How to Auto Convert New Leads if the Opportunity is in Pipeline

Andrew Pease
March 12, 2025
min to read

How to Auto Convert New Leads if the Opportunity is in Pipeline

Andrew Pease
March 14, 2025
min to read

How to automatically convert new leads when they enter the pipeline

Sales teams are often leaving money on the table without even realizing it.

Here’s the problem: When a new lead from an existing opportunity engages (whether at an event, a webinar, or through a referral) most AEs don’t follow up because they simply don’t know about them. These leads aren’t flagged. There’s no system to notify them. So while a key decision-maker just signaled interest, your AE is focused elsewhere.

That’s a massive missed opportunity. Deals aren’t won by a single champion anymore.

More people engaging = bigger influence = higher chances of winning the deal.

But if your team doesn’t see these leads, they can’t act. And if they don’t act, someone else will.

Distro has an easy solution to this problem.

1. Set up smart matching rules with Distro

With Distro, you can automatically match new leads to existing accounts and opportunities using custom rules in our Matching Hub.

  • Use Account matching if you track active opps at the account level.
  • Use Opportunity matching to instantly identify leads tied to an opp in the pipeline. (e.g., moved past Stage 0)

2. Trigger an automated flow

Once your rules are set, any new lead that meets the criteria will automatically trigger a flow allowing you to take action fast.

Assign the new lead to the account/opportunity owner or, if preferred, round-robin it to the AE’s BDR team.

Auto-convert the lead

  • This way, AEs no longer need to manually check lead lists for companies they’re already working.
  • BDRs don’t have to track active opportunities or remember who owns them to convert and notify the AE.

Set an SLA for follow-up

  • If no action is taken within a specific time frame, the lead is reassigned so no lead stays untouched and every opportunity gets the attention it deserves.

Create a task for instant action with full visibility

  • Instead of waiting days or never realizing the lead exists your team gets instant access to crucial contacts.

This speeds up how quickly your AEs can access new leads and key deal data. What used to take days or even weeks now happens automatically, without any extra effort.

How it works:

A new lead comes in from a company with an active opportunity → Lead is converted to a Contact → AE is immediately assigned → Follow-up event is created → SLA is set → Notification sent. Done.

You can customize the matching rules to trigger only when an opportunity meets specific criteria: pipeline stage, deal size, or any other condition that fits your workflow.

The impact? Faster engagement, no missed opportunities, and a system that works exactly the way you need it to.

What’s next?

Do it for yourself. Set up all your lead routing rules in hours with Distro. Book a demo here and you’ll all set up!

Andrew Pease

Andrew Pease is the Head of RevOps Solutions at Chili Piper. He has over 10+ years of RevOps experience — and loves digging into complex problems and coming out with creative solutions. When he's not staring at a computer screen, you can probably find him at a concert or hanging out with hs dog, Monkey.

How to automatically convert new leads when they enter the pipeline

Sales teams are often leaving money on the table without even realizing it.

Here’s the problem: When a new lead from an existing opportunity engages (whether at an event, a webinar, or through a referral) most AEs don’t follow up because they simply don’t know about them. These leads aren’t flagged. There’s no system to notify them. So while a key decision-maker just signaled interest, your AE is focused elsewhere.

That’s a massive missed opportunity. Deals aren’t won by a single champion anymore.

More people engaging = bigger influence = higher chances of winning the deal.

But if your team doesn’t see these leads, they can’t act. And if they don’t act, someone else will.

Distro has an easy solution to this problem.

1. Set up smart matching rules with Distro

With Distro, you can automatically match new leads to existing accounts and opportunities using custom rules in our Matching Hub.

  • Use Account matching if you track active opps at the account level.
  • Use Opportunity matching to instantly identify leads tied to an opp in the pipeline. (e.g., moved past Stage 0)

2. Trigger an automated flow

Once your rules are set, any new lead that meets the criteria will automatically trigger a flow allowing you to take action fast.

Assign the new lead to the account/opportunity owner or, if preferred, round-robin it to the AE’s BDR team.

Auto-convert the lead

  • This way, AEs no longer need to manually check lead lists for companies they’re already working.
  • BDRs don’t have to track active opportunities or remember who owns them to convert and notify the AE.

Set an SLA for follow-up

  • If no action is taken within a specific time frame, the lead is reassigned so no lead stays untouched and every opportunity gets the attention it deserves.

Create a task for instant action with full visibility

  • Instead of waiting days or never realizing the lead exists your team gets instant access to crucial contacts.

This speeds up how quickly your AEs can access new leads and key deal data. What used to take days or even weeks now happens automatically, without any extra effort.

How it works:

A new lead comes in from a company with an active opportunity → Lead is converted to a Contact → AE is immediately assigned → Follow-up event is created → SLA is set → Notification sent. Done.

You can customize the matching rules to trigger only when an opportunity meets specific criteria: pipeline stage, deal size, or any other condition that fits your workflow.

The impact? Faster engagement, no missed opportunities, and a system that works exactly the way you need it to.

What’s next?

Do it for yourself. Set up all your lead routing rules in hours with Distro. Book a demo here and you’ll all set up!

Lead routing you can set and forget

Improve your workflows and bring in more pipeline with Distro.

Get a demo
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