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Log quote requests as pipeline Opportunities

Inbound quote requests arrive as Opportunities at the right stage, with budget and scope already on the record.

When this happens

New submission on your "Request a quote" form

Do this

Create an Opportunity in Salesforce with amount, stage and close date

One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.

Quote requests sitting in an inbox never reach a forecast. Creating the Opportunity at submission puts inbound demand into the same pipeline view as everything else sales is working, at whatever early stage you keep for unqualified interest.

Agencies and service businesses take this on once inbound volume outgrows a spreadsheet. The gain is less about saved typing than about visibility: every request has a stage, an owner and a close date from its first day, so nothing inbound is invisible at review time.

Setting it up

  1. 1

    Publish the quote form with Company or Organization required, since the Opportunity needs an Account to hang from.

  2. 2

    Point the "New Submission" trigger at the quote form and send a realistic test entry, budget answer included, so the sample shows what Salesforce will actually receive.

  3. 3

    Add a Salesforce Find Record step on Account, matched on Company or Organization, with create-if-not-found switched on.

  4. 4

    Add Create Record on Opportunity and set the Account ID from the step above so the deal is filed in the right place.

  5. 5

    Build the Opportunity Name from two fields rather than one — the account name followed by Service Type reads far better in a pipeline list than a bare company.

  6. 6

    Hard-code Stage to your earliest stage, the one that means unqualified inbound. Do not ask the buyer which stage they are at.

  7. 7

    Set Close Date from Project Timeline, and put Estimated Budget in a custom text field. Amount only accepts a number, so a range like £5k–£10k belongs in text until sales qualifies it.

  8. 8

    Submit a test request, confirm the Opportunity lands under the right Account, then turn the Zap on.

What maps where

Using the Quote Request Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.

Form fieldSalesforce
Company or OrganizationAccount the Opportunity is created under
Service TypeOpportunity Name, combined with the account name
Project DescriptionOpportunity Description
Project TimelineClose Date
Estimated BudgetCustom budget text field on the Opportunity
Email AddressContact linked to the Opportunity through a Contact Role

Variations worth knowing

Split by service line

Service Type is the natural fork. Zapier paths can create the Opportunity with a different record type, owner or pipeline per service, so a full fit-out and a maintenance renewal stop competing for the same forecast view and the same reviewer.

Keep small enquiries out of the forecast

Not every enquiry deserves an Opportunity. A Zapier filter on Estimated Budget can send anything below your threshold to a Lead instead, while larger requests carry on to the Opportunity step. Both are recorded as responses in formformform regardless.

If something isn't arriving

The Zap fails with an invalid date on Close Date.

Project Timeline is written for humans, and "within three months" is not a date. Convert it with a Zapier Formatter step, or set Close Date to a fixed offset such as thirty days out and let sales correct it during qualification.

Every request creates a new Account, including ones you already have.

Find Record matches on an exact account name, and buyers rarely type it the way Salesforce stores it. Tighten the search, or route unmatched names to a holding Account and merge them during a weekly review of new records.

Frequently asked questions

What stage should an inbound quote request come in at?

The earliest one in your process — whatever you call new or unqualified inbound. Setting it higher inflates the forecast, because a form submission is interest rather than a qualified deal. Sales advances it after the first real conversation.

Can the form take a deposit at the same time?

Yes. Add products and priced options to the form, then collect payment through secure hosted checkout with Stripe, PayPal, or Square. Payment status is tracked alongside the response.

How do I keep test submissions out of the pipeline?

Add a Zapier filter that skips submissions from your own email domain, or keep an unpublished copy of the form for testing. Anything that slips through can be deleted in Salesforce, and the response stays in formformform either way.

Related automations

Build the form first

The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.

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