Working opportunities through the pipeline
Key Takeaway
Stage shows where an opportunity stands and drives other fields, such as Probability, while Close Date controls forecasting.
An opportunity represents a potential sale: a deal in progress that your team hopes to win. You move it through a series of stages, from early prospecting to Closed/Won or Closed/Lost. Each stage reflects how likely the sale is. Admins set up the stages and the tools that reps use to see and move opportunities, such as Path, the Kanban view and Pipeline Inspection.
Leads and opportunities
An opportunity is further along than a lead and carries details such as Expected Revenue, Stage, Close Date and Probability.
You can create an opportunity for an existing account. Converting a qualified lead also creates an opportunity, along with an account and a contact.
When you convert a lead, Salesforce adds the account name to the new opportunity's name automatically. Salesforce also fills in Primary Campaign Source from the lead's campaign. If the lead has several campaigns, Salesforce uses the one with the most recently updated member status.