Pipelines

A pipeline in Drop Cowboy® is a board of stages, and each card on it is a contact you're working as a deal. Every stage is also a contact list, so you can dial, text or run a campaign on a stage like any other list.

Set up a pipeline

1. Open Pipelines in the left menu.
2. Click New Pipeline. A pipeline called "New Pipeline" opens. Click its name at the top to rename it.
3. Add your first stage. Click New Stage, enter a Stage Name, and click Create. This also creates a contact list with that name.
4. To use a list you already have as a stage, click Add Existing List as Stage and pick it.
5. Repeat for each stage, from first contact to closed. A pipeline can hold up to 32 stages.
6. Drag a stage's column to reorder it. You can also open the stage's menu and use Move Left, Move Right, Move to Front or Move to End.

To switch pipelines, use the Pipelines picker at the top. To choose who sees a pipeline, open the menu next to New Pipeline. Under Set Visibility, pick All, Just Me or one team. Delete Pipeline is in the same menu.

In a stage's menu, Remove Stage from Pipeline takes the stage off the board but keeps the list and its contacts. Delete List deletes the list itself.

If you don't see Pipelines or New Pipeline, ask your account owner for access.

Add deals to a stage

1. Open Pipelines in the left menu and pick the pipeline.
2. Open the menu on the stage. Click Add New Contact to create someone, or Add Existing Contact and start typing a name.
3. To bring in many people at once, click Import Contacts (CSV). See Import contacts.
4. To give a deal a value, click + value on its card. Type the amount and press Enter.

Each card shows the contact's name, its value, and how many days it has been in the stage. The stage header shows the number of deals and their total value.

Move a deal to another stage

1. Open Pipelines in the left menu and pick the pipeline.
2. Drag the card onto another stage's column.
3. While you drag, a bar appears at the bottom of the board:
   • Drop on WON to move the deal to your won stage.
   • Drop on LOST to move it to your lost stage. Lost Reason asks why. Type a reason and click Save Reason, or click Skip. The reason is saved as a tag on the contact, such as "lost: price".
   • Drop on MOVE TO... to pick any stage from a list.

You can also open a card's menu and click Move Left, Move Right, Move to List or Copy to List. Remove from List takes the contact out of the stage.

To move several at once, tick the cards in a stage. Open Actions and click Move to List, Add to List, Add Tag or Remove from Stage.

If it doesn't work:

• WON or LOST is grayed out. No stage is marked as won or lost yet. Change the stage settings and set a Stage type.
• "The contact is already in the list." The contact is already in that stage. Pick another stage.
• "We were unable to move the contact. Try again later." Refresh the page and drag the card again.

Change stage settings

1. Open Pipelines in the left menu and pick the pipeline.
2. Click the gear on a stage, or open its menu and click Stage Settings.
3. Edit Stage name if needed. This renames the contact list too.
4. Tick Set a win probability and drag the slider to the chance a deal in this stage closes. The weighted forecast counts each deal at this share of its value.
5. Under Stage type, pick Open, Won or Lost. The won and lost stages power the bar you drop cards on.
6. In Flag deals as stale after, enter a number of days in stage. Stale deals get a red border. Leave it empty to turn it off.
7. Click Save Stage.

See pipeline value and forecast

The strip at the top of a pipeline shows Pipeline Value, Weighted Forecast, Open Deals, Closing This Month and Won This Month.

1. Open Pipelines in the left menu and pick the pipeline.
2. Click Forecast to see deals grouped by the month they're expected to close. Each month shows Total, Weighted and Deals.
3. Click a deal to open it. Click Board to go back.

Deals with no close date sit in No close date and are left out of the monthly totals. Weighted values appear only for stages with a win probability.

On Board, open Filter & Sort to narrow the cards by source, campaign, channel, referrer or Closed By. Turn on Has value to show only deals with a value. Click Clear Filters to reset.

Start an automation from a stage

1. Open Automation in the left menu and build an automation.
2. For the trigger, pick one from the Pipelines group:
   • Entered Pipeline Stage runs when a deal moves into a stage.
   • Exited Pipeline Stage runs when a deal moves out of a stage.
   • Time in List/Stage Reached runs after a deal has sat in a stage for a period you choose in the automation.
   • Stuck in a Pipeline Stage runs when a deal passes the stage's own Flag deals as stale after setting.
3. Add the steps you want, such as a text, an email or a task, and turn the automation on.

Pick Time in List/Stage Reached when you want each automation to set its own wait. Stuck in a Pipeline Stage uses the stage setting, so it stops firing if someone clears that setting.