An opportunity in Salesforce is a record that represents a potential sale, "a deal you have the opportunity to close" in Salesforce's own words. It is linked to an account and stores what the deal is worth, when it should close and which stage it has reached. Opportunities move through stages until they are Closed Won or Closed Lost, and together they make up your sales pipeline and forecast.
This guide was first published in 2020. It has been rewritten for 2026 with the stage and forecast tables, how products and contact roles work, and the habits that keep a pipeline accurate.
What is an opportunity in Salesforce?
An opportunity is the Salesforce record for one potential deal with an account. Trailhead's Work Your Opportunities unit defines an opportunity as a potential sale. You create one for an existing account, or by converting a qualified lead. Opportunity management, as Trailhead's Opportunity Management module puts it, is the process that guides opportunities through the sales cycle until they close. The same module sums up why the record matters: "If it's not in Salesforce, it doesn't exist."
How opportunities fit with leads, accounts and contacts
A lead becomes an account, a contact and, usually, an opportunity when it qualifies; see our lead status guide for that step.
| Record | What it represents | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | An unqualified prospect | Someone who downloaded a whitepaper |
| Account | The company you sell to | Acme Ltd |
| Contact | A person at that company | Acme's head of operations |
| Opportunity | A specific deal with the account | Acme, 50 licences, closing in March |
One account can have many opportunities: a first sale, a renewal and an upsell are three separate opportunities. Converting a lead creates the account and contact and, optionally, the first opportunity. How these objects connect is covered in our Salesforce data model guide.
Examples of opportunities
- Software: "Acme, 50 Sales Cloud licences, new business", then a separate renewal opportunity a year later.
- Services: "Acme, data migration project, fixed fee", with products for each work package.
- Manufacturing: "Acme, 2,000 units, annual supply contract", with a product schedule for deliveries.
The key fields on an opportunity
Name, account, close date and stage are the core fields; amount, probability and forecast category drive the forecast. When you create an opportunity, Trailhead's steps ask for a name, the related account, a close date and a stage. Salesforce then fills in a probability based on the stage, which you can change. The fields people rely on most are:
- Opportunity Name: use a consistent pattern, such as account, product and quantity.
- Account Name: the company the deal is with.
- Amount: the deal value. Once products are added it becomes the sum of the products (see below).
- Close Date: when you expect the deal to close; forecasts are grouped by it.
- Stage: where the deal is in your sales process.
- Probability: the likelihood of winning, defaulted from the stage.
- Forecast Category: which forecast bucket the deal counts in, also defaulted from the stage.
- Expected Revenue: amount multiplied by probability. Trailhead's record types project gives the example of a 100 deal at 30% having an expected value of 30.
- Next Step, Type and Lead Source: context for the rep and for reporting.
What are the opportunity stages in Salesforce?
Salesforce's sample stages run from Prospecting to Closed Won or Closed Lost, each with a default probability and forecast category. Stages are the steps of your sales process. Each stage value carries a default probability and forecast category. Salesforce Help's article on stage to forecast category mappings shows this sample mapping:
| Stage | Probability | Forecast category |
|---|---|---|
| Prospecting | 10% | Pipeline |
| Qualification | 10% | Pipeline |
| Needs Analysis | 20% | Pipeline |
| Value Proposition | 50% | Pipeline |
| Id. Decision Makers | 60% | Pipeline |
| Perception Analysis | 70% | Best Case |
| Proposal/Price Quote | 75% | Best Case |
| Negotiation/Review | 90% | Commit |
| Closed Won | 100% | Closed |
| Closed Lost | 0% | Omitted |
Opportunities in an Omitted stage are left out of forecasts, and a Closed Lost stage must map to Omitted. Owners can override the forecast category on their own deals, and admins can rename categories or add a Most Likely category. Admins change stages and mappings in Setup, under Object Manager, Opportunity, Fields & Relationships, Stage. Most companies trim the list to five to seven stages that match how they actually sell.
If you sell in different ways, for example new business and renewals, use record types and sales processes. A sales process decides which stage values each record type can use, as Trailhead's record types project explains.
Products, price books and the Amount field
An opportunity is the deal; opportunity products are its line items, priced from a price book. You can add products to an opportunity from a price book, with a quantity and sales price for each line. Salesforce Help's considerations for adding products sets out the rules that surprise new users:
- The opportunity amount is the sum of the products added, and you can't edit it directly; you must delete the products first.
- A line's total price is quantity multiplied by sales price.
- Any product with an active price book entry can be added, even if the product itself is inactive.
- With multiple currencies enabled, the opportunity's currency decides the price book entries, and you can't change it without removing the products.
- Switching the opportunity's price book removes all its products but keeps the Amount value.
When products drive complex pricing, discounts and quote documents, teams usually add a quoting tool on top; our CPQ implementation guide covers that step.
Contact roles, Path and Pipeline Inspection
Contact roles show who is involved, Path guides reps through stages, and Pipeline Inspection shows managers what changed. Contact roles record which contacts are involved in a deal and the part each one plays, such as decision maker or influencer, with one marked as primary. Trailhead's unit shows how to add them from the Contact Roles related list. They matter for reporting on who buys, and for campaign influence.
Sales Path shows the stages as a bar across the top of the record. Admins can add guidance for each stage, such as qualifying questions and red flags, and can make key fields required before a deal moves on, as described in Trailhead's Opportunity Management module.
Pipeline Inspection gives managers one view of pipeline metrics, opportunities, week-to-week changes and close-date predictions, which Trailhead presents as the way to forecast more accurately.
How to create an opportunity in Salesforce
Create it from the account or the Opportunities tab, or by converting a lead, then add products and contact roles.
- Open the account, or the Opportunities tab, and click New (or convert a qualified lead).
- Choose the record type if your org has more than one.
- Enter the opportunity name, account, close date and stage; adjust the probability only if you have a reason.
- Save, then add products from the Products related list, choosing the price book the first time.
- Add contact roles and mark the primary contact.
- Log activities and move the stage forward as the deal progresses; close it as Closed Won or Closed Lost with a reason.
A common request is creating an opportunity from a case, when a service conversation turns into a sale. The usual approach is for admins to add a quick action or a screen flow on the case that creates the opportunity on the case's account and links back to the case. Our Salesforce Flow guide explains screen flows.
Best practices for a clean pipeline
A clean pipeline needs clear stage criteria, honest close dates and closed-out dead deals.
- Define exit criteria for each stage. "Proposal sent" is a fact; "going well" is not. Put the criteria in Path guidance.
- Keep close dates honest. A pipeline full of past-due close dates makes every forecast wrong. Review them weekly.
- Use Closed Lost properly. Close dead deals with a loss reason rather than leaving them open; the reasons are valuable data.
- Don't override probability by habit. Let it follow the stage unless your team agrees a rule for changing it.
- Make one opportunity per deal. Renewals and upsells get their own records, so win rates and cycle times stay meaningful.
- Automate the boring parts with Flow, for example creating a renewal opportunity when a deal closes, rather than Workflow Rules or Process Builder. Salesforce ended support for both on 31 December 2025 and recommends Flow Builder and its Migrate to Flow tool, per its Workflow Rules help page; see our Salesforce workflow guide.
Getting help
Techila is a Salesforce Summit Partner. Our Sales Cloud services team designs opportunity stages, sales processes and forecasting that match how you sell. Talk to us about tidying up your pipeline.
Frequently asked questions
What is an opportunity in Salesforce?
An opportunity is a standard Salesforce record that represents a potential sale: a deal you have the chance to close. It is linked to an account and holds the deal's amount, close date, stage and probability, so sales teams and managers can track and forecast the pipeline.
What is the difference between a lead and an opportunity in Salesforce?
A lead is an unqualified prospect, a person or company that may be interested. When the lead is qualified you convert it, which creates an account and contact and can create an opportunity. The opportunity then tracks the specific deal through the sales stages.
What are the stages of an opportunity in Salesforce?
Typical stages run from Prospecting and Qualification through Needs Analysis, Proposal/Price Quote and Negotiation/Review to Closed Won or Closed Lost. Each stage has a default probability and forecast category, and admins can rename, add or remove stages to match their own sales process.
Can I edit the Amount on an opportunity with products?
No. Once products are added, Salesforce sets the opportunity amount to the sum of the products, and you can't edit it directly. To change it, change the product lines, or delete the products first.
How is expected revenue calculated on an opportunity?
Expected revenue is the opportunity amount multiplied by its probability. A 100,000 deal at 30% probability has an expected revenue of 30,000. Probability defaults from the stage but can be adjusted on the record.