Turning networking into pipeline: when a contact becomes a deal, and how to track it

A networking contact becomes a deal when four things are true: they have a problem you can solve, they can make or strongly influence the decision, there is a rough timeframe, and you have agreed a concrete next step. Until then, they are a contact with a follow-up task. Once they qualify, track them on a simple five-stage board (Lead, Qualified, Proposal, Won, Lost) with one next step and date per deal. You do not need a heavy CRM for that: a micro-CRM such as ShmorCRM, or a light set-up in Attio or HubSpot, is enough.

Contacts and deals are different things

Most people you meet at events are contacts: worth knowing, worth staying in touch with, but not about to buy anything. Treating every one as a deal fills your pipeline with hope and makes the real opportunities harder to see.

A clean split:

• Contact: a person and company, how you met, a note, a follow-up task.
• Deal: a specific opportunity with that person or company, with a stage, an expected value if you know it, and a next step.

One contact can have no deals, one deal, or several over the years.

The four signs a contact has become a deal

Ask these four questions after a promising conversation:

1. Problem. Did they describe a problem you solve, in their own words? "We're losing drivers in their first month" is a problem. "Interesting, tell me more" is politeness.
2. Person. Can they decide, or strongly influence who decides? If not, do they know who does, and will they introduce you?
3. Timing. Is there any sense of when? "Before the spring peak" or "next financial year" both count. "One day" does not.
4. Next step. Did you agree something concrete: a call, a proposal, a site visit, an introduction to the budget holder?

Four yeses: create a deal. Two or three: keep them as a contact with a follow-up, and ask the missing questions next time. One or none: a contact, nothing more for now.

Examples

• "Head of ops at a logistics firm. Driver onboarding is a mess, they want to fix it before spring, asked me to send a proposal." Four yeses. Deal.
• "Founder of a start-up, liked our product, no budget until they raise." Problem and person, but no timing. Contact, with a follow-up in three months.
• "Analyst at a big bank, very interested, will mention it to their boss." Problem, maybe; person, no. Contact, and ask for an introduction.

A simple pipeline: five stages

Each stage is something you can verify, not a feeling. That keeps the board honest.

Rules that keep it useful

• Every open deal has one next step and a date. A deal without a next step is a wish.
• Move deals when something happens, not when you feel more or less optimistic.
• Close lost deals. "Lost" with a reason ("budget moved to next year") is useful data. A deal that sits in Proposal for six months is not.
• Record where it came from. If you track how you met each contact, you can see which events and introducers produce real deals.

Tracking it without a heavy CRM

Option 1: a micro-CRM

If you are a founder, consultant or freelancer with a handful of live opportunities, you probably do not need sequences, forecasting or dashboards. You need people, companies, deals on a board, and follow-up tasks.

ShmorCRM is the micro-CRM built into Shmor, and every new account starts on it. It has:

• People and Companies, with how and where you met;
• a Deals board with the five default stages above (Lead, Qualified, Proposal, Won and Lost), which you can rename or extend to up to 20 in Settings; drag deals between stages, or switch to a table;
• deal values in pounds, and the services each deal relates to;
• a Tasks tab with every follow-up, as open, overdue or done;
• export to CSV at any time, so you can move to a bigger CRM later.

Option 2: Attio or HubSpot, kept light

If you already use Attio or HubSpot, or you need a pipeline your team shares, use their deal objects, and resist building every stage and field on day one:

• start with the five stages above;
• add a field for how you met, so you can report on sources (Shmor adds Met via and Met at when you connect);
• make a rule that every deal has a next task.

In HubSpot, deals go into a pipeline with stages you define;¹ in Attio, the Deals object is switched on by a workspace admin and has a stage attribute you can rename and reorder.²

When to move up

Consider a full CRM set-up when you need reporting across many deals, automated email sequences, a team working the same pipeline, or more records than a micro-CRM plan holds. Our guide to starting in ShmorCRM and moving to Attio or HubSpot covers the switch.

From conversation to deal in one message

The point where a contact becomes a deal is usually the conversation itself, which is also when you are least likely to open a CRM. Shmor handles that moment:

1. In Settings, describe your business in a sentence, and list the services you sell (or point Shmor at a deal field in Attio or HubSpot).
2. After a promising conversation, capture the person as usual: a card photo, badge, screenshot or voice note, with what they need. "Met Alex at the investor breakfast. Their fund needs tech due diligence on two deals before Christmas. Follow up Monday."
3. If the capture sounds like an opportunity, Shmor's reply shows Possible deal with the services it matched, and two buttons: Create deal and Not a deal.
4. Tap Create deal, and the deal is created in ShmorCRM, Attio or HubSpot, linked to the person and company, alongside the note and follow-up task.

Deal suggestions are on Pro and the free trial, and nothing is created until you tap. On Solo, Shmor still saves the person, company, note and task, and you can add deals by hand in ShmorCRM. The full set-up is in tracking deals from the people you meet, and plans are on the pricing page.

A weekly pipeline check

Add two minutes to your weekly CRM hygiene routine:

• Does every open deal have a next step with a date?
• Has anything moved, or should it? Update the stage.
• Is anything stuck? Close it as lost, with a reason, or send the close-the-loop message.

Small, honest and up to date beats big and hopeful.