How to Automate Slack Notifications for Aging Deals

You're looking to automatically notify deal owners in Slack when their deals reach certain age milestones (e.g., 100 days, 150 days). You've tried setting this up manually without success, and that's because automation is the key here! Let's explore how to set up a workflow to achieve this.

The following steps outline how to create an automated workflow that triggers Slack notifications based on a deal's age. We'll cover two main approaches: one for handling single thresholds and another for managing multiple age milestones within a single workflow.

Approach 1: Single Threshold Workflow (e.g., Notifying at 100 Days)

This approach is straightforward if you want a simple notification for a single age threshold.

1. Navigate to the workflow or automation section of your platform.
2. Create a new workflow and choose "Deal-based" as the trigger.
3. Select the trigger type as "When filter criteria is met."
   1. Find the "Create Date" field.
   2. Set the condition to "is more than X days ago" (replace "X" with your desired threshold, e.g., 100).
   3. Crucially, add a filter to exclude closed deals: Add a filter for "Deal Stage" and ensure it "is not any of" your "Closed Won" and "Closed Lost" stages. This prevents notifications for deals that are no longer active.
   4. Enable re-enrollment. This is important because a deal might initially be under 100 days and then cross that threshold later. Enabling re-enrollment ensures the workflow triggers when the criteria are met at any point in the deal's lifecycle (as long as it's not closed).Define your filter criteria:
4. Add an action to your workflow and choose the "Send Slack notification" action.
5. Configure the notification:
   1. Connect to your Slack workspace if you haven't already.
   2. Select the Slack channel or user you want to send the notification to (ideally, the "Deal Owner"). 
   3. Craft your notification message. Include relevant deal information like:
      • Deal Name
      • Deal Stage
      • Create Date
      • The age threshold that was reached (e.g., "This deal is now over 100 days old.")
      • A link to the deal record in your CRM.
6. Carefully review all the settings of your workflow, especially the enrollment triggers and the Slack notification content.
7. Once you're satisfied, activate the workflow.

Alternative Approach: Focusing on Inactivity

An alternative approach focuses on deals where there hasn't been recent activity:

Steps:

1. Create a Deal-Based Workflow: (Same as Step 1 in Approach 1)

2. Set Enrollment Trigger Based on Inactivity:

   • Select "When filter criteria is met."
   • Define your filter criteria using "AND" and "OR" logic:
     • Condition Group 1:
       • "Last activity date is more than X days ago" (replace "X" with your desired inactivity period, e.g., 30 days)
       • AND "Next activity date is unknown" (or "is not set")
     • OR Condition Group 2:
       • "Last activity date is unknown" (or "is not set")
       • AND "Next activity date is unknown" (or "is not set")
   • Exclude closed deals as described in Approach 1.

3. Enable Re-enrollment

4. Add the Slack Notification Action: (Same as Approach 1, but tailor the message to reflect inactivity). Your message could say something like: "This deal hasn't had any activity in the last X days and has no upcoming activities."

5. Review and Activate: (Same as Approach 1)

By implementing one of these workflow approaches, you can effectively automate Slack notifications for aging deals, helping your sales team stay on top of their pipeline and prioritise older opportunities. Remember to choose the approach that best aligns with your team's needs and your CRM platform's capabilities.

Author: Bridget Pyne

Digital Marketing Manager