If you’re running a sales team, you know that missing the right moment—or being buried in useless notifications—can cost you real money. This guide is for folks who want their team to react faster, stay focused, and actually use notifications and alerts, not just ignore them. We’re talking about practical steps to set up custom notifications in Withlantern so your team gets what it needs, when it matters, and nothing more.
Why Custom Notifications Matter (and Where Most Go Wrong)
Let’s be honest: most sales teams either get bombarded with pointless alerts or they miss the few that actually matter. The result? Notification blindness. People tune everything out, or worse, waste time chasing meaningless pings.
Custom notifications should solve that. But only if you set them up with care—otherwise, you’re just swapping one kind of noise for another. Here’s how to get it right in Withlantern.
Step 1: Map Out What Actually Needs an Alert
Before you touch any settings, sit down and figure out what’s really worth interrupting your team for. Not everything is urgent—and too many alerts will just train people to ignore them.
Start by asking: - What do reps need to act on right away? (e.g., hot leads, demo requests, big deals moving stages) - What’s useful, but not urgent? (e.g., weekly pipeline updates) - What’s just nice to know, but not actionable? (e.g., every time someone opens an email)
Pro tip:
Get input from your team. What do they wish they’d get notified about? What do they want less of? You’ll spot patterns fast.
Skip:
Don’t bother with alerts for stuff you’re not willing to act on. If nobody cares, don’t set it up.
Step 2: Get Your Withlantern Account Ready
Assuming you’ve already got a Withlantern account, make sure you’ve got admin access or the right permissions to change team notifications.
- Log in to Withlantern.
- Go to your Team or Account Settings.
- Find the “Notifications” or “Alerts” section. (If you’re lost, Withlantern’s help docs are actually pretty decent.)
Heads up:
If you’re not the admin, you’ll need to ask whoever is to grant you the right permissions. Trying to work around this is just going to waste your time.
Step 3: Choose Your Notification Channels
Withlantern lets you send alerts in a few different ways. Each one has pros and cons:
- In-app notifications: Good for stuff that’s important, but not urgent. Won’t interrupt, but easy to miss if reps aren’t logged in.
- Email alerts: Fine for summaries or updates, but most salespeople already drown in email. Use sparingly.
- SMS or push notifications: Best for urgent, time-sensitive things—like a hot new lead or a deal at risk.
- Slack or Teams integrations: Useful if your team lives in chat. But again, don’t overdo it or you’ll end up ignored.
Pick one or two channels per alert.
If you blast everything everywhere, people will tune out.
Step 4: Set Up Triggers for Sales-Critical Events
Here’s where you actually build out your notifications in Withlantern. You’ll want to set up “triggers” for the sales events that matter to your team.
Common triggers that make sense: - New lead assigned: Notify the rep (maybe via SMS if speed matters). - Demo requested: Alert the assigned rep and their manager. - Deal moves to “Proposal Sent” or “Negotiation” stage: Useful for managers keeping tabs on big deals. - Deal goes stale/no activity for X days: Nudge the rep to follow up. - Closed won/lost: Useful for morale and pipeline tracking, but don’t over-celebrate every tiny deal.
How to set up a trigger in Withlantern: 1. Go to the “Notifications” or “Workflow” area. 2. Click “Create New Alert” or similar. 3. Choose the event or condition (e.g., “When deal stage changes to Proposal”). 4. Select which users or roles should get the alert. 5. Pick the channel(s) (see previous step). 6. Add any conditions or filters (e.g., “Only deals over $10k”). 7. Write a clear, specific message for the alert. Avoid generic stuff like “You have a notification.” Make it actionable.
Pro tip:
Test each alert with a real user before rolling it out to everyone. Nothing kills trust in a system faster than broken or confusing notifications.
Step 5: Control the Firehose—Reduce Noise
The hard truth: most notification setups are too generous. People get pinged for every little thing, and then they stop paying attention.
To avoid this: - Set thresholds. Only trigger alerts for deals above a certain value, or for accounts in a specific industry. - Batch low-priority info. Instead of an alert for every single email open, send a daily or weekly summary. - Let users opt out. Give your salespeople some control—if they don’t want to know about every minor update, let them tweak their preferences.
What to skip:
Don’t set up alerts for things you can check in a report or dashboard. Notifications are for action, not trivia.
Step 6: Test, Get Feedback, and Iterate
Don’t assume you got it perfect the first time. Roll out your alerts to a small group, watch what happens, and actually ask people if they’re helpful.
What to check: - Are people acting on alerts, or just ignoring them? - Is anything slipping through the cracks? - Are there too many “false alarms”?
Tweak as needed:
- Disable or tone down noisy alerts.
- Clarify alert messages (be specific—“Deal stuck 7 days: Acme Corp, $22k” beats “Deal update”).
- Change channels if one isn’t getting noticed.
Pro tip:
Schedule a quick check-in after the first week. Ask the team what’s working and what’s driving them nuts. Fix it early.
Step 7: Set Up Reporting and Audit Trails
You’ll want to know if your alert system is actually working. Withlantern usually lets you see delivery stats—who got which alerts, when, and whether they clicked or acted.
Things to track: - Which alerts are most/least useful (ask your team, don’t just trust the numbers). - Response rates—are people following up faster on hot leads? - Alert fatigue—if people start muting notifications, that’s a red flag.
Skip:
Don’t obsess over every metric. Focus on what helps your team close deals faster or avoid dropped balls.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
- Works:
- Alerts for timely, high-value actions (e.g., demo requests, big deals moving stages).
- Giving reps control over their own notifications.
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Keeping messages clear, specific, and actionable.
-
Doesn’t work:
- Blasting every update to everyone.
- Vague notifications (“You have a new update”)—people will ignore these.
-
Relying only on email.
-
Ignore:
- Vanity alerts (e.g., every time someone opens an email, every small change in a deal).
- Anything that interrupts but isn’t truly urgent.
Wrap-Up: Keep It Simple, Keep It Useful
Custom notifications in Withlantern can be a real competitive advantage—if you set them up with intention and keep them tight. The trick is to start simple, focus on what actually moves the needle for your team, and tweak as you go. Don’t try to automate everything on day one. Get the basics working, listen to your reps, and refine from there.
Bottom line: Less noise, more action. That’s the real win.