How to Edit a Lead or Change Its Stage

Summary

Overview: Correct a lead's name, company, email or phone, or move the lead to another stage. Pippin moves leads through stages on its own as the conversation goes on; change the stage yourself when you know better.

Prerequisites:

• You can open the lead. Sales Reps can open the leads assigned to them from the Leads page.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Edit the lead's details

1. Open the lead: click Leads in the left menu, then click the lead's row. (From the Inbox, click Show lead details, then View Full Lead.)
2. On the Overview tab, find the Lead Details card. It lists Company, Lead Name, Email and Phone, each with a pencil button.
3. Click the pencil next to the field you want to change. The field opens for editing.
4. Type the new value, then click Save (or press Enter). Click Cancel (or press Esc) to leave the field as it was.

You edit one field at a time: while one field is open, the other pencils are greyed out. Lead Name can't be empty. To remove a saved phone number, clear Phone and click Save.

If the lead came in on a channel without an email address (for example SMS, WhatsApp or a phone call), the Email field opens empty with a note such as "No email on file yet — this lead came in on SMS. Add one to let follow-ups fall back to email."

Step 2: Change the stage from the lead's page

1. Click More Actions at the top right of the lead's page, then click Change status.
2. In Status, choose the new stage. It starts on — Choose a status — every time you open the window.
3. If you choose Quote Sent, Quote Viewed, Quote Accepted or Meeting Booked, confirm the message that asks whether to set the status directly without going through the normal flow.
4. Click Save.

Change status is also in More Actions on an archived lead.

The stages you can pick are New, Qualified, Reply Sent, Quote Requested, Quote Drafted, Quote Sent, Quote Viewed, Quote Accepted, Meeting Requested, Meeting Link Sent and Meeting Booked. The quote stages appear only when your business type sends quotes. To close a lead, use Mark Won or Mark Lost. See How to Mark a Lead Won or Lost.

Step 3: Change the stage on the Leads board

1. On the Leads page, click the Kanban view button at the top right.
2. Drag the lead's card to another column: New, Qualifying, Quote Sent, Meeting Booked, In Follow-Up, Won or Lost.
3. The card stays in its new column. If the change can't be saved, it moves back and you see "Couldn't move this lead. Please try again."
4. Dropping a card on Won or Lost opens a confirmation first. See How to Mark a Lead Won or Lost.

Verify It Worked

Success criteria:

• The lead's page shows the new details, and the progress line under the header highlights the new stage.
• On the lead's Updates tab, a line such as "<your name> changed status from New to Qualified" records the change.

Troubleshooting

Common errors

• "Lead name is required.": Fix: enter a name.
• "Enter a valid email address." / "Enter a valid phone number.": Fix: correct the format.
• "Enter a valid email address; an existing email cannot be cleared.": you emptied Email on a lead that already has an address. Fix: type the new address, or click Cancel.
• "Couldn't save this change. Please try again.": the field was not saved and stays open. Fix: click Save again.
• "Couldn't change the status. Please try again.": the stage didn't change. Fix: click Save again.

Limitations & considerations

• Won and Lost are not in the Status list (the window says Won/Lost are set via the Mark Won / Mark Lost actions, not here.). Use Mark Won or Mark Lost in More Actions, or drag the card to Won or Lost on the board.
• Each field saves on its own, so two teammates editing different fields of the same lead don't overwrite each other.
• Moving a lead to Won or Lost ends its follow-up sequence, and Pippin stops replying to it.
• If you connected Bigin by Zoho or Monday.com, name, company, email, phone and stage changes are sent to your CRM.
• You can replace a saved email address, but you can't remove it.

Next Steps & Related Resources

• Next steps:
  • How to Mark a Lead Won or Lost
• Related articles:
  • How Pippin Moves a Lead Through Stages
  • How to Use the Leads Table, Board and Filters
  • How to Read a Lead's Profile
  • How to Add Custom Fields to Leads

Need more help? For more information and assistance, please send an email to support@pippify.ai.

Last Updated: 10/19/2026