How to Use the Pipedrive Rotting Feature to Track Deal Inactivity and Boost Conversions

Illustration showing a sales funnel and a person using a magnifying glass to highlight problem deals, representing Pipedrive’s Rotting Feature for tracking deal inactivity.

Sales processes thrive on momentum. The longer a deal sits idle, the less likely it is to close. That’s where Pipedrive’s Rotting Feature comes into play. It acts like an early warning system for your pipeline, flagging deals that have gone stale so you can take action before it’s too late.

What is the Rotting Feature in Pipedrive?

The Pipedrive rotting feature is a visual cue built into Pipedrive’s pipeline view. When enabled, it highlights deals that haven’t been updated or moved for a specified number of days. These deals are marked with a red shading, making it easy to spot which opportunities are at risk of falling through the cracks.

You can customise the number of days before a deal is considered “rotting” on a per-stage basis. This flexibility allows you to adapt the feature to your specific sales cycle whether your deals typically last a few days or a few months.

Why You Should Use It?

Rotting isn’t just a visual alert, it’s a behaviour driver.

Here’s why it’s essential:

Prevents Pipeline Neglect: With so many deals moving at once, it’s easy to forget about the slower ones. The Rotting Feature brings them front and centre.
Improves Forecast Accuracy: A bloated pipeline full of inactive deals can give you false confidence. Cleaning up stale deals leads to better sales forecasting.
Encourages Timely Follow-ups: Prompt communication often means the difference between winning and losing a deal. Rotting cues help keep your team proactive.
Customisable Per Stage: Not every stage needs the same attention. You might want to flag idle deals after 2 days in the “Initial Contact” stage, but allow 10 days in the “Proposal Sent” stage.

Checklist graphic showing benefits of Pipedrive’s Rotting Feature — prevents pipeline neglect, improves forecast accuracy, encourages timely follow-ups, and is customisable per stage.

How to Enable and Customise Deal Rotting

Go to your pipeline view in Pipedrive.
Click the pencil icon to edit your pipeline.
For each stage, you’ll see the option to enable “deal rotting.”
Set the number of days that should trigger the rotting indicator.

Once set, any deal that stays too long in a stage will appear shaded in red – your cue to follow up or advance the conversation.

Best Practices

Review Daily: Make it part of your daily sales meeting or workflow to scan for rotting deals.
Use Filters: Combine the rot status with other filters (e.g., value, owner, age) to create actionable views.
Automate Actions: Consider using Pipedrive’s workflow automation or integrating with Zapier to notify reps or move deals automatically.

Conclusion

Think of the Pipedrive rotting feature as a health check for your sales pipeline. It doesn’t just show you what’s moving, it shows you what’s not. By using it proactively, you can keep your pipeline clean, your deals active, and your sales performance on track.

If you want to explore the Pipedrive Rotting Feature further, automate reminders with Zapier, or even set up AI Agents to pre-qualify your leads, get in touch to learn how Solvaa can help you optimise your Pipedrive account and design the perfect workflow tailored to your business.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. Can I set different rotting times for each stage?

A. Yes! Pipedrive allows you to customise the rotting threshold per pipeline stage based on the typical duration of deals in that stage.

Q. Does deal rotting affect reporting or automation?

A. Not directly, but it’s a visual tool that can be combined with filters and automations for enhanced pipeline management.

Q. Will I get notified when a deal starts rotting?

A. Pipedrive doesn’t send notifications by default, but you can set up workflow automations or use Zapier to alert your team when a deal starts rotting.

Q. Can I filter deals that are currently rotting?

A. Yes, Pipedrive provides filtering options so you can isolate rotting deals by owner, stage, age, and more.

Q. What’s the best way to prevent deal rot?

A. Stay proactive with regular follow-ups, use automations to flag or move stagnant deals, and make rot reviews part of your daily sales rhythm.

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Solvaa: Strategy, Solutions, Support, Education

UK-based Solvaa® is a systems, process and automation consultancy specialising in improving business workflows. Solvaa® works with SMEs worldwide to implement digital tools, better processes, use business process automation and generative AI to boost productivity, enhance lead management, and remove unnecessary time, costs and hassles from stretched business owners’ days.

We help you simplify and streamline existing processes, integrate your business tools to make data transfer more efficient, and automate manual tasks. Our business process automation specialists have extensive experience using multiple cloud-based business tools, including Zapier, Pipedrive CRM, SmartSuite, Xero, Google Suite, ClickUp, Asana, Airtable, Hubspot, Active Campaign, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Quickbooks and many more. We are Zapier Certified Experts, SmartSuite Certified Partners, Pipedrive Certified Partners and Xero Certified Advisors. We also educate teams about no-code automation and tools in our Solvaa Automation Academy.

Solvaa® was founded in 2016 by Kelly Goss, a no-code solutions architect, business process automation specialist and author of Automate It with Zapier (first edition) and Automate It with Zapier and Generative AI (second edition).

A thought leader on business process automation and digital adoption, Kelly attended an invite-only Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the UK government at No.10 Downing Street, providing insights and recommendations on how SMEs can benefit from productivity gains by using digital technologies, automation and AI. She has also been invited to speak at the House of Lords and at many other events.

Contact us today to find out how Solvaa can help your business make big savings on operational costs and time, and significantly increase productivity.

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How to Use the Pipedrive Rotting Feature to Track Deal Inactivity and Boost Conversions