Using the Create/Update Opportunity Workflow Action

About the Create/Update Opportunity Action

The Create/Update Opportunity action is a workflow tool for managing potential sales deals. When this action runs, it will either generate a brand new opportunity in your chosen sales pipeline or modify an existing one. This automation helps keep your sales process organized by ensuring opportunities are consistently tracked and progressed.

Important Limitations: This specific action has two key restrictions. First, it cannot be used to update the same opportunity that started the workflow. Second, it does not interact with opportunities located by a separate Find Opportunity step earlier in your workflow. It works independently to find or create an opportunity based on its own settings.

Configuring the Action

To set up the Create/Update Opportunity action, you will need to fill in the following details in your workflow builder.

Required Fields

• Action Name: A descriptive label for this step within your workflow.
• In Pipeline: Select which of your CRM's sales pipelines the opportunity belongs to.
• In Pipeline Stage: Choose the specific stage within the selected pipeline where the opportunity should be placed.
• Opportunity Name: Enter a name to identify this opportunity.
• Opportunity Source: Specify where this lead originated (e.g., Website Form, Referral).
• Status: Set the opportunity's status, such as Open or Closed.

Optional Fields

• Lead Value: You can enter an estimated monetary value for the opportunity.
• Allow Opportunity to Move to Any Previous Stage in Pipeline: Enabling this gives you the flexibility to move this opportunity back to an earlier stage in the pipeline if needed later.
• Allow Duplicate Opportunities: When enabled, the action can create a new opportunity even if one with similar details already exists.

Example Use Case: Tracking New Calendar Leads

Imagine you want to automatically create a sales opportunity for every person who books an appointment through your online calendar.

1. Set your workflow to trigger when a New Contact is created from your calendar funnel.
2. Add the Create/Update Opportunity action to the workflow.
3. Configure the action:
   • Set the In Pipeline to your main sales pipeline.
   • Set the In Pipeline Stage to an initial stage like "New Lead."
   • Name the Opportunity Name clearly, for example, "Appointment with [Contact Name]."
   • Set the Opportunity Source to "Calendar Appointment."
   • Leave Status as "Open."

With this setup, every new appointment booking instantly creates a tracked opportunity in your sales pipeline, ensuring no potential customer is missed.

Note on Future Use

This combined Create/Update Opportunity action is being phased out for new workflows. For more precise control, it is recommended to use the separate Create Opportunity and Update Opportunity actions. These newer actions support features like updating the triggering opportunity or using a found opportunity from a previous step. Existing workflows using the older combined action will continue to function.