We’re trying to figure out the best approach for structuring our Acquisitions and Projects process.
We currently have an Acquisitions pipeline for future buildings. Once a property is sold and the deal is Closed Won, that property becomes a Project (custom object).
The challenge is that deals can be lost, so we don’t want to create or associate potential projects with our current Projects object before we know the deal will actually close.
We’re considering two approaches:
Creating a Project Lead pipeline, where potential projects can be associated with the Deal, and then once the Deal is Closed Won, the Lead would become a Project.
Creating a separate Potential Project custom object, which can be associated with the Deal and then trigger a workflow to create/move the record into the Projects object once the Deal is Closed Won.
Has anyone implemented something similar? Which approach would you recommend, and are there any limitations or best practices we should consider?
Hi @cclark2, I may be missing something in your setup, but I’m not quite sure why you need a separate Potential Project or Project Lead record before the Acquisition Deal is Closed Won.
If a Project should only exist once the Deal is Closed Won, could you keep the project-related information on the Acquisition Deal while it’s still open, and then use a workflow to create the Project record once the Deal reaches Closed Won?
Is there something you need to track or manage at the potential project level before the Deal closes that can’t live on the Deal itself?
We did think of this but the potential projects have a lot of information so not to have to much living on the deal level we thought a separate object would be best for layouts. This was more as convenience for the users to be able to see potentially without searching through deal properties.
@cclark2, that makes sense. I’d still lean toward keeping the potential project information on the Deal until it’s Closed Won, and then copying the relevant properties into the Project record.
You can make the Deal much easier for users to work with by organizing the project-related properties into dedicated sections/cards on the record layout, and adding the key information to the middle column so users don’t have to search through all Deal properties.
Here’s an example of how I’ve structured a Deal with a larger number of related properties:
That way you keep one source of truth during the acquisition stage and avoid having to maintain/sync a separate Potential Project object before the actual Project exists.
Moderator note: While this solution may not address the original poster’s specific situation, it could be helpful for other community members facing similar challenges.
Hello @cclark2 , if you really want to structure your acquisition and project process, then you can try the Potential Project custom object to keep pre-close properties separate from actual Projects and avoid creating records for deals that are eventually lost.
The flow could be:
Acquisition Deal → Potential Project → Closed Won → Project
A workflow can then create the Project and also, it can carry over the required fields and associations. Just make sure you have duplicate protection and a clear process for reopened deals.
For the automation and routing around this, you can try any tool or native CRM based routing. LeadAngel, Chili Piper, LeanData, Salesforce Flow, or HubSpot Workflows could be relevant depending on your setup.
