Overview
Thursday, October 15, 2026. Sharad Mehta and Tyler Scott hosted the Pipelines 101 Masterclass webinar at 1 PM Pacific / 4 PM Eastern. Approximately 46 minutes.
Start with one pipeline. Only create a second when the sales process is genuinely different (for example, direct-to-seller acquisition versus listings, or wholesale transactions versus fix-and-flip transactions). Do not create separate pipelines per team member, per market, or per marketing channel if the sales process is the same.
Keep the active pipeline reserved for leads that could realistically close within 45 to 90 days and require active sales attention. Move everything else to a warm or nurture pipeline managed by automations.
Warm and long-term nurture leads should live in their own pipeline, not as stages in the active pipeline. Most leads (90%+) will end up in nurture. Keeping them in the active pipeline creates a 10,000-lead view that no one can manage.
Each pipeline stage should have a clear owner by role. Lead managers own new leads through attempted contact and can't reach. Acquisition managers own appointment set through under contract. Use permissions to hide irrelevant stages from each role.
Transaction pipelines should be separated by exit strategy when stages differ (wholesale has marketing to buyers and showings; fix-and-flip has funding ready and contractor scheduling). If stages overlap completely, keep them in one pipeline.
Sharad shared a Google Doc pipeline best practices guide in the chat. Tyler's team follows a one-page reference listing each status, its owner, and its automation.
List stacking should be managed by a marketing VA or cold caller, not the lead manager. The marketing role handles cold outreach, data management, and pushing qualified records to the active pipeline for the lead manager.
Chapters
00:03:04 — One pipeline per sales process, not per team member, market, or channel
00:14:28 — Active pipeline sizing: 8 to 9 stages, one screen, 45-to-90-day close window
00:19:05 — Warm and long-term nurture leads in a separate pipeline managed by automations
00:24:00 — Dead leads pipeline as a permanent archive
00:37:22 — Transaction pipelines split by exit strategy, and the two-stage minimum
00:41:00 — List stacking ownership: marketing VA versus lead manager role separation
00:41:15 — Schedule and recordings
00:03:04 One pipeline per sales process, not per team member, market, or channel
Sharad explained the core principle: a pipeline should represent a distinct sales process, not a way to organize people or geography. If John and Sarah follow the same acquisition process, they should share one pipeline. Use filters, role assignment, and permissions to control who sees what. Creating a pipeline per team member forces the owner to jump between pipelines to see total lead counts, appointment volume, and under-contract numbers. The same applies to markets: if your process in Indianapolis is the same as Tampa, one pipeline with campaign-based filtering is cleaner than two identical pipelines (00:06:14).
The exception is when the sales process genuinely differs. Sharad's acquisition manager recently got her real estate license. Listings have a fundamentally different sales process than direct-to-seller acquisition, so listings will get their own pipeline. If both follow the same stages, they stay in one pipeline.
Q: Should I create a separate pipeline for each team member in REsimpli? A: No. Use one pipeline for the same sales process and control access through filters, role assignments, and permissions. Separate pipelines per team member force the owner to jump between views to see aggregate numbers.
Q: Should I create a separate pipeline for each market I invest in? A: Only if the sales process differs by market. If you follow the same process in every market, use one pipeline and filter by campaign or market tag.
Q: When should I create a second pipeline? A: When the sales process is genuinely different. Examples: direct-to-seller acquisition vs listings, wholesale vs fix-and-flip transactions, active leads vs warm/nurture leads.
00:14:28 Active pipeline sizing: 8 to 9 stages, one screen, 45-to-90-day close window
Sharad recommended limiting the active pipeline to 8 or 9 stages that fit on one screen without scrolling. Each stage should represent a point where someone on the team needs to take action: call the lead, send a follow-up, prepare an offer, or schedule an appointment. If no active sales attention is required (for example, "call me back in 6 months"), the lead does not belong in the active pipeline. Sharad uses a 45-to-90-day test: if you cannot realistically get a contract on the property within that window, move it to the warm pipeline. High-volume teams should lean toward 45 days; smaller teams doing 2 to 3 deals a month can extend to 90 (00:18:42).
Q: How many stages should my active pipeline have in REsimpli?
A: 8 to 9 stages that fit on one screen without scrolling. Each stage should require active sales attention and represent a lead that could realistically close within 45 to 90 days.
Q: What stages does Sharad recommend for the active acquisition pipeline?
A: New leads, attempted contact, no contact made, appointment set, underwriting, offer made, under contract, and optionally can't reach as a re-engagement bucket. Tyler adds long-term nurture at the end but is considering moving it to its own pipeline.
00:19:05 Warm and long-term nurture leads in a separate pipeline managed by automations
Sharad identified the most common pipeline mistake: keeping warm and long-term nurture stages inside the active pipeline. The majority of leads (90%+) will end up in these stages, creating a 10,000-lead view that overwhelms the team. Leads that said "call me back in 6 months" or "I'm going through a divorce, not ready now" require no active sales attention. Move them to a separate warm pipeline with its own stages: initial nurture, responded but not ready, re-engaged, and ready to move back to active. Automations handle the follow-up. When a nurture lead raises their hand (replies, calls back, shows interest), and they fit within the 45-to-90-day close window, move them back to the active pipeline (00:23:08).
Tyler confirmed he currently keeps long-term nurture as a stage in the active pipeline for easy drag-and-drop but acknowledged it creates a 1,000+ lead list at the bottom that clutters the view. He is considering moving it to its own pipeline.
Q: Should warm leads and long-term nurture leads stay in the active pipeline?
A: No. Move them to a separate warm or nurture pipeline. They require no active sales attention and should be managed by automations. Move them back to the active pipeline when they re-engage and fit within a 45-to-90-day close window.
Q: What stages should a warm or nurture pipeline have?
A: Initial nurture, responded but not ready, re-engaged, and ready to move back to active. The exact stages depend on your process, but keep them focused on the lead's level of engagement.
00:24:00 Dead leads pipeline as a permanent archive
Tyler explained that he uses a dead leads pipeline as a permanent archive. Once a lead is moved to dead, he never expects to see it again. Sharad agreed that dead leads should be separated from both the active and warm pipelines to keep those views clean. Dead leads can still be searched and filtered if needed, but they do not occupy space in the working pipelines (00:24:30).
Q: Where should dead leads go in REsimpli? A: Move them to their own dead leads pipeline. Treat it as a permanent archive. They can still be searched and filtered, but they no longer clutter your active or warm pipeline views.
00:37:22 Transaction pipelines split by exit strategy, and the two-stage minimum
Sharad walked through adding a pipeline and showed that every pipeline requires at least two stages: new and under contract (both are fully customizable and renameable). For transactions, create separate pipelines when the exit strategy involves different stages. A wholesale transaction pipeline has marketing to buyers, showing scheduled, and buyer under contract. A fix-and-flip pipeline has funding ready, contractor scheduling, and contingency period. If you force both into one pipeline, some stages will never be used for certain deal types, which creates confusion. If the stages overlap completely between exit strategies, one pipeline is fine (00:39:35).
Path: Leads > Pipeline dropdown > Add Pipeline > [minimum two stages required]
Q: Should I create separate transaction pipelines for wholesale and fix-and-flip? A: Yes, if the stages differ. Wholesale has marketing to buyers and showings. Fix-and-flip has funding ready and contractor scheduling. Forcing both into one pipeline creates unused stages that confuse the team.
Q: What is the minimum number of stages per pipeline? A: Two. Every pipeline requires at least a new stage and an under contract stage. Both are fully customizable.
00:41:00 List stacking ownership: marketing VA versus lead manager role separation
A user asked whether lead managers or marketing managers should work in list stacking. Sharad recommended having a marketing person handle list stacking, not the lead manager. Tyler confirmed his setup: a marketing VA handles all cold outreach, skip tracing, data management, and CRM cleanup through list stacking. His lead manager only works the active pipeline.
The marketing VA's main job is to push qualified records from list stacking to the active pipeline and tee up the lead manager with new leads every day. REsimpli's role and permission system supports this separation: you can put the marketing VA in a list stacking seat with no access to the active pipeline, and the lead manager in a pipeline seat with no access to list stacking (00:43:07).
Q: Should my lead manager work in list stacking?
A: No, if you have the team size to separate the roles. List stacking cold outreach, data management, and skip tracing should be handled by a marketing VA or cold caller. The lead manager should focus on working leads in the active pipeline.
Q: How does Tyler's team separate list stacking from pipeline work?
A: His marketing VA handles all list stacking: cold texts, cold calls, skip tracing, data cleanup. When a record qualifies, the VA pushes it to the active pipeline. The lead manager only sees and works the active pipeline leads.
00:41:15 Schedule and recordings
Points to Remember:
Start with one pipeline. Only create a second when the sales process is genuinely different, not to separate team members, markets, or marketing channels.
Keep the active pipeline to 8 or 9 stages that fit on one screen. Every stage should require active sales attention.
Use a 45-to-90-day test: if you cannot realistically close the lead in that window, move it to a warm pipeline.
Move warm and long-term nurture leads out of the active pipeline into their own pipeline managed by automations. This is the most common pipeline mistake.
Dead leads go in their own pipeline as a permanent archive. Treat it as a delete button.
Create separate transaction pipelines by exit strategy (wholesale vs fix-and-flip) when the stages differ.
Assign list stacking to a marketing VA or cold caller, not the lead manager. Use roles and permissions to separate access.
Sharad shared a Google Doc pipeline best practices guide on the call. Access it through the webinar recording at help.resimpli.com.
All webinar recordings are posted to Help > Self Help > Webinars the day after the call.