create a deal with a clear title, value, expected close date, owner, contact/account, pipeline, and stage. Use tasks and notes to track next steps.
Link the deal to the right contact or account before adding tasks. This keeps activity, reports, and handoffs tied to the customer relationship.
Search for an existing open deal before creating a new one. Duplicate deals can inflate pipeline value and split sales activity.
Move Deals Through Stages
Move a deal when the opportunity changes. Keeping stages current improves pipeline dashboards and reports. Avoid leaving old deals in active stages after they are won, lost, or no longer relevant.
Update the next task when you move the stage. A stage change without a next action tells the team where the deal is, but not what should happen next.
Stage Change Rules
Define what must be true before a deal enters each stage. For example, move a deal to proposal sent only after the estimate, proposal, or document has actually been shared. This keeps reports aligned with real customer progress.
Customize Pipelines
Use pipeline settings when your team needs custom sales stages. Keep stages clear and action-oriented so everyone understands what must happen before a deal moves forward.
Review pipelines before importing deals or building sales reports. Pipeline structure becomes the foundation for forecasting and stage conversion review.
Avoid creating too many stages. If users cannot tell the difference between two stages, reports will become inconsistent and deals will stall in the wrong place.
Recommended Workflow
- Capture the lead through a form, import, or manual contact.
- Create a deal linked to the contact or account.
- Add tasks for the next sales actions.
- Move the deal as the conversation progresses.
- Close the deal as won or lost.
- Create follow-up project, finance, or onboarding work when needed.
Daily Deal Hygiene
Review open deals for next task, owner, expected close date, value, and stage. Archive or close stale opportunities so the pipeline reflects real work.
If a deal has no next task, add one or close the deal. A deal without a next action is not ready for forecasting or sales review.
If a deal has no linked contact or account, add one before the next sales review. Unlinked deals are harder to reconcile with emails, forms, invoices, documents, and customer history.
Weekly Sales Review
For each open deal:
- confirm stage and status
- confirm value and currency
- confirm expected close date
- confirm owner and linked contact/account
- review the latest note or email
- create or update the next task
- close won, lost, or abandoned opportunities promptly
Use reports after the records are updated, not as a substitute for deal cleanup.
Troubleshooting Pipeline Numbers
If pipeline value looks too high, check duplicate deals, stale expected close dates, old open deals, and opportunities that should be marked lost.
If conversion reports look wrong, review whether users are following the same stage-change rules. Reports are only useful when stages mean the same thing for each salesperson.