New user - CRM + task management + notes

Mike Patterson_79561

Hi everyone, 

I am new to a company that is a client of pipedrive, but haven't really used it yet (that's my job). I am trying to figure out a few things. Any advice and guidance would be appreciated! 

1. Pipedrive as a CRM: our deals (our own projects or partnerships with counter-parties) broadly follow: inbound lead -> dead or some amount of follow-up -> lots more follow-up -> 'won', but then live in perpetuity as something we would want to monitor and update for years following, including potential further actionable tasks relating to the 'won' deal as well as regular notes tagged to the deal.
2. Task management: expanding here, we have many inbounds that need some amount of task management (simple tasks for reminders for follow-up calls, emails, or actionable tasks).
   1. Ex. Inbound new project (internal or external) requires me to do some analysis, reach out to a lawyer, speak to some folks internally, etc. 

The two other systems we use exclusively are G suite and Slack.

Currently, I am trying to keep track of all of my tasks in a Google Keep note, but this is amateur level and messy and not the best for collaborative task tracking.

Would love to hear what solutions others have come up with in similar situations.

Thanks!

Mike

Liz (Ops Designed)

Hi @Mike Patterson - welcome to the Pipedrive fam!

1. Sounds like you need a broad pipeline for handling this. As far as stages, you probably want something like "New Lead" --> "Contacted" --> (possibly, something like) "2 Months Old" --> Client
   • The deal can be marked as won in "Contacted" or "2 Months Old" and moved to the Client stage OR the deal can just be moved to "Client" as a proxy for "won". The tradeoff here is around UI and what makes the most sense for the team.
2. You can automate activity creation on deals either using the Pipedrive Workflow automation OR in a more robust way using a tool like Zapier. For example, if every time a new lead comes in 3 tasks need to happen, you can automatically create those activities assigned to the appropriate user and then users can use the "Activities" or "Calendar" view to review and complete highest priority work day-over-day. Using Pipedrive to track activities (planned and completed) builds the habit also for keeping all notes in Pipedrive and even sending emails through Pipedrive (if appropriate) so that other users can peek in on the conversation if and as needed.

If you'd like to chat more, I'd be happy to give you a deeper crash course https://www.opsdesigned.com/services/pipedrive-strategy-session