# Opportunity Types: Reading Each Kind of Business Separately

> An opportunity type is a kind of business in sales. Why SLA values and stage win rates hold per opportunity type, and why opportunity types are never mixed.

Canonical: https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/opportunity-type

An opportunity type is a kind of business in sales, for example new business or expansion of the installed base. Each opportunity type is analysed separately: SLA values and stage win rates hold per opportunity type. A statement about dwell times without a named opportunity type is incomplete.

## What is the opportunity type for?

Anyone who wants to track the performance of their funnel organises their sales processes by kinds of business. One opportunity type can, for example, carry the winning of new customers, another the expansion of customers the company already has.

Different opportunity types have different sales cycles (the time from an opportunity's creation to a won close) and different conversion dynamics. Each opportunity type therefore gets its own view. Different opportunity types are not aggregated.

## What holds per opportunity type?

:::formel
SLA values: per stage and opportunity type

Stage win rate: per stage, opportunity type, period and sales rep

- SLA values – the two age limits of a stage: up to the first an opportunity is HEALTHY, up to the second DELAYED, above it STALLED
- Stage win rate – of the deals that stood in the stage and were decided (won or lost), the share that was won
:::

The same stage can carry different SLA values under one opportunity type than under another. How [SLA Health classifies an opportunity](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/sla-health) therefore also depends on the opportunity type.

The [stage win rate](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/win-rate) likewise holds for one opportunity type. A stage win rate without a named opportunity type leaves open which business it describes.

:::example
Constructed example with an invented company; not a benchmark: Two opportunities stand in the stage “Proposal” and are the same age. One is new business, the other an expansion of the installed base. For this stage, new business carries higher SLA values than expansion. The new-business opportunity is below the first SLA value of its opportunity type and is HEALTHY. The expansion opportunity is above the first and below the second SLA value of its opportunity type and is DELAYED. Same stage, same age, two classifications. The SLA values are those of this example.
:::

## Who decides which opportunity types exist?

The company decides which opportunity types exist. There is no universal list.

How long the sales cycle of an opportunity type is, is read from the company's own data. The length is not inferred from the name of an opportunity type.

## How opportunity type, stage and stage class differ

| | Opportunity type | Stage | Stage class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers | Which kind of business is it? | Where does the deal stand in the company's own process? | What kind of entry is it: demand, opportunity or closed? |
| Who decides | the company | the company | the classes are fixed and the same everywhere; which stage belongs to which class is assigned by the company |

Stage and stage class are explained in the entry [Stage and stage class](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/sales-stages).

## FAQ

### What is an opportunity type?

An opportunity type is a kind of business in sales, for example new business or expansion of the installed base. Anyone who wants to track the performance of their funnel organises their sales processes by such kinds of business and decides for themselves which opportunity types to carry. Each opportunity type is analysed separately.

### Why analyse new business and expansion separately?

Different opportunity types have different sales cycles and different conversion dynamics. Each opportunity type therefore gets its own view, and different opportunity types are not aggregated.

### Does one SLA value apply to every opportunity in a stage?

No. SLA values hold per stage and opportunity type. The same stage can therefore carry different SLA values under one opportunity type than under another. A statement about dwell times without a named opportunity type is incomplete.

### Who decides which opportunity types exist?

The company does. There is no universal list of opportunity types. How long the sales cycle of an opportunity type is, is also read from the company's own data and not inferred from the name of the opportunity type.