Set up your leads pipeline

This guide takes you through setting up Leads for your business, from planning your stages to switching on proposal automation. It takes about 15 minutes, and you can change anything later.

Why it helps

• Stages that match how you really win work make the board and Insights meaningful.

• Clear stage types mean OnboardMe can work out win rates, closed dates and stale leads for you.

• Consistent sources and lost reasons show you where good work comes from and why you lose it.

• With proposal automation on, the pipeline mostly keeps itself up to date.

Note: You need to be an Owner or Admin to change statuses, sources, lost reasons and proposal automation. Everyone can add leads and log activity.

Step 1: Plan your stages

Before you change anything, write down the steps a typical lead goes through, from first contact to signing. Each step becomes a status. Then decide each one's stage type:

Here's an example for an accounting practice:

Tip: Keep stages for where the lead is up to, and use the Rating field (Hot, Warm, Cold) for how likely they are to sign. Mixing the two makes the pipeline harder to read.

Step 2: Set up your statuses

OnboardMe starts every business with these Standard statuses:

To change them:

1. On the Leads tab, click Manage options. The Statuses tab opens.

2. To add a step, click Add status, enter a Name, choose the Stage type and click Save.

3. To change one, click Edit. You can change the Display label (what your team sees), the Stage type and whether it's Inactive.

4. Drag rows into the order a lead moves through them. The order is used in dropdowns, on the board and in Insights, and it saves straight away.

Things to know:

• Standard names can't be changed, but their labels can. Relabel "Proposal to be Prepared" to "Proposal sent" if that suits you better.

• Inactive stops a status being offered. Leads already in it keep it.

• Remove deletes a status you added. If leads are still in it, it's hidden instead, so you don't lose anything.

• Restore resets a standard status to its original label, order and stage type.

• Changing a status's stage type updates the leads already in it. Changing to Won or Lost gives them a closed date, and changing back to Open clears it.

Important: You need at least one Won status. It's where leads go when they accept a proposal.

Step 3: Set up your sources

The Sources tab lists where leads come from. The standard sources are Website, Referral, Telephone, Social Media, Email Campaign, Partner and Other.

Add your own the same way as statuses, for example "Google Ads", "Bank referral" or "Seminar", and drag them into order.

Leads that arrive through a link get their source automatically:

If a lead arrives with a source you haven't set up, OnboardMe adds it as an inactive source, so the lead still shows it. Make it active from the Sources tab if you want your team to use it too.

Step 4: Set up lost reasons

The Lost reasons tab holds the reasons your team picks when a lead is lost. The standard reasons are Price, Chose another firm, No response, Not a good fit, Not a real lead, Not now / timing and Other.

Keep the list short so it's quick to pick from. Five to eight reasons is plenty. Add, edit and reorder them like statuses.

Step 5: Decide who owns leads

Every lead can have an Owner: the person responsible for following it up. Owners are any active staff member in your business.

• Set the owner when you add a lead, or later in the lead's Pipeline section.

• Change it straight from the Owner column on the Leads table.

• Use the Owner filter (including Unassigned) to see who's looking after what.

Owners also drive Insights: non-admin staff see the leads they own, and the team table groups leads by owner.

Step 6: Bring leads in

Leads can come from:

• New Lead on the Leads tab, for leads you add yourself.

• Import Leads, to load a spreadsheet of existing leads.

• Lead form links, from Templates > External Links. Put the link on your website and every enquiry arrives as a lead, with a team member notified.

• Proposal and form links, which create a lead when someone new submits them.

• Zapier and the OnboardMe API, from your other systems.

Step 7: Turn on proposal automation

Proposal automation moves leads along your pipeline when their proposal is sent, opened, declined or cancelled. Accepted proposals always move leads to Won.

1. In Manage options, go to Proposal automation.

2. Turn on Move leads when proposals are sent, opened, declined or cancelled.

3. Click Use suggested, then check each stage. For the example pipeline above, you'd choose "Proposal sent" for When a proposal is sent, "Proposal opened" for When the client opens it, and "Lost" with a reason for When the client declines it.

4. Click Save.

For the full rules, see Move leads automatically with proposals.

Step 8: Agree how your team works leads

The tools work best when everyone uses them the same way. A simple routine:

• Log every call, meeting and email against the lead. It keeps Last contacted accurate. See Log activity and tasks.

• Make sure every open lead has a next step (a task with a due date).

• Start each day on Follow-ups, beginning with Overdue. See Follow-ups and task reminders.

• When a lead is lost, pick a reason.

• Review Leads Insights each week or month.

Your set-up checklist

• Stages listed in the order leads move through them

• Every stage has the right stage type, with at least one Won and one Lost

• Hot, Warm and Cold made inactive if you're using Rating instead

• Sources match how your leads really arrive

• A short list of lost reasons

• Owners set on your open leads

• A Lead form link on your website

• Proposal automation switched on and checked