How a deal connects to people and companies
An opportunity hangs off the relationship it was opened from: a Person, and through them the Company they are attached to. Those links are what give a deal its context and what make it survive a merge — deals are preserved from both sides when two records become one, along with identities, stages, follow-ups, demos, cases and onboarding.
The links, and what each does#
| Link | What it gives the deal | What breaks without it |
|---|---|---|
| To a Person | Who is buying, their history, their memory and any block | Nothing knows who to write to; the deal is a number with no counterparty |
| To a Company | The organisation, its other people, its other work | Colleague context is missing and company-level totals are short |
| Through identities | Every channel that reaches the buyer | A reply can only go where the deal was opened from |
| To follow-ups | The dated commitments the deal has made | Promises live in somebody's head instead of the queue |
| To cases and onboarding | What happens after the deal closes | A won deal has nowhere to hand over to |
None of these is a copy. The deal points at the relationship rather than holding its own snapshot of a name and an address, which is why correcting a person's details once corrects them everywhere the deal is read.
One deal, several humans#
Real purchases involve more than one person: somebody who asked, somebody who signs, somebody who will use it. The deal is attached to the relationship it belongs to, and the others are visible through the organisation rather than as competing owners of the same record.
- Keep the deal on the person who will actually decide, and attach the rest to the company.
- Where a second person becomes the main contact, move the deal rather than opening a duplicate — a second deal for one purchase makes both totals wrong.
- Where two organisations are genuinely involved, keep the deal on the one that signs and record the other on the timeline.
What a merge does#
Merging two Person records is a human decision, and it is deliberately conservative about what it keeps. From both sides it preserves identities, lifecycle stages, follow-ups, deals, demos, cases and onboarding. Nothing is dropped to make the survivor tidy.
- Deals survive
- Both records' opportunities end up on the survivor, still carrying their own value, stage and history.
- Duplicates become visible
- Two deals for the same purchase, one under each record, are suddenly side by side. That is the moment to close one as a duplicate rather than leaving both open.
- Follow-ups accumulate
- Both sides' commitments arrive together, which can mean two chases for one thing. The duplicate rule catches identical timing; it does not catch two differently-worded promises.
- Blocks apply to the survivor
- A block from either side now governs the merged record. Check this before the next outbound, not after it.
Keeping the links honest#
When a deal is opened from a conversation, check the person it landed on.
Result Opening from the wrong side of a forwarded thread is the usual way a deal ends up against a colleague of yours instead of the customer.
Attach the company before the deal advances.
Result Every later stage reads better with the organisation present, and duplicate proposals get stronger evidence to work from.
When the buyer changes job, move the identity, not the history.
Result A new mailbox is a new identity on the same Person; the deals and the timeline stay where they are.
Close duplicate deals as duplicates rather than deleting them.
Result The record of what happened stays intact, and the board stops counting one purchase twice.
Questions#
Can a deal exist without a person?
It can be created that way, and it is almost always a mistake. Nothing knows who to contact, no memory or block applies, and the follow-ups it generates have no counterparty. Attach it as soon as you notice.
If I merge two people, do I get two pipelines?
You get one relationship holding both sets of deals. If two of them describe the same purchase, close one — the merge preserves records rather than judging which of them was real.
Does moving a person to another company move their deals?
The deals stay with the person, because that is who is buying. If the purchase belongs to the old organisation, keep the deal against a contact who is still there.