How to organise scattered leads into one simple pipeline

7 min read · Garner Desk

If your leads live in five different places, you don’t have a pipeline. You have a memory test. And memory tests are how good enquiries go cold.

Here is the process we use with clients. You can do it yourself over a few evenings, and you don’t need any new software to start.

Step 1: List every place a lead might be hiding

Before you move anything, write down every place a potential client could be sitting. For most owners it’s some mix of these:

• Your inbox: enquiries, quote requests and “let’s talk next quarter” threads.
• Your sent folder: people you sent prices to and never heard back from.
• Spreadsheets: event lists, old trackers, exports from tools you no longer use.
• Phone contacts and WhatsApp: people you met in person or who called.
• LinkedIn: connections and old message threads.
• Paper: business cards and notebooks.

Start with your sent folder. It’s where the money usually is. Search for the words you use when quoting, such as “quote”, “proposal”, “pricing”, “next steps” and “attached”. Every reply-less thread is a lead someone else may now be talking to.

Step 2: Pull everything into one sheet

Create one spreadsheet with these columns. Resist the urge to add more.

Some sources can be exported instead of copied by hand:

• LinkedIn: Settings & Privacy, then Data privacy, then “Get a copy of your data” and choose Connections. LinkedIn emails you a CSV file.
• Google Contacts: select your contacts and choose Export, then Google CSV.
• iPhone contacts: sign in to iCloud.com on a computer, open Contacts, select all and export as a vCard.

Step 3: Remove duplicates and fix the details

The same person will turn up two or three times: once from your inbox, once from LinkedIn, once from an old event list.

1. Sort the sheet by email address. Same email means same person.
2. In Google Sheets, use Data, then Data cleanup, then Remove duplicates. In Excel, it’s Data, then Remove Duplicates.
3. Before you delete a duplicate, copy anything useful from its Notes column into the one you’re keeping.
4. Fix names typed in capitals or lower case, and split full names into first and last.

We wrote a full guide to cleaning duplicate contacts if you want the detail.

Step 4: Sort everyone into four groups

Add a column called Status and give every person one of these:

• Hot: asked about price, timing or availability in the last 90 days.
• Warm: showed interest, but there’s no clear next step.
• Past client: has paid you before.
• Cold: met once, no real conversation.

Don’t overthink it. If you’re unsure between two groups, pick the colder one.

Step 5: Pick your Top 20

You will not follow up with 400 people this week. You can follow up with 20. Choose them in this order:

1. Every Hot lead.
2. Past clients you haven’t spoken to in six months or more.
3. Warm leads where you have a genuine reason to get back in touch.

Then send those 20 messages. Our follow-up email templates make it quicker.

Step 6: Decide where the list will live

A clean spreadsheet is fine if you have fewer than about 100 active leads and you’ll genuinely open it every week. If you have more, or you keep forgetting to follow up, a free CRM will remind you for you. Our guide to spreadsheets vs CRMs walks through the choice.

How long this really takes

Be honest with yourself here. For an owner with a few years of email history, this is usually several evenings of slow, fiddly work. That’s why most people never finish it, and why the same leads stay buried year after year.