Sales · Pipeline Management

Opportunity Pipeline

Drag Deals Forward, Watch the Money Move

In sales, a "Pipeline" is a visual way to see every deal you're working on, grouped by how close each one is to closing — like a funnel where lots of possible deals go in the top, and fewer make it all the way to a sale at the bottom. How to give every rep a visual board of every deal in progress, where dragging a card to the next stage takes one second — no separate spreadsheet to update.

⏱ ~6 min to complete80 pts available🏅 Badge: Deal Flow Manager

About & Business Case #

Why a visual pipeline matters #

Dana Reyes · Regional Sales Manager

"I don't want to ping five reps every morning to ask 'where's that deal at?' I want to look at one board and see it myself."

A "deal" in SmartLite is called an Opportunity — it's a potential sale you're tracking with a specific company or person. When deals live only in a rep's head, or in a private spreadsheet only they can see, managers lose visibility.

Deals can sit untouched for weeks with nobody noticing, until it's too late to save them.

What you'll achieve

Everyone shares one board. Every deal's stage, value, and age are visible at a glance, and moving a deal forward takes one drag — not a status meeting.

Implementation #

What's on the pipeline board #

A "stage" is a step in the journey a deal goes through, from first contact to a finished sale. The Opportunity Pipeline page shows one column for every stage: Prospecting, Qualification, Needs Analysis, Value Proposition, Negotiation, Verbal Commitment, Closed Won, and Closed Lost. Every deal is a card sitting in the column that matches its current stage — the further right, the closer to closing.

Drag a card to a new columnThe deal's stage updates instantly. Its "win probability" — how likely it is to actually close, shown as a percentage — updates automatically to match the new stage. Nothing extra to type in.

Column headers show real numbersEach column shows how many deals sit in it, and their combined dollar value, updated live as cards move.

Stale-deal warningAny deal that hasn't been touched in over 14 days gets an amber "Stale" label. That way nothing quietly sits forgotten at the bottom of the board.

A summary bar at the top

This shows Total Pipeline (the dollar value of every open deal), Weighted Pipeline (each deal's value multiplied by its win probability — a more realistic estimate), Closed Won This Month, and total Open Deals. All four numbers recalculate the moment a card moves.

1 Move a deal forward on the board #

Open the Opportunity Pipeline boardGo to the "Opportunity Pipeline" page. It opens with every open and closed deal already sorted into its stage column.

Drag a deal card to the next stagePick up a card from "Qualification" and drop it in "Needs Analysis". Watch its probability percentage update by itself.

Check the summary barLook at Total Pipeline and Weighted Pipeline at the top. Both numbers should have shifted to reflect the move you just made.

How to Use #

Day-to-day: reps #

Move deals as they progressDrag a card the moment a deal actually advances — the board is only useful if it stays current.

Check your own stale dealsGlance for the amber "Stale" label and follow up before a deal goes cold.

Day-to-day: sales managers #

Morning check-inOpen the board instead of pinging reps individually — everything you need is already visible.

Watch Weighted PipelineUse it as your realistic forecast number, since it already accounts for win probability by stage.

What to try next

Look at the Forecast trail — it builds directly on the same stages and deal values you manage here.

Quiz #

Test what you learned #

1. What happens to a deal's win probability when you drag its card to a new stage?

Nothing — you have to update it by hand afterward

It updates automatically to match the new stage's default probability

2. What does the amber "Stale" label on a deal card mean?

The deal is scheduled to close today

The deal hasn't been touched in over 14 days