A HubSpot pipeline that shows every live quote
Ask most small firms what work they've got in the pipeline and the honest answer is "it's in my head, and a few emails, and something my colleague mentioned." That's not a pipeline, it's a guess.
Where it hurts
Enquiries come in from the website, the phone, a WhatsApp, a mate's recommendation. Some turn into quotes, some don't. The ones that do get sent and then live in your sent folder, out of sight.
When someone asks how business is looking, you genuinely can't say. You don't know how many quotes are out, what they're worth, or which ones have gone quiet and need chasing.
So decisions about hiring, or whether to take on that big job, get made on gut feel instead of on what's actually in front of you.
What I'd build
I'd set you up with the free HubSpot CRM and build a pipeline that fits how you actually sell: enquiry, quoted, chasing, won, lost, with your email and website form wired in so deals land on the board on their own. Then the part that keeps it alive, because every pipeline dies the day people stop updating it. An AI step reads the email traffic on each deal, works out what happened (they accepted, they asked a question, they went quiet), moves the card and updates the last-contact date itself, and drafts the chase for quiet deals ready for someone to approve. The board stays true without anyone remembering to type into it, and "how's the pipeline?" gets a real answer.
What changes
- Every quote and enquiry visible in one place
- The board updates itself from the email thread, not from memory
- Quiet deals get flagged with a chase drafted ready to approve
- A pipeline number you can plan hiring and cash flow around
Related fixes
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