What's the difference between a "contact" and an "opportunity"?
These two terms get confused all the time — understanding the distinction helps you keep your pipeline clean and ensures you never accidentally lose someone's information by deleting a card.
1
A contact is the person — permanent, never deleted by pipeline cleanup
A contact is the record for an individual human being: their name, phone number, email, address, and all their history with your practice (calls, texts, emails, notes). Contacts live in the Contacts section and persist forever — even if you delete every pipeline card associated with them.
2
An opportunity is the pipeline card — it represents one specific sales conversation
An opportunity is the card you see in the pipeline (Lead Received → Hot Lead → Consult Booked → Procedure Booked). It represents one specific attempt to convert this person into a patient. An opportunity has a monetary value ($50, $500, or $9,100 depending on the stage) and can be moved, deleted, or marked won/lost.
3
One contact can have multiple opportunities
If someone inquired 6 months ago, you deleted the old opportunity, and they call back today — you'd find the same contact record in your system and create a new opportunity tied to it. The contact stores the person's identity and full history; the opportunity tracks the active sales conversation.
4
Deleting an opportunity is safe — the contact stays
When you clean up the pipeline by removing old dead leads, you're deleting opportunities — not contacts. The person's record, their phone number, their email, and their conversation history all remain untouched in the Contacts section. You can always find them there and start fresh.
Pro tip: Think of it this way — a contact is the file folder, and an opportunity is one piece of paper inside that folder. You can remove the paper without throwing away the folder.