A pipeline board that moves itself
The Leads list answers “what came in”. It does not answer the question you actually have on a Tuesday morning, which is “which of these is about to go quiet on me”.
There is now a board that does. Open Leads in the sidebar and click Pipeline underneath it, or use the Pipeline button at the top of the Leads list.
One column per step of the sale
The board runs left to right: To quote, Quote sent, Quote opened, Tentative, Awaiting signature, Awaiting payment.
You never drag a card. Each lead sits in the column for the furthest step it has actually reached, worked out from what has happened: the quote went out, the client opened it, they accepted it, they signed the agreement, the first payment landed. Accept a quote and sign in one sitting and the card goes straight to Awaiting payment. The board stays right without anyone remembering to update it, which is the part every other pipeline gets wrong.
Once the first payment is recorded, or you set the booking to Confirmed because they paid you outside 1pm, the sale is done and the card comes off the board. So does a lead you mark lost or spam, and one whose booking you cancel.
Two clocks on every card
Each card carries the name, what the booking is worth, the date and pax, the Space, the event type, and two things you cannot get from a list:
- How long it has been in this column, named by what put it there. “Quote sent 12 days ago”. “Quote opened yesterday”.
- When a person here last contacted the client. “You last replied 4 days ago”, or “You haven’t replied yet”. A reply you sent or a call you logged counts. Automated emails do not, so a drip firing can never make a cold lead look warm.
Sit too long and the age line turns amber, with a coloured strip down the left edge of the card. At twice the time it turns red. Each column has its own patience: Quote opened goes amber after 3 days, because a client who has read the quote and gone quiet is usually the call worth making today, while Tentative waits a week. The column heading tells you how many of its cards need chasing, and what the leads in it are worth together.
A planned follow-up silences the clock. Set a day to chase a lead and the card stops counting as overdue until that day arrives. You have a plan for it, so it is not neglect.
Actions on the card
Along the bottom of each card: Open lead, Follow up (Today, Tomorrow, 3 days, 1 week, or type “next thu”), and a ⋯ menu with Hold the date, Open the booking, Mark as lost and Mark as spam. Holding a date from the board runs the same double-booking check as the booking form, so it refuses and names the clash if the Space is taken.
Long columns load 25 at a time, and acting on a card further down does not send you back to the top.
Saved views
Most people ask the same three questions every morning. Who owes me a deposit? Whose agreement is still out? What is held for the ballroom?
Set a stage, a lead type and a Space on the Leads list, then Views, Save these filters as a view, and give it a name. Open a view on the board and it shows only the columns that view asks about, so “Deposit due” is one column of the leads awaiting payment. A view saves the stage, lead type and Spaces, but not a date range or a search, so one saved in March still means the same thing in April.
Your words, not ours
A pencil is not a tentative and a contract is not an agreement, depending on who you ask. Click a column heading on the board and type your own name for that stage, or set them all at once under Account, Profile, Wording. The new name reaches the board, the stage badge on every lead row, the Stage filter and the Views menu, for everyone in your account. It changes the word and nothing else.
Seven stages can be renamed. New, Lost and Spam cannot, because each one is a tab on the Leads list and takes its name from there.
The leads pipeline covers the whole board, including exactly what puts a lead in each column.