# Sales Pipeline ## What Are Deals? Deals in DM Champ let you track sales opportunities as they move from first contact to closed sale. Each deal represents a potential sale or business outcome tied to a specific contact. By organizing deals into stages, you get a clear picture of where every opportunity stands and what needs your attention next. **Why use a sales pipeline?** Without one, it is easy to lose track of who you talked to, what you offered, and which leads need follow-up. A pipeline gives you a visual overview of your entire sales process so nothing falls through the cracks. **Example:** Imagine you run a marketing agency. You are chatting with 30 potential clients across WhatsApp and Instagram. Some are brand new leads, some received a proposal last week, and some are ready to sign. Without a pipeline, you would need to remember all of that in your head. With deals, you can see at a glance that you have 10 new leads, 8 with proposals out, and 3 ready to close - and you know exactly where to focus your energy. *** ## Setting Up Your Pipeline Stages Unlike rigid systems with fixed stages, DM Champ lets you create your own pipeline stages that match your exact sales process. You decide what stages to use, what order they appear in, and what colors to assign them. ### How to Configure Pipeline Stages 1. Click **Deals** in the left sidebar. 2. Click the **settings/configure icon** at the top of the Deals page to open the **Pipeline Stages** modal. 3. From here you can: * **Add a new stage** - Click the add button, give the stage a name, pick a color, and set its position in the pipeline. * **Edit an existing stage** - Change the name, color, or position of any stage. * **Reorder stages** - Drag stages up or down to change the order they appear on your board. * **Delete a stage** - Remove a stage you no longer need. 4. Click **Save** when you are done. **If you have no stages configured yet,** the Deals page will show an empty state prompting you to set up your pipeline stages before you can start creating deals. ### What Each Stage Has | Property | What It Does | | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Name** | The label shown on the Kanban column (for example, "New Lead," "Proposal Sent," "Closed Won"). | | **Color** | A visual color for the stage column, making it easy to tell stages apart at a glance. | | **Position** | The order of the stage in your pipeline, from left (earliest) to right (latest). | | **Trigger Tag** | An optional tag that automates deal creation and movement (see "Tag-Based Automation" below). | | **Default Value** | The monetary value automatically assigned to any deal that is created by a tag trigger for this stage. For example, if you set a default value of $1,000 on your "Qualified" stage, every deal auto-created in that stage starts at $1,000. | ### Example Pipelines **Marketing agency:** New Lead > Discovery Call > Proposal Sent > Negotiation > Won > Lost **E-commerce store:** Inquiry > Quote Sent > Awaiting Payment > Paid > Fulfilled **Real estate:** New Inquiry > Viewing Scheduled > Offer Made > Under Contract > Closed **Consulting firm:** Initial Contact > Needs Assessment > Proposal > Contract Review > Engaged You are not limited to these examples. Create whatever stages make sense for your business. *** ## Creating Deals To create a new deal: 1. Click **Deals** in the left sidebar. 2. Click the **New Deal** button (or the "+" button). 3. Fill in the deal details: * **Title** - A descriptive name for the opportunity (for example, "Website Redesign - Acme Corp" or "Monthly Retainer - Sarah's Bakery"). * **Description** - A summary of the deal and what it involves. * **Value** - The estimated monetary value of the deal (for example, $5,000). This helps you forecast revenue. * **Probability (%)** - How likely this deal is to close, from 0 to 100 percent. * **Stage** - The current stage of the deal in your pipeline. * **Priority** - The priority level of the deal (e.g., Low, Medium, High). * **Contact** - Select the contact this deal is associated with. * **Company** - The company or organization the deal is tied to. * **Source** - Where the deal originated (e.g., website, referral, campaign). * **Notes** - Any additional notes or context about the deal. 4. Click **Save**. You can also create deals directly from a contact's profile or from within a chat conversation - so you can turn a conversation into a tracked opportunity without leaving the chat. **Tip:** Create a deal as soon as a conversation turns into a real sales opportunity. The earlier you start tracking, the less likely you are to forget important follow-ups. *** ## Associating Deals with Contacts Every deal is linked to a contact in DM Champ. This connection gives you powerful context: * **See all deals for a contact** - When you open a contact's profile, you can see every deal associated with them, including past won and lost deals. * **Full conversation history** - Chat history and communication context are available right alongside deal details, so you never lose track of what was discussed. * **Smarter AI responses** - When your AI bot interacts with a contact, it can be aware of the deal stage and tailor responses accordingly. To associate a deal with a contact, simply select the contact when creating or editing the deal. *** ## Pipeline Management The pipeline view gives you a visual overview of all your active deals: * **Kanban-style board** - Deals are displayed as cards organized by stage in columns. Each column corresponds to one of your custom pipeline stages, from left to right in the order you defined. You can see your entire pipeline at a glance. * **Drag and drop** - Move deals between stages by dragging them from one column to another. For example, drag a deal from "Proposal Sent" to "Negotiation" when the client starts discussing terms. * **Quick filters** - Filter deals by value, contact, or date to find specific opportunities. * **Search** - Search for deals by name or contact to quickly locate specific opportunities. * **Summary stats** - See totals for each stage and your overall pipeline value. For example: "You have $25,000 in proposals out and $10,000 in negotiation." **Why this view matters:** The pipeline board helps you spot bottlenecks at a glance. If you see 15 deals stuck in "Proposal Sent" and none moving to "Negotiation," you know it is time to follow up on those proposals. If your first stage column is empty, you know you need to generate more leads. *** ## Moving Deals Through Stages As a deal progresses, update its stage to keep your pipeline accurate: 1. **From the pipeline view** - Drag the deal card to the next stage column. This is the quickest way. 2. **From the deal detail** - Open the deal and change the stage from the dropdown menu. 3. **From the contact profile** - View the contact's deals and update the stage inline. 4. **Automatically via tags** - Assign a trigger tag to a contact and the deal moves to the corresponding stage automatically (see below). Each stage change is tracked with a timestamp, giving you a complete history of how the deal progressed over time. This is valuable for understanding your average sales cycle and improving your process. *** ## Tag-Based Automation One of the most powerful features of the deals system is tag-based automation. Each pipeline stage can have a **trigger tag** assigned to it. When that tag is added to a contact - whether by the AI bot, a webhook, or manually - DM Champ automatically: 1. **Creates a new deal** for that contact in the triggered stage, or 2. **Moves an existing deal** to that stage if the contact already has a deal in your pipeline. ### Setting Up Tag Triggers 1. Go to **Deals** in the left sidebar. 2. Click the **settings/configure icon** to open **Pipeline Stages**. 3. For each stage, you will see a **Trigger tag** dropdown. Select the tag that should trigger deal creation or movement for that stage. 4. Optionally, set a **Default value** for the stage - this value will be assigned to any deal that is auto-created by the tag trigger. 5. Click **Save**. **Example:** You have a campaign where your AI bot tags contacts as "interested" when they ask about pricing. You assign the "interested" tag as the trigger for your "Qualified" stage with a default value of $1,000. Now, every time the bot tags a contact as "interested," a deal worth $1,000 is automatically created in the "Qualified" column of your pipeline - no manual work needed. ### What Happens When Multiple Tags Are Added If a contact receives multiple tags at once that match different pipeline stages, DM Champ places the deal in the most advanced stage (the one furthest along in your pipeline). This prevents deals from being created in an earlier stage when a later stage is already relevant. ### Combining Tag Triggers with AI Bot Tags This feature works perfectly with the AI bot's automatic tagging (set up in your campaign's tag settings). A typical workflow looks like this: 1. **Set up campaign tags** with descriptions that tell the bot when to apply them (for example, tag "booked" with description "Contact has confirmed an appointment"). 2. **Assign those tags as triggers** on the appropriate pipeline stages. 3. **The bot handles the rest** - as it converses with contacts, it applies tags based on the conversation, and deals are created and moved through your pipeline automatically. *** ## A Sales Scenario: Putting It All Together Here is how deals work in practice for a web design agency using DM Champ. In this example, the agency has set up custom pipeline stages: **New Lead > Discovery Call > Proposal Sent > Negotiation > Won > Lost**, with trigger tags on each stage. 1. **Monday:** A new lead named Maria messages you on WhatsApp asking about website design. The AI bot tags her as "new-lead," and a deal called "Website Redesign - Maria's Restaurant" is automatically created in the **New Lead** stage with a default value of $3,000. 2. **Tuesday:** You have a WhatsApp conversation about her needs and budget. You drag the deal to **Discovery Call**, or the bot tags her as "discovery-scheduled" and the deal moves automatically. 3. **Wednesday:** After confirming Maria has the budget and timeline, you send her a proposal. You move the deal to **Proposal Sent** and update the value to $3,500 based on the scope discussed. 4. **Next Monday:** Maria replies saying she loves the proposal but asks about a payment plan. You move the deal to **Negotiation**. 5. **Next Wednesday:** Maria agrees to the payment plan and confirms the project. You move the deal to **Won**! Throughout this process, every WhatsApp conversation is linked to the deal, so anyone on your team can open the deal and see the full context of what was discussed. And because you set up trigger tags, much of the stage movement happened automatically based on the AI bot's conversation with Maria. *** ## Best Practices * **Design stages that match your real process.** Do not copy a generic pipeline. Think about the actual steps a deal goes through in your business and create stages for each one. * **Use trigger tags for automation.** The more you automate with tag triggers, the less manual work you need to do. Let the AI bot move deals through your pipeline as conversations progress. * **Keep deals updated** - Review your pipeline regularly (at least weekly) and update deal stages. Stale deals can make your pipeline look healthier than it actually is. * **Add notes** - Document important conversations, decisions, and next steps on each deal. This is especially valuable if multiple team members work on the same accounts. * **Use realistic deal values** - Assign honest monetary values to deals so your pipeline totals are meaningful. Inflated values lead to inaccurate forecasts. * **Review lost deals** - Periodically look at deals you have lost to identify patterns. Are you losing deals at the proposal stage? Maybe your pricing needs adjustment. Are leads going cold after first contact? Maybe your follow-up timing needs work. * **Combine with campaigns** - Use DM Champ campaigns to automate follow-ups with contacts who have active deals. For example, set up a follow-up sequence for contacts in a proposal stage who have not responded in 3 days. * **Track your win rate** - Over time, compare the number of won deals to total deals to understand your conversion rate. This helps you set realistic targets and identify where to improve. *** ## Need Help? If you have questions about the deals feature or sales pipeline, reach out via our [help form](https://dmchamp.com/help).