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A common request from our clients is tracking Closed Lost opportunities. What is Closed Lost? Closed Lost is an opportunity that didn’t get approved by the company. From a Sales Management POV the most critical Salesforce report is the Closed Lost reason. This gives management important insight on why an opportunity did not Closed Won and become a successful deal for your team. The way that we track this information is through a Validation Rule. The Validation Rule verifies that certain data is entered into an object (opportunity) before a record can be saved.  Follow along with John as he walks you step-by-step on how to create a Closed Lost Reason.

Let's get started!

  1. In your Lightning Home Screen, click Setup

  2. Type ‘Object’ in your Quick Find box and select Object Manager

  3. Scroll down and click Opportunity. 

  4. From the details panel select Fields & Relationships. 

  5. Click New.

Writing in Journal

Step One: Create Your Lost Reason Field

  1. Choose Picklist from the options and click Next. (Check out this Tutorial for instructions on how to create a picklist.)

  2. Name your Field ‘Lost Reason.

  3. Click Through.

  4. Hit Save.

Step Two: Validation Rules

  1. From the details panel, Select Validation Rules.

  2. Enter Rule Name.

  3. Type in your Error Condition Formula.

  4. Enter the following:  ISPICKVAL ( STAGENAME,”CLOSED LOST”) && ISPICKVAL (LOST_REASON_c,””)

  5. Enter the reason: NEED LOST REASON.

Step Three: Check Your Rule

  1.  Go to an  Opportunity. (We recommend creating an example to test this out)
  2. Click on Closed.
  3. Click Select Closed Stage.
  4. Select Closed Lost.
  5. After hitting Enter you will notice the dialogue box pop-up with an error message. 

Now that you’ve completed this Validation Rule you will not be able to close a Closed Lost Opportunity without selecting a reason. This is a great way to organize your Closed Lost Opportunities. This gives your sales team a high level overview of trends surrounding Lost Opportunities and changes that need to be made in the future. 

Having trouble with this tutorial? No worries, this is what our business is about. Contact us today and we can help you with Validations rules and much more.