If you’re in sales, partnerships, or anyone tasked with keeping deals moving, you know the pain: scattered notes, out-of-date spreadsheets, and “Wait, what’s the latest on that?” questions. If your team’s using Theirstack, you’ve got some solid tools to wrangle deal info—but only if you use them right. This guide’s for anyone who wants less chaos, more clarity, and a shot at actually trusting their pipeline.
Let’s cut through the noise. Here’s how to keep your deal data sharp, without spending your whole day cleaning up after everyone else.
1. Get Your Foundation Right (or Pay for It Later)
Before you bother with updates, check your setup. If your fields, stages, or deal types are a mess, you’ll spend twice as long fixing things later.
Checklist: - Are your deal stages actually useful? If you’ve got “Negotiation 1,” “Negotiation 2,” and “Negotiation 3,” you’re just confusing everyone. Stick to clear, actionable stages. - Custom fields: Only create what you’ll use. More fields = more busywork. If you’re tracking “deal color” or “vibe,” ask yourself why. - Permissions: Who can edit deals? If everyone can, expect chaos. Limit edit rights to the folks who actually own those deals.
Pro Tip:
Don’t overthink it. Start simple. You can always add fields or stages later, but deleting them once people start using them is a nightmare.
2. Capture New Deals Quickly (Don’t Wait for “Perfect” Info)
Deals are lost (or forgotten) when they live in someone’s head or a random email. Theirstack lets you add new deals fast, but only if you actually do it.
Step-by-step: 1. Add deals as soon as you hear about them. Don’t wait for every detail. Company name and a point of contact is enough to get started. 2. Use templates or quick-add tools if they exist. If you can’t find them, set up a basic template with just the essential fields. 3. Assign an owner immediately. Otherwise, deals drift—and then die.
What to ignore:
Don’t obsess over filling every field up front. You’ll never have all the info on day one, and chasing it down wastes time better spent actually selling.
3. Make Updates Part of Your Routine (Not a Quarterly Clean-Up Hell)
Updating deal info shouldn’t be a once-in-a-blue-moon panic. You need a rhythm, or things slip.
How to make it stick: - Block 10 minutes, twice a week, to review your deals. Set a recurring calendar reminder. Yes, really. - Update only what’s changed: Last contact date, next step, stage, maybe notes. Skip the “nice to haves.” - Batch update similar deals: Theirstack supports bulk editing—use it. If five deals moved to “Proposal Sent,” update them together.
Pro Tip:
If you’re managing a team, do a quick “stand-up” once a week where everyone shares top deal changes. Peer pressure keeps things accurate.
4. Use Tags and Notes—But Don’t Go Overboard
Tags and notes help you slice and dice your pipeline. But if you tag every deal with ten things, you’ll never find what matters.
Best practices: - Limit tag types: Stick to a handful (e.g., “renewal,” “high priority,” “partner”). Too many, and you’ll ignore them all. - Make notes actionable: Log important context—why a deal stalled, who’s blocking it, next meeting date. Skip the novel-length background.
What doesn’t work:
Relying on memory. If you think “I’ll just remember that detail,” you won’t. But don’t use notes as a dumping ground for every email, either.
5. Automate What You Can (But Don’t Trust Bots for Everything)
Theirstack has automation features—email reminders, stage updates, maybe integrations with your calendar. Use them, but don’t expect magic.
What actually helps: - Auto-reminders for follow-ups: Set reminders for next steps or overdue deals. It’s easy to ignore, but at least you’ll know what you’re ignoring. - Integration with email/calendar: Some CRMs push meetings or emails into the deal timeline automatically. If Theirstack does this well, turn it on. - Bulk imports/exports: For big updates, use CSV import/export. But double-check the import mapping—one wrong column and you’ll have a mess.
What to skip:
Don’t expect AI or automation to “update” deal stages for you based on email sentiment or fairy dust. Review key changes yourself.
6. Keep Your Pipeline Views Clean and Honest
Dashboards look good in demos, but if your deal data’s junk, your pipeline is fiction. Customize your views so you’re not staring at noise.
How to do it: - Filter out dead deals: Archive or close-lost as soon as you know a deal’s done. Don’t keep them clogging your active list. - Use saved views: Set up filters by owner, stage, or priority. Name them clearly—“My Q3 Targets,” not “Test View 17.” - Pin key fields: If you use only three fields to run your pipeline, make sure they’re always visible. Hide the rest.
Reality check:
Don’t chase “pipeline coverage” metrics if your deals aren’t real. Focus on deals that might actually close, not ones that look good in a screenshot.
7. Review and Clean Up Regularly (But Don’t Make It a Second Job)
Even the best system gets messy. Set up a short, regular cleanup—monthly is usually enough.
What to do: - Prune stale deals: If there’s been no activity in a month (or whatever makes sense for your cycle), follow up or close them. - Delete or merge duplicates: If Theirstack flags possible dupes, check and merge. Don’t let them pile up. - Archive irrelevant fields: If you added a field and nobody uses it, hide or delete it. Less clutter, less confusion.
Pro Tip:
Keep a “deal hygiene” checklist and share it with the team. The more people pitch in, the less cleanup for you.
8. Train (and Remind) Your Team, or Face the Mess Alone
It’s tempting to think, “I’ll just keep my own deals clean.” But if you’re in a team, everyone has to play along.
How to make it stick: - Short onboarding guides: Show new folks exactly how to add and update deals in Theirstack. Screenshots help. - Slack nudges or reminders: A gentle “Hey, clean up your deals by Friday” is more effective than a scolding. - Share wins: When clean data actually leads to closing a deal faster or spotting a problem early, point it out.
What doesn’t work:
Nagging people for the sake of “CRM hygiene.” Tie updates to real benefits—faster closes, fewer mistakes, less chasing people for updates.
9. Avoid Common Traps
After seeing enough CRMs in the wild, here’s what doesn’t work:
- Overcomplicating things: More fields, more automation, more dashboards… usually just means more confusion.
- Making updates a punishment: If people only update deals when the boss is watching, the data’s worthless.
- Relying on “AI insights” to fix bad data: No amount of magic will save you from basic errors or missing info.
- Letting old deals rot: If a deal’s dead, mark it lost. Zombie deals are a waste of everyone’s time.
Keep It Simple, Review Often, and Don’t Sweat Perfection
Theirstack (like any CRM) is only as good as the info you put in. Keep your setup simple, make regular updates a habit, and don’t bother chasing “perfect” data. Focus on what helps you close real deals and makes your life easier. When in doubt, clean up a little, iterate, and move on to actually selling. That’s where the wins are.