Skip to content
Elooo SystemHelp Center Go to website

Opportunities basics

What opportunities and pipelines are and how they work

An opportunity is a potential deal with a contact; a pipeline is the series of stages that deal moves through until it is won or lost. You'll find both under Opportunities, and pipelines under Opportunities › Pipelines.

Updated on

Before you start

  • To see opportunities, your user needs access to the Opportunities module. If you don't see it in the left menu, ask your account admin.
  • An opportunity is always linked to a contact. It helps to have your customers saved in Contacts (you can also create the contact while creating the opportunity).
Where to find it

Opportunities › Pipelines

Step by step

  1. Understand the pipeline. A pipeline is a map of your sales or service process, split into stages (for example: New inquiry › Appointment booked › Proposal sent › Closing). You can have several pipelines, one per process (sales, renewals, after-sales…).
  2. Understand the opportunity. An opportunity is a specific deal with a contact. It stores the contact, the estimated value, the pipeline and stage it's in, the owner and the notes. A contact gets an opportunity when there's a chance of a deal and they're added to a pipeline.
  3. Understand stages. On the Opportunities board, each stage is a column. Opportunities move from left to right as the deal progresses.
  4. Understand statuses. Besides its stage, every opportunity always has one of four fixed statuses:
    • Open: the deal is still in progress.
    • Won: the customer bought or signed.
    • Lost: the customer decided not to go ahead or chose a competitor.
    • Abandoned: no one will follow up; the deal is removed from active work.
  5. See everything in one place. In the left menu, open Opportunities, pick a pipeline from the list at the top and see how many deals are in each stage and what each is worth.
  6. Build your own. Create your first pipeline with the stages of your process, then add your opportunities.

Tips

  • Keep stages few and name them as clear actions. Too many stages make the board hard to read.
  • Set a rule for each stage. Example: a deal only moves to "Appointment booked" once the appointment is confirmed on the calendar.
  • Review the pipeline weekly or monthly: close out stalled deals and adjust stages if your process has changed.
  • Workflows can react when an opportunity is created or changes stage or status, to send reminders or create tasks with no manual work.

Common problems

  • I don't see the opportunities menu → Your user doesn't have permission for this module. Ask your account admin to give you access to Opportunities.
  • I can't find an opportunity I created → By default the board shows only Open opportunities in the selected pipeline. Check the pipeline selected at the top and the status filter.
  • I'm not sure whether to create "Won" and "Lost" stages → You don't need to. Won and lost are statuses that already exist in every pipeline.

Frequently asked questions

Can I rename the statuses (open, won, lost, abandoned)?

No. The four statuses are fixed. What you can customize are the pipelines and their stages.

Can a contact have more than one opportunity?

Yes, in different pipelines. To have several in the same pipeline, an admin must turn on that option in the opportunity settings.

Was this helpful?