Lead Pipeline (Pilot)
Lead Pipeline helps your office capture inbound prospects, qualify them through a simple sales process, and convert good opportunities into customer records when they are ready for regular work.
Pilot availability: Existing pilot accounts can keep using Lead Pipeline. New installs and re-enables are paused.
When to use this
Use Lead Pipeline when your team wants a separate place for prospects who are not customers yet. It is useful for:
- Website, phone, referral, walk-in, social, Google Ads, Yelp, and other inbound requests.
- Estimating pipeline value before a prospect becomes a customer.
- Moving leads through New, Contacted, Qualified, Quoted, Won, and Lost stages.
- Tracking source details so you can see which marketing channels bring in qualified work.
- Converting a qualified lead into a customer without retyping the contact details.
Lead Pipeline is best for early sales follow-up. Once the person or business becomes an active customer, continue the work from the customer, estimate, quote, job, and invoice areas.
Before you start
- Confirm your account already has Lead Pipeline enabled. New installs and re-enables are paused during the pilot.
- Make sure Customers is available, because converted leads become customer records.
- Decide who should create, update, convert, or delete leads.
- Agree on a short list of source-detail conventions, such as campaign names, referral partners, or search terms.
Review the pipeline
Open Lead Pipeline from the main navigation after the plugin is enabled. The page summarizes:
- Open Leads — leads that have not been won or lost.
- Pipeline Value — estimated value for open leads.
- Win Rate — the percentage of leads marked won.
- Per-stage counts for New, Contacted, Qualified, Quoted, Won, and Lost.
Use the stage tabs to narrow the table when you are working only new inquiries, following up on quoted work, or reviewing lost opportunities.
Capture a new lead
- Open Lead Pipeline.
- Select New Lead.
- Enter the lead's name.
- Add email, phone, and address when you have them. The address fields use structured entry — start typing and Google Places autocomplete will suggest the full address, filling in street, city, state, and postal code automatically.
- Choose the source, such as Website, Phone, Referral, WalkIn, SocialMedia, GoogleAds, Yelp, or Other.
- Add an estimated value if the office can reasonably size the opportunity.
- Use Source Detail for the campaign, referral partner, or search phrase that created the lead.
- Add notes with the first request, urgency, equipment details, or follow-up promise.
- Select Create Lead.
New leads start in the New stage. Keep the first note short and practical so another office user can pick up the conversation without hunting through calls or emails.
Work the stages
Use the table actions to keep each lead's status honest:
- Mark a New lead as Contacted after the first real follow-up.
- Convert a Contacted, Qualified, or Quoted lead when the prospect should become a customer.
- Mark a lead Lost when the office decides not to continue or the prospect chooses another provider. Add a reason when it helps future review.
- Delete only test or duplicate records. For normal history, prefer a truthful won/lost outcome.
If your team uses Quotes alongside Leads, keep lead names and contact details consistent so office staff can match the opportunity to the right estimate or quote. When a linked quote is accepted, ToolbagCRM can move that lead forward automatically.
Convert a lead to a customer
Convert the lead after the prospect is qualified enough to belong in your customer list.
- Find the lead in Contacted, Qualified, or Quoted.
- Select Convert.
- Confirm that you want to create the customer record.
- Open Customers and continue setup from the new customer profile.
ToolbagCRM carries over the lead name, email, phone, address, and notes to the customer record. Conversion also marks the lead Won and locks that customer link: repeating the conversion returns the same customer instead of creating a duplicate, and the converted lead cannot move back to another stage or link to a different quote. Review the customer fields after conversion, especially if the original lead was created quickly from a phone call.
Tips
- Keep source names consistent so marketing reports are easier to compare.
- Add enough notes for handoff, but avoid turning the lead into a full job file before it is qualified.
- Review new and contacted leads daily so website and referral inquiries do not go cold.
- Mark poor-fit leads as lost with a short reason; those patterns can help tune pricing, service areas, or advertising.
- Convert only once the prospect should be managed as a customer.
Troubleshooting
A lead is missing from the table
Check the selected stage tab first. A lead marked Lost or Won will not be counted as open, and a filtered tab only shows matching stages.
The pipeline value looks wrong
Review estimated values on open leads. Closed won/lost leads do not behave like open pipeline, and missing estimated values show as blank in the table.
A converted customer needs cleanup
Open the customer record after conversion and confirm the name, phone, email, address, and notes. Update the customer profile there rather than creating another lead.