Understanding the Sales Process Flow

In ISO Mate every prospect moves through three connected record types: a Lead becomes an Opportunity, and an opportunity becomes a Deal. Each step adds detail and commitment, and a one-click conversion carries the data forward so your team never re-enters information. All three share the same pipeline stages, giving you one coherent process from first contact to closed revenue.

The funnel: lead to opportunity to deal

  • Lead: an early prospect. You know the company and source but have not qualified them yet.
  • Opportunity: a qualified prospect with real potential. You now track win probability, expected revenue, and a target close date.
  • Deal: a concrete transaction. You negotiate terms, attach products with pricing, and work toward a signed agreement.

Each conversion, Lead to Opportunity and Opportunity to Deal, is a one-click action that copies the relevant data forward and logs the transition in the activity timeline.

Pipelines define the stages

A pipeline defines the stages your process follows. The default pipeline includes Lead, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, Closed Won, and Closed Lost, and each stage has a Show For setting that decides whether it appears for leads, opportunities, deals, or a combination. You can customize the stages or keep several pipelines for different products, regions, or teams, with one marked as the default.

Because pipelines apply across all three record types, your Pipeline Board and dashboard metrics reflect a single, consistent process. For setup steps, see Managing Your Sales Pipeline.

Leads: where it starts

A lead captures the basics: company, source, expected revenue, and an assigned salesperson. Leads have their own status lifecycle:

  1. New: just captured, not yet contacted.
  2. Contacted: initial outreach has been made.
  3. Qualified: a genuine need and budget are confirmed, ready to convert.
  4. Unqualified: not a fit, kept for reference.
  5. Converted: turned into an opportunity.

When a lead reaches Qualified, click Convert to Opportunity. ISO Mate creates the opportunity with the lead data pre-filled, marks the lead as Converted, and links the two records for traceability.

Opportunities: qualifying and forecasting

Opportunities add two fields that leads do not have: probability (your confidence from 0 to 100) and close date (when you expect to finalize). These power the revenue forecast on the dashboard. Opportunities move through your pipeline stages, and when you are ready to formalize terms you click Convert to Deal. The conversion copies the contact, pipeline, stage, expected revenue (as the deal value), close date, and assigned user into the new deal.

Deals: closing the revenue

Deals track a monetary value and currency and move toward one of two outcomes:

  • Closed Won: the deal is signed. ISO Mate records a won timestamp and sends a notification.
  • Closed Lost: the deal fell through. A loss reason is required, which helps with later analysis.

Deals also support product line items. Attach products from your catalog with quantity, unit price, and an optional discount, and the deal value recalculates automatically from the line item totals. See Managing Products and Price Books for details.

Stakeholders and context travel with the record

Sales rarely involves one person. Contact roles let you link multiple contacts to any lead, opportunity, or deal as a Decision Maker, Influencer, Technical Evaluator, End User, or Other. You can also link tasks, calendar events, notes, and emails, and every action is recorded in the activity timeline. See Working with Contact Roles in Sales and Linking Records to Sales Activities.

A typical workflow

  1. A salesperson captures a Lead from a website inquiry and records the company, source, and expected revenue.
  2. After outreach they set the status to Contacted, link the buyer as a Decision Maker, and create a follow-up task.
  3. Following a discovery call they mark the lead Qualified and click Convert to Opportunity.
  4. The opportunity tracks a 60 percent probability and a close date, and they schedule a demo as a calendar event.
  5. After the demo they convert it to a Deal, attach two products, and move it to Proposal on the Pipeline Board.
  6. They link emails and notes through negotiation, then move the deal to Closed Won. The dashboard updates automatically.

Throughout, managers watch the Sales Dashboard, filtering by team member or pipeline to forecast revenue and spot stalled deals.

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