# Opportunity State Reasons

Whenever the **state** of an Opportunity is changed from Open to Won, Lost, Abandoned or Suspended, the user is provided with a list of possible reasons why the state was changed. For example, if the Opportunity's state is set to Won, then there could a number of reasons why it was successful.

For example:

* You offered the best price.
* Your service offering was better than the competition.
* You won the tendering process.
* You won because it was a direct referral.

<figure><img src="https://4293187824-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2Fyn0qJKdoNp6M4xqrQfMG%2Fuploads%2FzYZPziikRAfOodwNms2P%2Fopportunity-state-reasons%5Cdrop-menu.png?alt=media&#x26;token=d0b6b1ea-d887-4413-b6c0-9547be5ad713" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

You can customize the list of **state change reasons** to fit your specific business. This can be done by navigating to **Settings > Opportunities > Opportunity State Reasons**.&#x20;

<figure><img src="https://4293187824-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2Fyn0qJKdoNp6M4xqrQfMG%2Fuploads%2F6ZB9L075o8r5r5sjypVn%2Fopportunity-state-reasons%5Csettings.png?alt=media&#x26;token=e64faab5-fd85-46b8-bb00-263289d9bf05" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="https://4293187824-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2Fyn0qJKdoNp6M4xqrQfMG%2Fuploads%2FvZaf47FJpK1GdMq2cr04%2Fopportunity-state-reasons%5Csettings2.png?alt=media&#x26;token=230eeb61-1903-4012-baad-43a88a8714fa" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

&#x20;There are three reasons why you should consider customising the State Reasons for your business.

### Consistency

If you create a list of valid reasons why an Opportunity is Won or Lost it will provide consistent data.&#x20;

### Valuable knowledge

You gain important visibility into the reasons why you win or lose Opportunities. You can use this data to help make decisions about your services.&#x20;

For example, if you are losing Opportunities based on price, then it might be a good exercise to look at your pricing structure vs. your competitor's pricing structure.

### Searching

Once you have collected state reasons for your Opportunities, you can easily create smart lists to bring up the Opportunities related to specific reasons.

<figure><img src="https://4293187824-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2Fyn0qJKdoNp6M4xqrQfMG%2Fuploads%2F7NJnKHY9Ss4oWYwWFTef%2Fopportunity-state-reasons%5Csmart-list.png?alt=media&#x26;token=96719cae-1932-43e3-9627-7bea68717fa3" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>