How to Use Contact Fields and Custom Views to Build Your Own Lead Pipeline

This article explains how to leverage contact fields and Custom views to create a personalized lead pipeline, enabling you to efficiently track and guide investors through each stage of the funnel until they become active investors.

Customize your CRM by creating a contact field called "Lead Status" and set it up as a dropdown with your preferred deal pipeline stages. The Most Common stages include:

• Initial Contact / Engaged Lead

  • You've reached out, and the lead has engaged or shown initial interest.

• New Sign-Up / Registration

  • Lead has entered the system but hasn't shown interest yet.

• Qualified Lead

  • Lead meets your criteria (e.g., accreditation, investment capacity).

• Interested / Warm Lead

  • Lead has expressed interest in specific opportunities but hasn't committed yet.

• Soft Commitment

  • Lead has indicated intent to invest but hasn't finalized their decision.

• Invested / Active Investor

  • Lead has made an investment, becoming a fully onboarded investor

• Repeat/Returning Investor
  • Investor has returned to make additional investments with your other deals

Note: The CRM will automatically transition the contact from a lead to an investor once they made an investment and you approved their investment, helping you track progress and streamline your investor Life Cycle process.

1. Creating Pipeline Stages Using Contact Fields

• Navigate to the Contacts section.

• Click the More dropdown in the top-right corner and select Edit Contact Field.

• Click the "New Contact Field" button again in the right corner to create a new field.

• Name the Contact field as Lead Status or Pipeline Stage, or any name of your preference.

• Choose the field type as Single Select Dropdown.

• Add the pipeline stages you’ve defined as options (e.g., New Sign-Up, Engaged Lead, Qualified Lead, Warm Lead, Active Investor, Returning Investor).

• Once you've added your options, click Save in the top-right corner.

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2. Creating Custom Views for Each Pipeline Stage

To track the movement of investors through the funnel, create custom views for each pipeline stage.

• Step 1: Go to Contacts and click on Filter.

• Step 2: Click Add Filter, select your new Pipeline Stage Contact field, and set up filters for each pipeline stage (e.g., filter to show only leads in the "Qualified Lead" stage).

• Step 3: Select the Columns option and add Pipeline Stage to your list of displayed columns.

• Step 3: Next, click on "Save As" to create a new view. Assign a name to this view that reflects the corresponding pipeline stage based on your filtering criteria.

Repeat the same for all the Pipeline stages to easily view and manage contacts within each specific pipeline stage.

3. Moving a Lead to a Different Pipeline Stage

• Go to Contacts and click the dropdown in the top-left corner.

• Select the Custom View corresponding to the current pipeline stage.

• Locate the Pipeline Stage column, then click on the cell for the lead you wish to move.

• Choose the new stage from the dropdown menu to which you want to move the lead.

This action will automatically move the lead from the current stage to the selected stage, updating the view accordingly.

Once the investor has made an investment, signed the necessary paperwork, and the funds have been received, you can approve the investment and update the status to the Investor stage, which is the final step or the last stage before completing the pipeline.

4. Track Investors with Multiple Investments to move them to repeat investors stage

To identify and manage repeat investors, 

• Step 1: Go to Contacts and click on Filter.

• Step 2: Click Add Filter, select Active Investments from the available fields and selct the criteria as more than 1 investments and save.

• Step 3: Update the Pipeline Stage of all the Investors to Repeat Investors which will then reflect under Repeat investors stage.

Monitor contacts who have made multiple investments.

Once an investor has participated in more than one deal, update their Pipeline Stage to Repeat Investor (or a similar custom stage you've defined).

This helps you:

• Segment loyal investors,

• Personalize future communication,

• And better track long-term relationships within your CRM.

5. Tagging Leads for Personalized Communications

Tagging leads allows you to tailor outreach based on where each investor is in the pipeline.

Step 1: Go to the Contacts section and select the relevant view. Create tags aligned with your communication strategy—for example, Follow-Up Needed, High Priority, or tags tied to specific pipeline stages.

Step 2: As leads move through the funnel, assign tags that reflect their behavior, preferences, or upcoming actions. [Click here to learn how to tag leads.]

Step 3: Use these tags as filters when sending personalized, templated mass emails. This ensures your messages are timely and relevant, helping to nurture leads toward becoming active investors.