Opportunities and pipeline

An opportunity in Pulse is a potential deal — from first conversation to closed/won (or lost). Sageon Business gives you a Kanban-style pipeline plus tabular and chart views.

Pipeline stages

Sageon Business uses 6 stages:

  1. Prospect — initial interest, not qualified
  2. Qualified — confirmed budget, authority, need, timing
  3. Proposal — formal proposal in flight
  4. Negotiation — terms being agreed
  5. Won — deal closed, contracted
  6. Lost — deal lost (capture reason)

Create an opportunity

From Pulse → Opportunities → + New:

  • Title"Cabinet Office Zero Trust"
  • Parent project — every opp links to a project (often a "Sales & BD" parent project)
  • Client / Company — the buyer
  • Value — £ amount
  • Stage — pick one (default: Prospect)
  • Probability — 0-100% (defaults from stage)
  • Expected close date
  • Contact — link to a CRM contact
  • Notes — context

Or ask Sage

"Add an opportunity: Cabinet Office Zero Trust, £80k, proposal stage, expected close end of August"

Sage drafts and confirms.

Moving through the pipeline

Drag-and-drop on the board view, or change Stage on the opportunity detail page. Won triggers a prompt to convert to a project or bid; Lost prompts for a reason code.

Pipeline metrics (on dashboard)

  • Total pipeline £ — sum of open opportunity values
  • Weighted pipeline — pipeline × probability
  • Win rate — won £ / (won + lost) £
  • Stage conversion — % moving forward each stage

Tips

  • Update probability honestly. Forced 50% on everything makes weighted pipeline useless.
  • Lose fast. A "Proposal" stage opportunity that hasn't moved in 90 days is almost certainly lost — mark it.
  • Use Sage for stage moves. "Move Cabinet Office to negotiation" is faster than dragging cards.