Getting started: setting up sales pipelines and opportunities

Organising your sales pipeline can look complicated, but think of it as setting up your workspace for success: everything has its place and nothing gets lost.

With a structured pipeline, you can track leads effortlessly, automate follow-ups and close deals faster. Ready to organise your sales? Let’s get started!

Table of contents

1. Create a sales pipeline
2. Import contacts as opportunities
3. Create an opportunity manually
4. Create an opportunity through automation

Create a sales pipeline

Setting up a new sales pipeline is child’s play and helps you see exactly where each lead sits in your sales process. Here is how easy it is to get started:

1. Go to Opportunities.
2. Click Pipelines.
3. Click Create new pipeline.

1. Enter the details (name, stages and so on) and click Save.

Consider customising your pipeline stages to suit your team’s workflow, for example:

• New lead
• Qualified lead
• Call booked
• No-show
• Overdue
• Closed
• No reply

Next, you can import your existing contacts to populate your pipeline.

Import contacts as opportunities

Do you have a contact list from an event or another platform? Good news: you can easily import them straight into your sales pipeline and turn those leads into opportunities in a few clicks:

1. Go to Opportunities.
2. Click Import.

1. Select Opportunities.
2. Click Next.

1. Upload your file.
2. Click Next.

1. Match the columns in your file to the Opportunity fields.
2. Click Next.

1. Check all the information and click Start bulk import.

Now you might want to add opportunities manually to fine-tune your pipeline.

Create an opportunity manually

Sometimes opportunities arrive one at a time, and adding them manually gives you precise control. It is also quick and intuitive! Here is how:

1. Go to Opportunities.
2. Click Add opportunity.
3. Select an existing contact or enter the details for a new one.
4. Fill in the opportunity details (pipeline name, stage, value and so on).
5. Click Create.

Create an opportunity through automation

Automating opportunity creation keeps your pipeline tidy with no extra steps. Below you will find a quick example that fires whenever someone submits a form, followed by a note about other triggers you can use.

1. Open the workflowsGo to Automation → Workflows in the left-hand menu.
2. Start a new workflowClick + Create workflow → Start from scratch (or choose a template you want to use).
3. Add a trigger – Form submitted
   • Click + Add new trigger and choose Form submitted.
   • Select the specific form that collects your leads’ information.
   • Press Save trigger.
4. Add an action – Create/Update opportunity
   • Click + (the add action button) below the trigger, then choose Opportunities → Create/Update opportunity.
   • Choose the Pipeline and the Stage where you want new leads from the form to appear.
   • Set the Status to Open (or another status), enter a Value if you know it and switch on Allow opportunity to move if you want the record to update when it is entered again later.
   • Click Save action.
     
5. Save and publishSwitch the button from Draft → Publish (top right). Every future form submission will land straight in the pipeline stage you chose, with no manual work.

Other common triggers and quick use cases

Note: the Create/Update opportunity action stays the same across every workflow; only the trigger changes. Choose the trigger that best matches how (and when) a lead should appear in your pipeline.