Creating an opportunity in Salesforce helps the sales team to track and manage potential deals.
If you want to know how to create opportunity in Salesforce, this tutorial is for you.
In this Salesforce tutorial, I have explained the Salesforce opportunity and how to create a new opportunity in Salesforce Lightning as well as Salesforce Classic.
What are Opportunities in Salesforce
Salesforce Opportunities are deals in progress in business. It can be referred to as a sale or potential sale.
The opportunity in Salesforce is a stage when you approach a potential customer who shows interest, but the deal is not yet closed. So, opportunity can be the major objective and source of income for any organization.
Each opportunity record in Salesforce contains fields such as the name of the opportunity, amount, stage, probability of closure, expected close date, and other related information that gives necessary details about an active deal.
Moreover, opportunity can be created either when a lead is converted, or you can also create it directly for an account. Let’s try to understand the salesforce opportunity with the help of an example.
Example of what is opportunity in Salesforce:
Suppose California Cookies Pvt Ltd has recently introduced new vegan cookies, and now they are advertising their product through telemarketing in Georgia, Texas, California, and Washington, the United States.
The managers in each branch have handed over the contact list of all the customers to the sales executive. Now, these agents will call the customers to advertise and sell the cookies. The contact list in Salesforce is referred to as Leads.
Each time the sales executive will call the customer, that will be called lead conversion, and he/she will create an account, contact, and opportunity for that customer. The executive will log various details like contact time, number, stage, probability of sale, amount of sale is successful, etc, in the salesforce opportunity.
One account may have more than one contact and opportunities in Salesforce. In this way, telecallers of California Cookies Pvt Ltd will maintain the records of each customer’s response in the Salesforce opportunity. They can also track total and potential sales in Salesforce.
With this, you have learned opportunity is a record containing detailed information about the sales deal.
What is Opportunity Object in Salesforce
In Salesforce, the object is a database table that stores a specific type of data. So, the opportunity object is a data table in the salesforce data model that is used to store information about potential sales deals.
In Salesforce, the opportunity object is an important component in the Sales cloud. It is used by the sales team to manage the deal and store information about the ongoing deal in Salesforce.
With this, you have learned opportunity object defines the fields for storing potential deals of sales in Salesforce.
Create Opportunity in Salesforce
You can create opportunities in both Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic user interface. Moreover, it is available in all editions for orgs such as Essentials, Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer, created in Summer 09 and later.
How to Create a New Opportunity in Salesforce Lightning
The following are the steps to create an opportunity in Salesforce Lightning.
Step-1: Login into the Salesforce Lightning account. If you are not on the main home setup page, click on the “Gear” icon on the right and then click the “Setup” option.
Step-2: Click on the “App Launcher” or “9 dots grid” to open the app launcher. From the app launcher, search and select “Opportunities”.
If you are already on the app home page, you can also find it on the navigation bar.
Step-3: Click on the “New” button at the top-right of the page. You can also edit the existing Opportunity if you want.
Step-4: Provide the information in the available fields. The below table explains the meaning of each field item present on this object.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Opportunity Owner | The name of the one who has created this opportunity will appear here. This ownership can be changed as well after creation. |
| Private | If the check box is checked then this opportunity will be accessible/visible to the opportunity owner only. |
| Opportunity Name* | This is a mandatory field, provide the name based on the type of work. For example, California Cookies Pvt Ltd’s telecaller can name the opportunity ‘California Cookies – David’. Here, David is the customer’s name. Any pattern can be followed, and more than one opportunity can be created with the same name and details. |
| Account Name | Provide the account name inside which you want to create this opportunity in Salesforce. |
| Type | Type is the reason for calling. The available options are: – – None, – Existing Customer – Upgrade, – Existing Customer – Replacement, – Existing Customer – Downgrade, – New Customer This list of categories will help later in grouping similar data together. |
| Lead Source | At each stage, the probability of getting a sale either increases or decreases. An agent can provide the probability percentage of conversion accordingly. |
| Date | Suppose telecaller from California cookies called a customer but the person who received the call was incapable of making the decision so he/she wants a callback. At that time telecaller can add dates to the salesforce opportunities. |
| Time | With the date, the telecaller will also require a callback time, so the time customer will tell that time can be logged here. |
| Amount | In case of a sale, the amount can be logged here. |
| Close Date* | It is a mandatory field that requires an expected closing date for the salesforce opportunities. |
| Next Step | provide insight about the next step. You can write up to 255 words. |
| Stage* | The opportunities go through various stages. On every new log, the stage is marked. The end-stage could be either a closed loss or a closed win. These are the available options: – None Prospecting Qualification Needs Analysis Value Proposition Id. Decision Makers Perception Analysis Proposal/Price Quote Negotiation/Review Closed Won Closed Lost |
| Probability (%) | At each stage the probability of getting a sale either increases or decreases. An agent can provide the probability percentage of conversion accordingly. |
| Primary Campaign Source | At each stage, the probability of getting a sale either increases or decreases. An agent can provide the probability percentage of conversion accordingly. |
| Order Number | If this lead is created through a campaign, then search for that campaign from here |
| Main Competitor(s) | Mention the name of the closest competitor. |
| Current Generator(s) | After selling a product or service, the order number is generated; fill it in here. |
| Tracking Number | Provide the current generator name, if any |
| Delivery/Installation Status | Update the delivery or installation status. You can select from these options. None In Progress Yet to begin completed |
| Description | Provide any other information that is relevant to this opportunity. |
Note: Out of the above-mentioned fields, the Opportunity Name, Close Date, and Stage are mandatory fields while creating opportunities in salesforce. The remaining fields can be entered later.
Step-5: Click on the “Save” button to create the opportunity.
With this, you have learned step-by-step how to create an Opportunity in Salesforce Lightning.
How to Create a New Opportunity in Salesforce Classic
Follow the below given steps to create a new opportunity in Salesforce Classic.
Step-1: Login into your Salesforce account in the classic user interface. From the Salesforce navigation bar, click on the “Opportunities” object in Salesforce.
If you do not get an object on the navigation bar, click on the “+” icon and search for the object.
Step-2: You can choose to update the existing opportunity or create a new one by clicking on the “New” button.
Step-3: A pop-up page opens; fill in the various details, such as “Opportunity Name”, “Close Date” and “Stage”. For detailed information about these fields, you can check step 4 of Salesforce Lightning.
Step-4: Click on the “Save” button to apply the changes in the Salesforce opportunities. You can also click on “Save & New” to save this opportunity and start a new one.
With this, you have learned how to create new opportunities in Salesforce Classic.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you have learned the creation of opportunities in Salesforce. I have explained a basic understanding of Salesforce opportunities and also guided users step-by-step on how to create opportunities in Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic
You may like to read:
- How to Convert Lead to Opportunity in Salesforce
- Delete and Deactivate Opportunity Stage Picklist Value in Salesforce
- How to add a new Opportunity to Accounts in Salesforce
- How to Create an Opportunity from a Contact in Salesforce
- How to Make a Contact Primary in Salesforce Opportunities
I am Bijay Kumar, the founder of SalesforceFAQs.com. Having over 10 years of experience working in salesforce technologies for clients across the world (Canada, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, etc.). I am a certified salesforce administrator and expert with experience in developing salesforce applications and projects. My goal is to make it easy for people to learn and use salesforce technologies by providing simple and easy-to-understand solutions. Check out the complete profile on About us.
