A 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.
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.
Add a new lead pipeline
The Leads app has one default pipeline. All new leads are added to it. For leads categorization, you can create custom pipelines.
To create a custom lead pipeline, click the + icon next to the name of the last pipeline. Enter a new pipeline name and configure the pipeline’s stages if necessary.
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 stages, open the page of the corresponding pipeline. Make sure the Kanban board view is selected and click the gear icon in the top right corner of the page. Select Pipeline settings.
начало внимание
Only the users included in the Administrators group can configure, add, and remove pipelines.
конец внимание
On the page that opens, you can:
- Edit the name of the stages (statuses) 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 
icon.
Please note that you cannot change or delete the New status. This status is present in all the lead pipelines. When a new lead is added it receives the New status.
Add activities to pipeline stages
On the pipeline settings page, you can configure activities will be automatically performed when the lead is moved from one stage to another. To do that, click the 
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.
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.
You can select several actions within one stage in a pipeline. In that case, they will be performed in the order they were added.
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. Additionally, you can prevent users from 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 activities that manage item statuses to the process and select the current pipeline’s statuses in it.
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.
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 
icon next to the stage’s name.
Delete a pipeline
To delete a lead pipeline, click the 
icon next to the Unallocated page’s name. The recycle bin icon will appear next to each pipeline’s name. Click it to confirm the deletion.
начало внимание
If a pipeline contains leads, it cannot be deleted.
конец внимание
To delete a pipeline, you first need to move all leads to another pipeline. To do this, open a lead’s page. On the sidebar, in the Pipeline section, click Change. Select a pipeline from the drop-down list.
Alternatively, you can use a bulk action on the All page to move several leads to another pipeline. Select the leads whose status you want to change and click the Change status button in the upper right corner. In the window that opens, select the pipeline.
Once all leads are removed from a pipeline, it can be deleted.
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:
- Click the pencil icon next to the Unallocated page’s name.
- Click the gear icon next to the pipeline’s name.
- 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.
Found a typo? Highlight the text, press ctrl + enter and notify us