Opportunity

An opportunity is a qualified deal in your CRM that represents a real chance of becoming revenue — with an identified need, a decision-maker engaged, an estimated deal value, and a projected close date.

Opportunities are the building blocks of your sales pipeline and the primary unit of measurement for revenue forecasting. The total value of all open opportunities is your pipeline. How those opportunities progress through stages and convert to closed-won deals determines your revenue.

The distinction between a lead and an opportunity is critical. A lead is a potential buyer. An opportunity is a validated deal where you’ve confirmed that the prospect has a real problem you can solve, the authority and budget to make a decision, and a timeline to act. Converting a lead to an opportunity should require meeting specific qualification criteria — not just having a good conversation.

Typical opportunity stages in a B2B sales process include: discovery (understanding the prospect’s needs), evaluation (demonstrating your solution), proposal (presenting pricing and terms), negotiation (working through objections and contracts), and closed-won or closed-lost.

For example, an SDR qualifies a lead through a discovery call and confirms they match the ICP, have budget allocated, and want to make a decision this quarter. The SDR creates an opportunity in the CRM with a $50K estimated value and a close date of 60 days out, then hands it to an AE for the next stage.

Keep your opportunity data clean. Stale opportunities with close dates that have passed, no recent activity, and no next steps kill forecast accuracy and give leadership a false picture of pipeline health.

Deal intelligence tools help you monitor opportunity health, flag stalled deals, and provide real-time visibility into pipeline progression.