What is a Deal (Opportunity)?
A deal (sometimes called an opportunity) is the CRM record that represents one specific potential sale. Unlike a contact record, which describes a person, or a company record, which describes an organization, a deal describes a transaction in progress: who it is with, what it is worth, how far along it is, and when it is expected to close. That combination of information is what makes a deal the primary unit of a sales pipeline.
Every deal is linked to at least one contact and usually to a company. It carries a pipeline stage that tells the team where in the sales process things stand, a value (which can be estimated or confirmed), and a projected close date. Some teams also attach a probability to reflect how confident they are the deal will close - a number that feeds into sales forecasting.
How deals are created
Deals typically start life as leads. Once a lead has been qualified - meaning a rep has confirmed there is a real need, a plausible budget, and the right person involved - it gets converted into a deal and placed in the first active stage of the pipeline. Some teams create deals at the very first sign of interest and qualify them in-pipeline; others keep leads separate until qualification is complete. Neither approach is universally better; consistency matters more than which model you choose.
Deals can also be created manually when an existing customer expresses interest in an additional product, or when an inbound inquiry comes in that is clearly sales-ready from the start.
What makes a good deal record
A useful deal record contains enough information for any team member to pick it up and understand where things stand without needing to ask the original rep. At minimum, that means:
- A clear name (usually the company name plus what is being sold, or the project name).
- A realistic value and close date, updated as the conversation progresses.
- The current stage, reflecting where the deal genuinely is, not where the rep hopes it will be.
- A log of recent activity: what was last discussed, what was promised, and what the agreed next step is.
That last point - the next step - is the one most commonly missing and most consistently valuable. A deal with no defined next action is a deal that is quietly dying.
Closed Won and Closed Lost
Every deal eventually ends in one of two terminal states: Closed Won (the customer signed, paid, or said yes) or Closed Lost (the deal did not happen). Both outcomes are worth tracking carefully. Won deals show you which types of opportunities you convert well. Lost deals, when tagged with a reason, reveal patterns: common objections, stages where you consistently lose momentum, or competitor names that come up repeatedly.
For more on how deals flow through a pipeline and how to manage them, see the guide to sales pipeline management and the conversion rate glossary entry.