What do you do with Closed/Finished/Expired/Old Pipelines?

Josh Monifi
Josh Monifi Member Posts: 116 VERIFIED MEMBER
Fourth Anniversary 100 Up Votes 10 Comments 5 Likes
edited July 2022 in Sales CRM #1

At our company, some of our Pipelines are used for recruitment into programs. Our teams recruit folks via Deals, and once enough companies have been recruited, the effort stops, Deals are marked as Won or Lost, and the Pipeline goes out of use. Since all Deals are marked as W/L, the Pipelines are empty (in Pipeline view). 

So... what should we now do with these Pipelines? We have moved them to the bottom of the Pipeline list so they aren't in the way. And we don't want to delete them because we still want to run list View filter reports on these groups of Deals. 

What do YOU do with your old Pipelines? What is Pipedrive best practice here? Thanks!

Comments

  • Brad Krause_13404
    Brad Krause_13404 Member Posts: 367 VERIFIED MEMBER
    100 Comments 5 Up Votes
    edited February 2022 #2

    Don't think we would set them up to be temporary in the first place. If you want the data associated with them you will need to keep them around. Rather than use a separate pipeline for those "recruitments" I would suggest using a custom deal details field and keeping them in the same pipeline.

    The only time you should be creating a separate pipeline IMO is when the stages absolutely must be different or if you are using the pipeline for a completely different purpose such as tracking and communicating service issues in production. 

    Do everything you can to keep all sales efforts consolidated into a single pipeline. 

    Use a custom deal details field that would allow for sorting. 

    You could possible create that custom deal details field now, batch update the deals, then consolidate those deals to a single pipeline even though they are all won or lost. 

     

    @Josh Monifi 

     

     

  • Josh Monifi
    Josh Monifi Member Posts: 116 VERIFIED MEMBER
    Fourth Anniversary 100 Up Votes 10 Comments 5 Likes
    edited June 2021 #3

    Don't think we would set them up to be temporary in the first place. If you want the data associated with them you will need to keep them around. Rather than use a separate pipeline for those "recruitments" I would suggest using a custom deal details field and keeping them in the same pipeline.

    The only time you should be creating a separate pipeline IMO is when the stages absolutely must be different or if you are using the pipeline for a completely different purpose such as tracking and communicating service issues in production. 

    Do everything you can to keep all sales efforts consolidated into a single pipeline. 

    Use a custom deal details field that would allow for sorting. 

    You could possible create that custom deal details field now, batch update the deals, then consolidate those deals to a single pipeline even though they are all won or lost. 

     

    @Josh Monifi 

     

     

    Hi @Brad Krause , thanks for your suggestions!

    Actually, most of our Pipelines need to be separate for the reasons you mentioned, and some others. Yes, each Pipeline has its own stages, due to different processes outlined by our clients. Furthermore, each Pipeline is used by completely different teams, so our Users would be continually confused if hundreds of unknown Deals were in their Pipelines. 

    For our ongoing, non-temporary Pipelines, such as Corporate sales, we effectively use Deal tags and other filters to sort Deals. It works well, but that Pipeline never closes! Each of these specialized, temporary Pipelines are so different and unique!

    And yes, it does sound like we shouldn't delete these Pipelines! :)

  • Edie Mew
    Edie Mew Member Posts: 174 VERIFIED MEMBER
    Third Anniversary 100 Comments 25 Up Votes 25 Likes
    edited July 2021 #4

    Don't think we would set them up to be temporary in the first place. If you want the data associated with them you will need to keep them around. Rather than use a separate pipeline for those "recruitments" I would suggest using a custom deal details field and keeping them in the same pipeline.

    The only time you should be creating a separate pipeline IMO is when the stages absolutely must be different or if you are using the pipeline for a completely different purpose such as tracking and communicating service issues in production. 

    Do everything you can to keep all sales efforts consolidated into a single pipeline. 

    Use a custom deal details field that would allow for sorting. 

    You could possible create that custom deal details field now, batch update the deals, then consolidate those deals to a single pipeline even though they are all won or lost. 

     

    @Josh Monifi 

     

     

    Hi @Josh Monifi 

    We have a client who has a similar Pipedrive use case, they use Pipelines for each project they run. The reason they do this is that they need to associate one Pipeline per project otherwise they aren't able to track their end monetary goal. 

    We were looking to understand if Pipelines can be archived, categorised or even sent to a reporting dashboard so they aren't visible in the dropdown. At this time my only possible solution would be to name the old unused Pipelines with a code so that the team can quickly identify whats old and new. 

    I agree, if Pipelines can be archived it would be help a great deal :) 

  • Brad Krause_13404
    Brad Krause_13404 Member Posts: 367 VERIFIED MEMBER
    100 Comments 5 Up Votes
    edited July 2021 #5

    Don't think we would set them up to be temporary in the first place. If you want the data associated with them you will need to keep them around. Rather than use a separate pipeline for those "recruitments" I would suggest using a custom deal details field and keeping them in the same pipeline.

    The only time you should be creating a separate pipeline IMO is when the stages absolutely must be different or if you are using the pipeline for a completely different purpose such as tracking and communicating service issues in production. 

    Do everything you can to keep all sales efforts consolidated into a single pipeline. 

    Use a custom deal details field that would allow for sorting. 

    You could possible create that custom deal details field now, batch update the deals, then consolidate those deals to a single pipeline even though they are all won or lost. 

     

    @Josh Monifi 

     

     

    If they are using the same stages for each pipeline and only using new pipelines to track end monetary goal for each project why don't they just use a custom deal details field to define the project the deal belongs to rather than create an entirely new pipeline? I'm assuming the stages are the same since you stated the reason was simply to track their end monetary goal. 

  • Scott Kay
    Scott Kay Member Posts: 6 VERIFIED MEMBER
    Third Anniversary First Comment Photogenic
    edited June 2022 #6

    Hi

    I stumbled across this as I have/had the same issue. I did a 3min loom video explaining my answer and showing it.
    I would:

    1. Either Rename or Add Custom Field into your "Old" pipelines
    2. Create a New "Holding" Pipeline where these Persons/Organisations could be re-picked up again if needed in the future (or you keep the future history).
    You May consider creating "Stages" - but also considering that the default for Pipedrive is the Left most stage - so Maybe this is the default (even though usually these deals would have worked through to various stages).
    3. Consider using Bulk Select via List or the Workflow/Automation tool - e.g. If Deal in this Pipeline then give it this custom tag name.  
    Then either:

    4a. Bulk move the deals from old Pipelines into an appropriate deal in the New Holding Pipeline (e.g. Agreed to Receive Newsletter, Contact in 2 years, Unhappy (or whatever), then Delete pipeline (and you could move the existing deals into a default stage of holding pipeline or even delete them).

    4b. Delete the old Pipeline - then move all deals into a custom stage of your "Holding" Pipeline.

    3min loom with this answer

    below that is 1min loom just showing how to go to delete the pipeline and what happens

    https://www.loom.com/share/add24ee6e7f14b4da35479e8e71283b4https://www.loom.com/share/afce4e05dd884405b9efc6c01e213eb1

     

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