Create a deal from verified context

Before you start

• Confirm the company or primary contact in Contacts and review recent customer context.
• Choose the pipeline that matches the selling motion. A renewal should not enter an inbound acquisition pipeline.
• Know the currency and the first real next action.
• Search Deals for the company, contact, and opportunity name to avoid creating a parallel deal.

Create the deal

1. Open Deals and choose New deal. You can also start from Contact 360 so the relationship is preselected.
2. Select the pipeline and a creation-enabled open stage.
3. Enter a title that describes the customer and decision, such as “Northstar—annual support renewal.”
4. Select or create the company, then select the primary contact when one person is leading the decision. A deal requires a company or primary contact.
5. Choose the currency. Enter a value only when there is a defensible initial amount; catalog line items can later control value.
6. Set expected close date, owner, priority, probability, forecast category, and source from evidence. A new stage may suggest its default probability, but you remain responsible for refining it.
7. Add concise internal context. Do not paste unrelated customer data.
8. Save, then open the Deal Room.

Open full size

Make the first action explicit

In the Deal Room, create a next-action task with an owner and due time. Examples include “Confirm implementation scope with Maya by Thursday” or “Send reviewed revision after finance approval.” A note without ownership is not a follow-up plan.

Add products or services to deal line items when scope is known. This establishes commercial value without creating a customer-facing quote prematurely.

Verify the result

1. Confirm the title, company/contact, pipeline, stage, owner, and currency.
2. Check the Deal pulse for missing probability, close date, next action, or ownership.
3. Return to Work view and confirm the deal appears in the expected queue.
4. Open Contact 360 or the company record and confirm the new deal appears under Commercial.

Edge cases and recovery

If only terminal stages are available, ask an admin to enable creation on an open stage. If the correct company is missing, search before creating it from the deal form. If you created a duplicate, archive it with a reason; do not close it as Lost because “duplicate” is not a customer outcome. If currency is wrong after line items or quotes exist, review downstream records before changing it.