If you’re in sales or revenue ops, your inbox is probably already a graveyard of unread notifications and “important” updates. But missing a key moment in a deal can mean lost revenue—or worse, a nasty surprise at your next pipeline review. The trick isn’t to turn on every alert; it’s to make sure the right people know about the right changes, at the right time. This guide will walk you through setting up deal progression notifications in Sybill so you’re in the loop, not drowning in noise.
1. Get clear on what you actually need to know
Don’t just turn on every notification because you can. Think about what actually moves the needle on your deals. Before you even open Sybill, ask yourself:
- What deal changes do I care about (stage moves, close date changes, big value swings)?
- Who needs to know about these changes? (Me, my manager, the whole team?)
- How urgent is this info—do I need it instantly, or is a daily roundup enough?
Pro tip: If you set up more notifications than you can read, you’ll start ignoring all of them. Less is more.
2. Map your sales process to notification triggers
Sybill can track a lot of stuff. Just because it can, doesn’t mean you should. Here’s what’s usually worth tracking:
- Stage changes: When a deal moves forward or backward, or gets marked as lost.
- Forecast category updates: If your team uses forecast categories, flag when these change.
- Deal value changes: Big jumps or drops in deal size. Set a threshold—do you really care if it goes from $10,000 to $10,500?
- Close date changes: Especially when deals slip out of this quarter.
- New deals added or high-priority deals flagged.
Skip notifications for minor fields like “last contacted” or when someone updates the description. That’s just noise.
Reality check: If you’re not acting on a notification, ask if you need it at all.
3. Set up notification channels wisely
Sybill can send notifications by email, Slack, or in-app. Here’s how to pick:
- Email: Good for daily summaries or low-urgency updates. Bad for anything you need to act on fast.
- Slack: Great for urgent changes and team visibility. Just don’t pipe deal updates into a noisy channel where they’ll get ignored.
- In-app: Useful if you actually live in Sybill all day. Most folks don’t.
Best practice: Use Slack or Teams for urgent, actionable changes. Use email for summaries. Don’t mix them up.
Don’t: Set up a Slack integration and just blast every single change into one channel. People will mute it within a week.
4. Tailor notification rules to your team
Sybill lets you set rules by role, deal size, and more. Resist the urge to make a one-size-fits-all firehose. Instead:
- Managers: Usually want to know about big deals, at-risk deals, or anything that might affect the forecast.
- Reps: Care about their own pipeline, and maybe what’s happening in their pod.
- Execs: Only want to know about the outliers—the massive wins, losses, or deals that will make or break the quarter.
How to set this up:
- Create different notification rules for different groups.
- For reps, send updates only for deals they own.
- For managers, set higher thresholds (e.g., only flag deal slips over $20k).
- For execs, consider a weekly digest of major changes.
Pro tip: Ask your team what notifications they actually want. Don’t assume.
5. Fine-tune your notification cadence
Timing matters as much as content. Being pinged every five minutes is just as bad as hearing about a lost deal a week late. Options in Sybill include:
- Instant: For true emergencies (big deal lost, forecast tanks).
- Hourly: For fast-moving teams, but be careful—this can get overwhelming.
- Daily digest: Usually the sweet spot for most updates.
- Weekly: For exec recaps or non-urgent trends.
What works:
- Instant for true emergencies (deal lost, deal won, massive value swing).
- Daily for most pipeline updates.
- Weekly for trends and recaps.
What to ignore: “Real-time” for every little change. It’s a productivity killer.
6. Test your setup—and tweak aggressively
You won’t get it right the first time. Set up your rules, then:
- Wait a week. Are you reading every notification? Are you missing stuff you care about?
- Ask for feedback. If the team’s ignoring updates—or complaining—they’re useless.
- Prune ruthlessly. If you don’t act on it, kill it.
- Check for gaps. Did a deal slip through the cracks? Add a rule.
Pro tip: Schedule a quick review every quarter. Sales cycles change, and so should your notification rules.
7. Watch out for common pitfalls
A few things to avoid:
- Notification overload. If people are muting channels or setting up email filters, you’ve lost them.
- False urgency. Not every update is a five-alarm fire. Reserve urgent notifications for true emergencies.
- Stale rules. Sales processes change. Don’t “set and forget.”
- Noisy channels. If you use Slack, set up a dedicated channel for deals, and keep it tidy.
Honest take: Most teams start with too many notifications and end up ignoring all of them. Start simple, then add complexity only if you’re missing things.
8. Use notification data to improve your process
Notifications aren’t just about staying in the loop—they can show you patterns:
- Are deals stalling at a certain stage?
- Do value changes usually mean a deal’s in trouble?
- Is your forecast always slipping at quarter-end?
If you’re seeing the same types of notifications over and over, dig deeper. Maybe it’s not a notification issue—it’s a process problem.
9. Keep it simple, and don’t be afraid to iterate
The best notification setup is one people actually use. Don’t let “best practices” get in the way of what works for your team. Start with a few rules, see what actually helps, and build from there.
You’re not trying to win a contest for most alerts sent—you just want to keep deals moving and avoid nasty surprises. Simple, focused notifications beat a firehose every time.
Remember: Set up Sybill notifications so you hear about what matters, not just what’s possible. Review and update your rules regularly, and don’t be afraid to turn things off. The best notification is the one that helps you close more deals—and lets you focus on selling, not reading alerts.