Close Opportunity as Lost
Close an Opportunity as Lost is the process of formally recording when a sales opportunity will not result in awarded business. By closing opportunities as lost, organizations can capture the reasons for the outcome, such as pricing, competition, project cancellation, or changes in customer requirements, while maintaining an accurate sales pipeline. Recording lost opportunities helps sales teams analyze trends, identify areas for improvement, and refine future sales strategies. It also ensures forecasting and pipeline reports reflect current sales realities, providing management with a clear view of active opportunities and overall sales performance.
✅ Goal
Record opportunities that will not proceed, ensuring pipeline data and forecasting remain accurate.
📍 When to Use This
Close an opportunity as lost when the customer declines the proposal, selects another vendor, postpones the project indefinitely, or otherwise chooses not to proceed.
🚶➡️ Step-By-Step Guide
📋 Procedure
1. Navigate to Opportunities
2. Select an Opportunity
3. Click on the Projects Tab
4. Select and estimated project
5. Click the Copy dropdown
6. Click on Convert
7. Click Lost
8. Select a Loss Reason
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Convert Status | Indicates the outcome of the proposal. The status determines whether the proposal is being closed as Won or Lost and drives the resulting business process actions. |
| Loss Reason | The primary reason the proposal was not awarded. Loss reasons are used to categorize unsuccessful opportunities and support sales performance analysis and reporting. |
| Reason Description | Additional details explaining the circumstances that contributed to the lost proposal. This field provides context that may not be captured by the selected Loss Reason. |
| Opportunity | The opportunity associated with the proposal being closed. This relationship maintains the connection between the proposal record and the originating sales opportunity. |
| Close Opportunity? (will cancel any additional open proposals) | Controls whether the related opportunity should also be closed when the proposal is marked as lost. When enabled, any remaining open proposals associated with the opportunity may be canceled as part of the closure process. |
9. Click Submit
💡 Tips
- Always record an accurate loss reason to support future sales analysis.
- Document lessons learned and competitive insights when available.
- Follow up with the prospect when appropriate to preserve future business opportunities.
- Regularly review lost opportunity trends to identify areas for process improvement.
- Close lost opportunities promptly to prevent overstating pipeline forecasts.
✅ Result
The opportunity is removed from active pipeline forecasts, and the reason for the lost business is available for reporting and sales analysis.
🔗 Related Actions
🧭 What Happens Next?
Analyze the loss reason, identify lessons learned, and focus sales efforts on active opportunities.