CRM > Leads / Lead pipeline

Lead pipeline

 

Lead pipeline is a tool that shows how many leads are currently at each qualification stage, who is responsible for them, and what tasks are associated with them.

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On the pipeline’s page, leads are displayed as a Kanban board. Each column represents a certain lead status. When the lead status changes, the item moves accordingly on the Kanban board.

By default, the lead processing has three stages. New leads are added to the New column, then it is moved to the Processing column. If the lead is ready to turn into a deal, it is moved into the Qualified column, while leads that are no longer interested in buying are added to the Unqualified column.  

If needed, you can configure the pipeline to process leads in the way that fits your company’s sales process: change the number of stages, edit their names, and add activities that are performed when the lead’s status changes.

начало внимание

Only the users included in the Administrators  group can configure, add, and remove pipelines.

конец внимание

Add a new lead pipeline

The Leads app has one default pipeline where all new leads are added. For leads categorization, you can create additional custom pipelines.

To create a custom lead pipeline, click the + icon next to the name of the last pipeline. Enter a name for the new pipeline and configure its stages.

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If you’ve added several pipelines, you can change their order. To do that, click the pencil icon next to the Unallocated page name. Then rearrange the pipelines using drag-and-drop.

Set up lead stages

To set up lead processing stages:

  1. Open the page of the corresponding pipeline. Make sure the Kanban board view is selected.
  2. Click the gear icon in the top right corner of the page. Select Pipeline settings.

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  1. At the bottom of the page, you can see how lead statuses are going to be changed:
  • Sales rep changes lead status manually. This option allows sales reps to manually move leads from one stage to another.
    • Leads progress only forward. Forbid moving leads back to previous stages.
  • Leads progress according to a business process. Leads will automatically move from one stage to another within a business process. You can select an existing process or add a new one. Note that this option will only work correctly if you add Manage Status activities to the process and select the current pipeline’s statuses in them.
  1. Change the stages’ settings:

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  • Edit the name of the stages by clicking on them.
  • Rearrange the stages using drag-and-drop.
  • Delete a stage by clicking the recycle bin icon.
  • Add the new stage by clicking the plus_sign icon.
  • Configure actions that will be performed when a lead’s status changes.

Add actions to pipeline stages

Add actions that will be automatically performed when the lead is moved from one stage to another. To do that, click the plus button button under a column’s name.

 

Available actions:

 

  • Start a business process. This setting allows you to select a business process that starts when a lead is moved from one stage to another. For example, you can design a business process for lead processing that will be automatically launched when a lead is moved from the New stage to Processing.
  • Email. This activity allows you to send emails. For example, you can use it to automatically send a commercial proposal to a potential client. This activity is configured in the same way as the Email Notification activity. You can read more about its configuration in the Email Notification article. If an error occurs while sending the notification, for example, if recipient’s address is not found, the employee who changed the lead’s status will receive the corresponding notification.
  • Webhook. By using this option, you can automatically transfer data from ELMA365 to an external system. This activity is configured in the same way as the Webhook activity. You can read more about its configuration in the Webhook article. If the external system returns an error when sending the request, the employee who changed the lead’s status will receive a corresponding notification.
  • SMS. This activity is used to notify customers and employees about any events via SMS. For example, you can configure an automatic notification about actual marketing activities performed by your company. Before configuring this activity, set up an integration with an SMS provider. Read more about this in the Send Message article. If an error occurs while sending the message, for example, if the external provider cannot be accessed, the employee who changed the lead’s status will receive the corresponding notification.
  • Change values. This setting allows you to automatically change the value of any field on the lead page when the lead’s status changes.

For example, let’s say a lead has got the Proposal sent attribute. Its value can be Yes or No. By using the Change values action, you can automatically set the desired value for the attribute when the lead moves to the next stage.

To configure this action, in the left column, select the field that you want to change. In the right column, specify the value to be assigned to this field.

 

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You can select several actions within one stage in a pipeline. In that case, they will be performed in the order they were added.

Customize the lead qualification process

The Lead qualification business process that automatically starts when a lead is assigned the Qualified status is a system prcess. It cannot be modified. However, you can make a copy of the process and customize this copy according to your company’s requirements.

To do this:

  1. Go to Administration > Business processes and select the qualification process from the list.
  2. Click on the three dots icon to the right of the process name and select Create Copy.
  3. In the Parent category field of the window that opens, select the workspace where the business process will be saved.

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  1. Find the copy of the process in the list and edit it according to your needs.

The process can be associated with the Qualified stage of a pipeline. Read more in the Add actions to pipeline stages section.

Delete a pipeline

To delete a created pipeline:

  1. In the Leads app, open the pipeline you want to delete. If there are items in it, move them to another pipeline. Read more in Move a lead to another pipeline.
  2. Next to the Unallocated page name, click the pensil icon.
  3. Next to the pipeline you want to delete, click the recycle bin icon and confirm deletion.

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Final stages of a pipeline

By default, each lead pipeline has two final stages: Qualified and Unqualified. They cannot be deleted.

The Qualified stage has an associated lead qualification business process. When the lead reaches this stage, the employee who changed the lead’s status receives the Fill in qualification data task. The employee can create a deal and a company or only a company if the deal is postponed. Read more about lead qualification in the Manage statuses. Lead qualification article.

If a potential client is no longer interested in buying, the employee can change the lead status to Unqualified, specifying the reason for rejection. You can add custom reasons for rejection to the default list. To do that, in the Pipeline Settings, click + Add reason in the Unqualified final stage column. To delete a reason, click the recycle bin icon next to its name.

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You can hide or show columns with final statuses on the lead pipeline page. For example, leads with the Unqualified status are hidden by default. To show them, click the view_icon icon next to the stage’s name.

 

 

Configure pipeline visibility

You can restrict the visibility of certain pipelines for some groups of users. For example, if your company has several sales teams, you can determine visibility settings for each of them. Each sales team will only see pipelines that it works with.

To configure visibility settings:

  1. Click the pencil icon next to the Unallocated page’s name.
  2. Click the gear icon next to the pipeline’s name.
  3. Specify the system or custom groups and roles created within the CRM workspace or the Leads and Deals apps. Users included in these groups or assigned these roles will have access to the pipeline.

Read more about pipeline visibility in the Access settings for CRM apps article.

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