Opportunity Pipeline

The opportunity is the commercial record for a shipper pursuit. It has a record number, subject, organization, counterparty and owner. The Relationship Owner records the expected close date and expected value in US dollars, then maintains the stage as the pursuit develops. A Sales Manager can examine the same record with its activities, lane details, attachments, review decisions and operation receipts. That shared parent is the thread through the work.

A new pursuit starts at New. Qualification draws on the counterparty and relationship evidence. Proposal marks a submitted commercial scope; Negotiation is used when talks actually begin. Won and Lost are customer outcomes, with a won date or loss reason recorded where applicable. A stage change should have a real event behind it, because the pipeline report reads the status and expected value directly.

• Ownership. The owner is a team member, giving each opportunity a person responsible for follow-up and record quality.
• Commercial basis. Expected close date, value and probability support a pipeline review without replacing the underlying customer evidence.
• Revision history. The revision travels with guarded actions and independent decisions so reviewers can tell which version they assessed.

Consider a shipper request for weekly freight between two ZIP codes. The owner records the shipper as counterparty, sets the expected close date and value, and logs the first call. Once qualification evidence is in place, the record can progress to Qualified. A lane record carries the quote basis. The manager can review the proposal against that context instead of reconstructing it from separate notes.

Agree when an owner may call an opportunity Qualified and what relationship activity shows the requirement is real. Define which proposal material should be attached, when Negotiation begins and what counts as acceptance or loss evidence. Decide who checks the exact revision before a customer outcome is recorded. Set a consistent rule for expected value so owners do not mix different commercial bases in the same report.

An opportunity number is the reference people can use in meetings and handoffs. Establish how owners find an existing record before creating another for the same request. Use the counterparty and subject together to distinguish a fresh lane request from an update to an existing pursuit.

Open a New opportunity for an active counterparty. Give it an owner, expected date and value, then log a call with an outcome. Have a Sales Manager find it on the board and compare the record to the attached evidence. Move the worked case through qualification and proposal review, checking that the lane quote remains attached to its parent. When a customer decision arrives, inspect the won date or loss reason and the earlier expected value. An Auditor should be able to follow the sequence from the parent record.

• Open Opportunity Board — Active pursuits by stage, owner, counterparty and expected value.
• My Opportunities — The Relationship Owner’s assigned pursuits with their next expected close dates.
• Outcome History — Closed customer decisions with their recorded result details.

Follow opportunity to proposal and customer outcome.