Deal Stages - Process paused stage - how to implement?

[BalintSipos]

In the Deal Stages, how would you manage a "Process Paused" Stage?

It would essentially mean that the deal is not lost but might only get picked up again at a later stage.

All work and interactions regarding this deal should be preserved. 

Deal could be moved to this stage at any point but could only be moved forward than it was before when it was moved to this stage.

Deal probability would go down to 0%.

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I don't see a clear cut solution as moving the Stages back and forth feels messy somehow. 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @BalintSipos,

I'd advise against this – if you have the feeling that the deal will continue at some point, it should stay in the stage it's currently in. When you create time in deal stage reports, you will then have a better understanding which stages are typically the ones that deals get stuck in. An additional stage would prevent this kind of insight.

Additionally, there is a risk that you'll have to move deals back in deal stages, which will also break certain funnel reports.

Instead, if you want to flag or easily identify these deals, I'd recommend the following:

• Create deal tags to easily spot dormant deals: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/object-settings/color-coded-object-tags
• Create a filtered view to easily find deals where the last activity date is more than X days ago AND the next activity date is unknown: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/filter-records-and-save-views#filter-records-and-save-views

Best regards

[Rizwan354]

o implement a "Process Paused" stage in deal stages, follow these steps:

1. Add the Stage: Create a "Process Paused" stage in your deal pipeline.
2. Define Criteria: Set clear criteria for when deals should be moved to this stage.
3. Update Status: Ensure the deal status reflects that it is on hold but not lost.
4. Communication: Notify relevant team members about the deal’s paused status.
5. Review Process: Set a review schedule to assess paused deals and decide on next steps.

[RThomas7]

Hi @BalintSipos - I thought about this all day and here's how you can pull it off.
Create a separate Deal pipeline for Paused deals. 

This way all data is retained and you can enforce that the deal progresses forward when it goes back to the original pipeline.

This would also be advantageous for your reporting so that you don't report on paused deals.

[karstenkoehler]

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@RThomas7 wrote:

Hi @BalintSipos - I thought about this all day and here's how you can pull it off.
Create a separate Deal pipeline for Paused deals. 

This way all data is retained and you can enforce that the deal progresses forward when it goes back to the original pipeline.

This would also be advantageous for your reporting so that you don't report on paused deals.

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If you do this, HubSpot reports based on entering and leaving deal stages will not work as expected, even after the deal is moved back from its paused pipeline. Deals shouldn't be moved back and forth between pipelines.

[RThomas7]

@karstenkoehler good point. To clarify the reporting would not work for reports that track how long deals spend in each stage, conversion rates between stages, and overall pipeline velocity. 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

@RThomas7 thanks for clarifying. For me, the downsides outweigh the benefits. HubSpot expects deals to stay within the same pipeline and downstream, more features might be affected than just the mentioned reports.

Personally, I don't think there is such thing as a paused deal. Either a deal is closed lost due to inactivity or a deal has a next activity date – in which case it's just a matter of removing it from a view, should one not want to see these types of deals. Even then, it should still sit within the deal stage that corresponds to how far this deal has gotten. A paused stage or pipeline, in my opinion, opens up the door to bad data quality (marking a deal as paused as opposed to logging the next activity, scheduling a follow-up or document a closed lost reason).

[RThomas7]

I completely agree.

Thanks for talking it out 🙂

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @BalintSipos,

I'd advise against this – if you have the feeling that the deal will continue at some point, it should stay in the stage it's currently in. When you create time in deal stage reports, you will then have a better understanding which stages are typically the ones that deals get stuck in. An additional stage would prevent this kind of insight.

Additionally, there is a risk that you'll have to move deals back in deal stages, which will also break certain funnel reports.

Instead, if you want to flag or easily identify these deals, I'd recommend the following:

• Create deal tags to easily spot dormant deals: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/object-settings/color-coded-object-tags
• Create a filtered view to easily find deals where the last activity date is more than X days ago AND the next activity date is unknown: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/filter-records-and-save-views#filter-records-and-save-views

Best regards