Sales teams live and die by their pipeline, but let’s be real: most CRM software is either too basic or so complicated you need an IT degree to make sense of it. If you’re using Attio and want to get a handle on your sales pipeline—without drowning in busywork or making your reps hate you—this guide’s for you.
Below, I’ll walk through setting up and tracking pipeline stages, tweaking your workflow, and actually using Attio’s features for real sales results (not just pretty dashboards). No fluff, no buzzwords, and nothing you don’t actually need.
1. Know What You Actually Want to Track
Before you touch any settings, get clear on your pipeline. In other words: what are the real steps your deals go through, and which ones actually matter for your team?
Pro tip: The more stages you have, the more things can fall through the cracks. Stick to major milestones. For most B2B sales, a basic flow looks like:
- Lead in
- Qualified
- Proposal sent
- Negotiation
- Won/Lost
Write these down. Don’t add a stage for “Emailed, no reply” unless you need that granularity. Every extra stage is another field to update.
2. Set Up a Pipeline Workspace in Attio
Attio organizes everything around “workspaces” and “collections.” For tracking a sales pipeline, you’ll want a dedicated collection for deals.
Step-by-step:
- Create a New Collection
- Click the “+ New Collection” button in your Attio sidebar.
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Name it something obvious, like “Sales Pipeline” or “Deals.”
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Add Your Deals
- You can import from a spreadsheet, pipe in deals via Zapier, or just add them manually.
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Each deal becomes a “record” in the collection.
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Set Up Custom Fields
- Click “Customize fields.”
- Add fields for:
- Deal name
- Company/contact
- Value (the money part)
- Close date
- Pipeline stage (see below)
- Don’t overdo it—only use fields your team will actually fill in.
What to skip: Don’t bother with every possible field “just in case.” If you’re not tracking it today, you probably don’t care about it.
3. Build Your Pipeline Stages (Kanban Style)
Attio’s Kanban view is the easiest way to visualize your deals moving from left (“new”) to right (“won” or “lost”).
How to set up pipeline stages:
- Add a “Stage” Field
- Make it a dropdown (single select).
- Use the milestones you wrote down earlier: “Lead in,” “Qualified,” etc.
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Put them in order—whatever matches how your team actually works.
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Switch to Kanban View
- Click the “Kanban” icon at the top of your collection.
- Set the Kanban columns to use the “Stage” field.
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Now you’ll see deals as cards, grouped by stage.
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Drag and Drop
- Move deals between stages just by dragging them.
- This keeps things up to date and makes pipeline reviews less painful.
Pro tip: Don’t create a column for “Stalled” or “Ghosted.” If a deal’s not moving, update its notes or set a next step. Too many “dead” columns just create clutter.
4. Add Automation—But Don’t Go Nuts
Attio lets you automate things like reminders, notifications, or status changes. This is great, but it’s easy to overcomplicate.
Good automations:
- Follow-up reminders: Automatically create a task or send a Slack/Email nudge if a deal’s been stuck in one stage for too long.
- Stage change alerts: Notify the right person when a deal moves to “Negotiation” or “Won.”
What to avoid:
- Over-automating data entry. If your team spends more time cleaning up automation mistakes than selling, you’ve lost the plot.
- Auto-closing deals based on inactivity. Some deals go quiet, then come back—don’t let a robot kill your pipeline.
Keep it simple: Start with one or two automations that save real time. Add more later if you need them.
5. Track Progress and Spot Bottlenecks
Now that your pipeline’s set up, don’t just stare at it—use Attio’s filtering and reporting tools to actually track what matters.
Here’s how:
- Filter by stage: See how many deals are in each stage. Are most stuck in “Qualified”? Time to dig in.
- Sort by close date: Which deals are overdue? Which should you focus on this week?
- Group by owner: If you have multiple reps, see who’s overloaded (or who’s falling behind).
Attio’s reporting is decent, but don’t expect full-blown analytics like Salesforce or HubSpot. For most small and mid-sized teams, though, the basics get you 90% of the way.
What doesn’t work: Chasing “perfect” pipeline hygiene. Not every deal will be updated perfectly every day. Focus on trends, not perfection.
6. Keep Your Team in the Loop
The best pipeline in the world is useless if no one looks at it. Attio lets you share pipelines with your team, comment on deals, and set permissions.
Make it work:
- Weekly pipeline review: Pull up the Kanban view, walk through each stage, and spot-blockers together.
- @mentions and comments: Use comments to tag teammates or ask for updates—keeps everything in one place.
- Share links: Attio makes it easy to share a filtered view (like “all deals closing this month”) with your team or boss.
Avoid: Emailing exported spreadsheets around. If you’re doing that, you’re losing half the value of using Attio.
7. Review and Iterate
Your first pipeline setup won’t be perfect—and that’s fine. Every team’s process is a little different.
What to do:
- Every month or quarter, look at your stages. Are there ones no one ever uses? Merge or delete them.
- Ask your team what’s annoying or confusing. Fix it.
- Add fields or automations only when there’s a real pain point.
What to ignore: Don’t add features just because you saw them in a competitor’s demo. If it doesn’t solve a problem for your team, skip it.
Final Thoughts: Don’t Overthink It
Most sales teams get tripped up by trying to make their pipeline “perfect.” The real win is a system that’s simple enough to keep updated, but detailed enough to spot what’s working (and what’s not).
Start small: get your main stages sorted, make it easy to move deals, and review your pipeline regularly. As you get used to Attio, tweak things bit by bit. You’ll save yourself a ton of headaches—and actually close more deals.