How to Customize Your Sales Pipeline

No two businesses follow the same sales process. Yet, many teams struggle with rigid, one-size-fits-all pipelines that don’t align with how they track and close deals.

• Leads slip through the cracks due to poor follow-up tracking
• Sales reps waste time on unqualified prospects instead of focusing on high-value deals
• Managers can’t get accurate sales forecasts because pipeline stages don’t reflect real deal progress

A customized sales pipeline solves these problems—helping you track opportunities, prioritize deals, and automate follow-ups in a way that fits your workflow.

With BIGContacts, you can fully customize your pipeline to match your sales stages, products, and commission structures. This guide will show you how to build a pipeline that works for your team—so you can focus on closing deals instead of managing data.

Step 1: Access the Sales Pipeline Settings

To customize your pipeline, follow any of these steps:

Go to Admin > Manage Modules > Customize Pipeline

Click the gear icon in the top-right corner and select Customize Pipeline

Go to Sales Pipeline in the left sidebar and click Customize

This opens the settings where you can adjust your sales stages, products, commission splits, and more.

Step 2: Customize Your Sales Stages

Your sales pipeline stages represent the key steps a deal goes through from lead to closure. Before setting them up in BIGContacts, it’s best to map out your process on paper to ensure accuracy.

1. Identify your key sales stages – For example:

   • Initial Contact
   • Qualification
   • Proposal Sent
   • Negotiation
   • Closed Won / Closed Lost

2. Define confidence levels – This is the likelihood that an opportunity at a given stage will close.
   Example: If 3 out of 10 deals typically close at the "Proposal Sent" stage, set confidence at 30%.

3. Set your sales cycle – Enter the average number of days it takes for a deal at that stage to close.
   Example: If deals in the "Negotiation" stage take an average of 30 days to close, enter 30 days.

Why This Matters

• Helps forecast revenue based on deal stages.
• Allows sales reps to focus on high-probability opportunities.
• Improves pipeline organization by defining clear progress steps.

Step 3: Automate Tasks & Emails for Sales Stages

Automate Sales Follow-Ups

To prevent missed opportunities, you can set up automated tasks that remind sales reps to take action.
For example:

• Set reminders to follow up after a demo.
• Automatically assign a rep to re-engage cold leads after a set number of days.

Use Drip Marketing to Nurture Leads

You can also automate emails to stay top of mind with prospects.
For example:

• Send a thank-you email after a meeting.
• Trigger a follow-up email sequence if a deal is stalled.

Why This Matters:

Automating these actions ensures that no opportunity is forgotten, reducing manual work and increasing conversions.

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Step 4: Add & Manage Products in Your Pipeline

In BIGContacts, you can track sales opportunities at both the deal level and product level.

Adding Products & Services

1. Navigate to the Customize Pipeline section.
2. Add product categories (e.g., Software, Consulting, Hardware).
3. Assign specific products/services to each category.

Setting Default Pricing & Commissions

• Enter a default price for each product/service (editable per deal).
• Assign commission rates for upfront and recurring payments.

Note:

• If you don’t track commissions, set 100% in the "Upfront Commission Rate" field.
• If you track recurring commissions, set start dates and frequency.

Step 5: Set Up Commission Splits (Optional)

If multiple team members work on a deal, you can split commissions accordingly.

Use Cases for Commission Splits:

1. Shared Opportunities – If two reps collaborate on a deal, you can divide the commission.
2. Lead Transfers – If a rep passes a lead to another team member, commissions can be shared based on contribution.

To set this up:

1. Navigate to Commission Splits under the Customize Pipeline section.
2. Assign team members and split percentage.
3. Save and apply to relevant deals.

Finalizing Your Sales Pipeline Setup

Now that your sales pipeline is customized, you can start adding opportunities, tracking deals, and automating follow-ups.

Next Steps:

• Add Your First Opportunity – Learn how to create and manage deals in your pipeline.
• Use Sales Reports – Analyze pipeline performance and optimize for better results.
   

If you need further assistance, feel free to reach out to BIGContacts support.