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Opportunities and Your Sales Pipeline — StudioM Platform Guide

Who this guide is for: Anyone tracking sales deals, quotes, or service inquiries through a structured pipeline. Time to read: Approximately 8 minutes

What Is the Pipeline?

Your sales pipeline is a visual board that shows every active deal (called an "opportunity") and where it stands in your sales process. Each deal moves through stages — from first contact to closed — so you always have a clear picture of what's in progress, what needs attention, and what's been won or lost.

If you've ever used a tool like Trello or a physical whiteboard to track deals, this works the same way.

How to Get There

Navigate to: Opportunities (left sidebar)

Understanding Opportunities

What Is an Opportunity?

An opportunity represents a potential deal with a specific contact — a quote you've sent, a service inquiry you're working on, or a sale you're trying to close. Each opportunity has:

  • A name (e.g., "Website Design — John Smith")
  • A value (the estimated or confirmed dollar amount)
  • A pipeline stage (where in your process it currently sits)
  • A status (Open, Won, Lost, or Abandoned)
  • A linked contact (the person the deal is with)
  • An assigned team member (who owns this deal)

The Four Statuses

Status What It Means
Open Active — deal is still in progress
Won Closed successfully — the sale or project was confirmed
Lost Did not close — the deal didn't go through
Abandoned No longer being pursued — different from "Lost" in that there's no clear outcome

The Pipeline Board (Board View)

The default view is a kanban-style board — columns represent pipeline stages, and each deal appears as a card in its current stage.

To move a deal forward: Drag the card to the next stage column.

What you see on each card: - Contact name - Opportunity name - Value - Assigned team member - Last activity indicator

To open a deal: Click on the card to see full details, notes, tasks, and activity history.

List View

Prefer a table format? Switch to List View using the toggle at the top right. List view lets you: - Sort by value, date, stage, or assigned user - See more deals at once - Run bulk actions on selected deals

Creating a New Opportunity

  1. Click the + New Opportunity button (or the + button in the stage column where you want to start it)
  2. Fill in:
  3. Opportunity Name — be descriptive (e.g., "Monthly Retainer — Sarah Green")
  4. Contact — search for and link the contact this deal is with
  5. Pipeline — select the pipeline (if you have more than one)
  6. Stage — choose the starting stage
  7. Value — the estimated deal value
  8. Assigned To — which team member owns this deal
  9. Click Save

Moving Deals Through Your Pipeline

As a deal progresses, update its stage: - Drag and drop the card to the new stage on the board view - Or open the opportunity and change the stage from the detail view

When a deal is closed, update the status to Won or Lost (don't just leave it in the last stage).

Marking a Deal as Lost

When marking Lost, you'll be asked to select a Lost Reason. This helps you track patterns over time — for example, "price too high" or "went with competitor."

Need StudioM Support for This? Lost Reason options are configured in your account settings. If you'd like to add, change, or remove reasons, contact StudioM Support.

Adding Multiple Contacts to an Opportunity

Some deals involve more than one person — for example, a couple buying together, or a business with multiple decision-makers. You can add up to 10 additional contacts to a single opportunity.

  1. Open the opportunity
  2. Find the Additional Contacts field
  3. Search for and add the relevant contacts

Note: Automations and workflows only act on the primary contact (the one originally linked to the opportunity). Additional contacts are for reference only.

Custom Fields on Opportunities

If StudioM has set up custom fields for your opportunities (e.g., "Service Type," "Lead Source," "Contract Start Date"), you'll find them when you open or edit an opportunity.

Tip: Enable Hide Empty Fields (available in the opportunity view) if you have many custom fields — this shows only the ones that have been filled in, making the view cleaner.

Filtering and Finding Opportunities

Use Advanced Filters to find specific deals:

  1. Click Filters at the top of the Opportunities view
  2. Filter by:
  3. Status (Won, Lost, Open, Abandoned)
  4. Pipeline or stage
  5. Assigned team member
  6. Date range (created or last updated)
  7. Value range
  8. Custom field values

Example: To find all lost opportunities, filter by Status = Lost.

Exporting Opportunities

To download your pipeline data as a spreadsheet:

  1. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) at the top right of the Opportunities view
  2. Select Export Opportunities
  3. A CSV file will download to your browser's default folder

Tracking Activity on a Deal

Every opportunity has a built-in activity log showing changes, notes, and interactions.

  1. Open an opportunity card
  2. Look for the Opportunity ID in the bottom left
  3. Click it to see the full audit log — up to 60 days of history

This is useful for reviewing what happened on a deal, especially when multiple team members are involved.

Sharing an Opportunity with a Team Member

If you want to share a specific opportunity with a colleague:

  1. Open the opportunity
  2. Copy the URL from your browser address bar
  3. Share the link — anyone on your account with the right access can open it directly

Best Practices

  • Name opportunities clearly — include the contact name and service type so anyone can understand it at a glance
  • Update stages promptly — a stale pipeline makes forecasting inaccurate
  • Always mark Won or Lost — don't leave closed deals in "Open" stages
  • Use Lost Reasons consistently — they become valuable data over time
  • Review your pipeline weekly — identify deals that haven't moved in a while and decide: follow up or mark abandoned

Common Questions

Q: Can I have more than one pipeline? Yes — for example, a "Sales Pipeline" and a "Service Pipeline." Your pipelines are configured by StudioM based on your business needs. Contact StudioM Support to add or adjust pipelines.

Q: Can the same contact have multiple deals? Yes. One contact can have many opportunities — for example, a returning customer with multiple projects.

Q: What's the difference between Lost and Abandoned? Lost means you actively pursued the deal and it didn't close. Abandoned means the deal went cold or is no longer being tracked — there's no clear win/loss outcome. Use whichever fits the situation best.

Q: I can't find an old opportunity. How do I search for it? Use Advanced Filters and try filtering by a date range or the contact's name. You can also search by opportunity name using the search function.

Need Help?

Contact StudioM Support any time.

  • Email: support@makoa.us (update with your actual support email)
  • Live Chat: Available inside the platform

Related guides: Contacts and CRM · Reporting and Analytics · Workflows (Automations)