Managing Pipelines & Opportunities

  • 7 February 2022
  • 7 replies
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Hello! This guide is part of our quick start series.

In this article, we’re going to explore managing pipelines in Copper. Use the links below to jump sections.

 

What is a Pipeline?

A pipeline is a process that’s split up into stages. For example, you might have a sales pipeline with stages for Initial Consultation, Demo, Proposal, and Contract.

Each pipeline hosts Opportunities.

 

What is an Opportunity?

Opportunities are the individual items that move along a pipeline. They each represent one deal, deliverable, or end result that you are pursuing. For example, you might have one Opportunity for each potential sale you are making.

Create an Opportunity by clicking the Add New button.

As you nurture an Opportunity, you can move it through the pipeline.

Like a person record, an Opportunity houses information in three different sections:

  • Details, such as  Value, Primary Contact, or any other fields you may have.
  • Activity log, which includes any relevant emails, calendar events, and other activities that have been synced.
  • Related records, such as associated people and companies.

 

Opportunity statuses

An Opportunity’s status indicates how it concluded. There are four statuses:

  • Open, as in the Opportunity is still in the works
  • Lost, as in there’s no longer a chance it will go through
  • Abandoned, as in there’s a there’s no clear conclusion and you’ve stopped pursuing it for now
  • Won, as in... you did it!

Copper allows you to apply these statuses to an Opportunity, regardless of which pipeline stage it’s in. This allows you to track at which point in your process certain outcomes are realized.

 

Filtering Pipelines

Need to narrow down your view? Apply a filter using the filter icon in the top right corner.

 

Switching between Pipelines

You might have multiple pipelines in your Copper system. You can easily flip between them by clicking on the name of the pipeline.

 

Switching to list view

If you prefer to see your pipelines in a list with columns, simply switch to List View by clicking the list view icon. From there, you can add a filter, customize the columns, or sort your Opportunities.

 

Now you’re ready!

You know the how to work with your pipeline in Copper now. So, go ahead and get started in the web app, Chrome extension, or mobile app (iOS & Android). Or, check out the quick customization guide to see how you can customize Copper to fit your organization.

🚨 We also have a full Coffee with Copper webinar running through the basics on pipelines, best practices and key features. Watch here.

 

Oh, and if you have any questions, add them in a comment or post in our forum!


7 replies

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Is the Product Videos section of Copper Support sufficient enough to get team members onboarded? Or is there other information covered in help articles that are without a video version?

@Michelle from Copper 

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Hi @JPierre! I would actually recommend our Getting Started section since it’s a little bit more up-to-date, and they can post any questions in the comments of each section. It’s a series of short articles they can work through at their own pace.

Alternatively, we run a new user webinar where my colleague Chris runs through the basic functions and answers question. It’s a great option if your colleagues prefer a live session! And we also have a recording available on that page.

I want to put a contact into two pipelines. How can I accomplish this?

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Hi @AdamN, thanks for posting! I recommend creating two separate opportunities that are both attached to that contact.

To do this, you can open up a contact and find the Opportunities section and click “Add Opportunity” or the “+” sign. It will ask you to name the Opportunity and give you a popup to fill in more information.

 

In that popup, select the Pipeline.

 

Do that and repeat for the other Pipeline. In the example below, I have an opportunity in the Sales pipeline and another in the Admissions pipeline.

 

Let me know if that helps!

Hi!

I’ve assigned win percentages for each stage in my pipeline. Those do not auto populate into the opportunities within that stage, correct? Am I right to assume I need to assign a win percentage for each opportunity individually?

 

Thanks for your help!

Userlevel 7
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Hi @klamen! The win percentage for a stage is assigned when an Opportunity moves into that stage. For example, if you already have Opportunities in your Demo stage, and then you set the win % for the Demo stage to 15%, nothing will change immediately. But the next Opportunity you move into Demo will automatically have its win % updated to 15%.

So it doesn’t automatically update Opportunities that are already in that stage. But it will update it for Opportunities that move into that stage moving forward.

Let me know if that helps!

Thank you that is really helpful!

 

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