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Private leads: B2B, subcontracting, teaming and other

ESSENTIALEstimated read: 6 min· Updated 2026-10-08

Private leads: B2B, subcontracting, teaming and other

EssentialBD, Proposal Manager, Manager

Some of the most valuable work never appears in a public feed. A commercial buyer's RFP is filed with nobody. A subcontract is a prime looking for partners on work it has already won. A teaming approach happens before a bid exists at all. Private leads are where your team records that work, so it sits in Discovery beside the public data instead of in a spreadsheet — and is saved and pursued on the pipeline like any other opportunity.

TL;DR — In Find work → Discovery, pick the B2B, Subcontracting, Teaming or Other leads category and choose Add opportunity. Name the work, say who is buying and who the partner is, and add the value, deadline and a link. It is listed under that category for everyone in your workspace, with Save opportunity and Start pursuit on its row.

Before you start

  • Who can add and edit. Business Development Users, Proposal Managers, Managers and Capture Administrators. Everyone with access to Axis Capture can read private leads — they are your own company's work, and colleagues need to see it.
  • Who can remove. Managers and Capture Administrators only. A private lead has no public record behind it; once removed it cannot be found again. A lead that is saved or on the board cannot be removed — see Removing a lead.
  • This is your most confidential data. A private lead is your company's commercial intelligence — who approached you, what a prime is bidding. It is never shared outside your workspace, never compared across workspaces, and its private note never enters the audit trail.

Record a lead

  1. Pick the category

    In Discovery, choose B2B, Subcontracting, Teaming or Other leads. The list shows that kind of lead.

  2. Choose Add opportunity

    The Record an opportunity form opens with the kind already set.

  3. Fill in the work

    At minimum, What is the work. Add the rest as you know it.

  4. Save

    The lead is listed with the rest of its category.

Every field, explained

FieldWhat it doesAccepted values / default
What is the workA name for the work.Required.
Kind of workWhich category it belongs to.B2B, Subcontracting, Teaming or Other. A lead set to *Other* is listed under Other leads.
StatusWhether the work is still live.Open, Closed, Cancelled, Awarded or Withdrawn — the same vocabulary as public solicitations.
Who is buyingThe end customer.Free text.
Prime or partnerWho you would be working with or under.Free text.
DescriptionWhat the work involves.Long text.
NAICS code / StateThe industry code and where the work is.Two-letter state code.
Worth at least / Worth at mostThe value range.The smallest cannot be larger than the largest.
Response deadlineWhen a response is due.On the workspace clock — the form shows the workspace's time zone. Becomes the pursuit's response deadline when the lead is pursued.
LinkWhere the RFP or conversation lives.Must start with http:// or https://.
Private notesWhat your team knows.Readable only in your workspace. Never searchable and never written to the audit trail.

Universal search across the workspace finds a lead by its title and description — never by its private notes.

Saving and pursuing a lead

Business Development Users and above see Save opportunity and Start pursuit on each lead's row, exactly as on a public solicitation.

  • Save opportunity adds the lead to My opportunities, named by its title.
  • Start pursuit puts it on the pipeline at Discovered, named after the lead, with you as owner and the lead's response deadline as the pursuit's — so it appears in What's due, on the workspace calendar and in deadline alerts like any other pursuit. The lead's value range is not copied: set the pursuit's value yourself.
  • The pursuit page's View the lead button, and a saved lead's link, open the lead in Discovery.
  • Starting a pursuit twice opens the same card.

What private leads do and don't do today

  • They are listed, edited and removed in Discovery under their category, and saved and pursued like any other opportunity.
  • They are not scored on Matches, which compares your profile with public solicitations.
  • A saved lead that has not been pursued does not appear in What's due: start a pursuit to have its deadline tracked.
  • Search by meaning is not offered on these categories.

Recording state and local work

The platform does not collect state, local or tribal solicitations yet (see Where the data comes from). Until it does, record state and local opportunities your team learns about as private leads, with the State filled in, and list the states you sell into under State and local government.

Removing a lead

Choose Remove on the row and confirm. Because there is no public record behind a private lead, it is gone from the product entirely. The audit trail keeps a note that it was removed — not what it said.

A lead something points at stays:

  • Saved in My opportunities — remove it from My opportunities first, then remove the lead.
  • On the board — it cannot be removed; it is the pursuit's source. Set its status to Withdrawn or Closed instead.

Common gotchas

  • "My lead disappeared from the list." The list shows open leads by default, and only the kind you picked. Check the status filter, and whether the kind was changed to Other or another category.
  • "I can't find the lead I filed as Other." It is listed under Other leads.
  • "Removing a lead was refused." It is saved or on the board — the message says which. See Removing a lead.
  • "I can't remove a lead." Only Managers and Capture Administrators can.

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