Leads, deals and the pipeline
How a prospect becomes a sale: the statuses, the deal stages, win probability and the weighted forecast.
From lead to deal#
A lead is someone who has shown interest but is not yet a customer. A deal is a sale you are actively working. The two are separate records on purpose: most leads never become deals, and you do not want them in your forecast.
A lead moves through five statuses: New, Contacted, Qualified, Converted or Lost. When a lead is qualified, you convert it. That creates the deal and links the two, so you can always see where a deal came from.
The stages#
There is one pipeline. A new workspace starts with these stages, each with a default chance of winning:
| Stage | Win probability | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| New | 10% | Just created, not yet worked |
| Discovery | 25% | You are learning what the customer needs |
| Negotiation | 50% | Terms are being discussed |
| Proposal | 75% | A proposal is with the customer |
| Won | 100% | Closed, the customer signed |
| Lost | 0% | Closed, no sale |
A Jira administrator can rename and reorder the stages before Won and Lost, change their win probabilities, add stages (up to 12) and remove them, in Settings. Won and Lost are always there and always last.
Weighted pipeline#
A raw pipeline total treats a brand new deal and a nearly signed one as equal. Weighted pipeline multiplies each open deal's amount by its probability, so it is a more realistic forecast.
| Deal | Amount | Stage | Weighted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northwind: annual licence | 12,000 | Proposal (75%) | 9,000 |
| Contoso: pilot | 4,000 | Discovery (25%) | 1,000 |
| Pipeline 16,000 | 10,000 | ||
If you know a particular deal is more or less likely than its stage says, set a probability on that deal. It replaces the stage's default for that deal only.
Won and lost, and why#
Moving a deal to Won or Lost asks for a reason. The reasons are what the Deal outcomes report counts, so they turn a hunch ("we keep losing on price") into a number.
- Won: Best Price, Product Fit, Relationship, Switched from Competitor, Referral, Other.
- Lost: Price, Lost to Competitor, No Budget, No Decision Made, Bad Timing, Other.
Stale deals#
A deal is stale when it has not changed stage for a number of days. The default is 14; a Jira administrator can change it in Settings. Stale deals are flagged in the board and the table, and there is a Stale filter for them. A deal that is Won or Lost is never stale.
The same threshold applies to leads: a lead whose status has not changed for that long, and which is not yet Converted or Lost, is flagged stale.