Recycling deals

This article covers the practical side of recycling deals in Rizer — how to find deals that need recycling, how to recycle them, and how to manage them once they’re in the system. Whether you’re recycling from HubSpot or from Rizer, working with one deal or fifty, this guide walks you through it.

Finding deals to recycle

Before you can recycle a deal, you need to find it. Where deals appear depends on whether you have auto-recycle enabled.

If auto-recycle is enabled

With auto-recycle on, lost deals automatically import into Rizer when they’re marked closed-lost in HubSpot. They go directly to the Recycling tab with AI-suggested recycle reasons and default callback dates.

You won’t find much in the Pre-recycling tab because deals skip that step. Instead, your job is to review the deals in Recycling and make sure the AI suggestions are accurate.

Go to Deals > Recycling to see deals that have been automatically imported. For recent imports, it’s worth checking that:

• The recycle reason matches what actually happened
• The callback date makes sense for the situation
• Competitor information is captured if relevant
• Missing features are linked if that’s why the deal was lost

If auto-recycle is disabled

With auto-recycle off, lost deals from HubSpot land in the Pre-recycling tab. They wait there for someone to review them and decide whether they’re worth tracking.

Also, sales reps can recycle directly from HubSpot by using the modal that appears when marking a deal as Closed lost.

Go to Deals > Pre-recycling to see your candidates for recycling.

The list shows key information about each deal:

• Lost date — When the deal was marked closed-lost in HubSpot
• Owner — The HubSpot deal owner
• Company — The associated company and deal name
• Status — The closed-lost stage from HubSpot
• Products — Products included in the deal
• Deal value — Total value of the opportunity

Filtering and searching

Both lists support filtering to help you find specific deals:

Product filter — Show only deals involving specific products. Useful if you want to focus on one product line at a time.

Year filter — Narrow down to deals lost in a specific year. Helpful for working through historical backlog.

Month filter — Further narrow to a specific month within the selected year.

Search — Find specific companies or contacts by typing their name.

Use these filters to break a large list into manageable chunks. Instead of staring at 500 deals, filter to one product and one quarter, work through those, then move to the next batch.

Recycling a single deal

Let’s walk through recycling one deal. You can do this from HubSpot (most common for day-to-day work) or from Rizer (useful when working through batches).

Recycling from HubSpot

This is how most recycling happens. Your team is already in HubSpot working deals, so recycling from there keeps everything in context.

1. Open a deal in HubSpot.
2. Find the Rizer card in the right sidebar.
3. Click Recycle in Rizer.
4. The recycling form opens with AI suggestions pre-filled.
5. Review and adjust the Recycle reason if needed.
6. Review and adjust the Callback date if needed.
7. Add competitor information if you know who won the deal.
8. Link to a missing feature if that’s why the deal was lost.
9. Click Save.

The deal immediately appears in Rizer’s Recycling list, being tracked until the callback date arrives.

Understanding the recycling form

The recycling form captures the information Rizer needs to track the deal effectively. Let’s go through each section.

Recycle reason

This is the most important field. It captures why the deal was lost, which affects:

• The default callback timing
• How you’ll approach re-engagement
• Reporting and pattern analysis
• Whether the deal can auto-trigger (for missing features)

Available reasons:

Product-related:

• Missing feature — They needed functionality you don’t have
• Implementation too complex — Your solution required too much effort to implement

Pricing-related:

• Too expensive — Price was too high
• Unclear value / ROI — They couldn’t justify the investment
• Better price by competitor — Someone else offered a lower price
• Buyer requested a discount — They wanted a discount you couldn’t provide
• No available budget — They wanted to buy but didn’t have money allocated

Buyer readiness:

• Not the right time — Everything else was fine, but timing didn’t work

Decision-maker obstacles:

• No decision-making authority — Your contact couldn’t get approval
• Internal misalignment — Stakeholders couldn’t agree

Trust and confidence:

• Didn’t trust vendor/brand — Concerns about your company’s ability to deliver

Engagement challenges:

• Buyer stopped responding — They went dark
• No feedback provided — The deal ended without explanation

If the deal has multiple products:

Each product needs its own recycle reason. They can be different — maybe Product A was too expensive while Product B was missing a feature. The form shows each product with its own dropdown.

AI suggestions:

The AI analyzes deal notes and history to suggest a reason. It’s often right, but not always. If you know something the AI doesn’t — maybe you had a conversation that wasn’t logged — override the suggestion.

Callback date

When should you follow up? The form suggests a date:

• “No available budget” might suggest 6 months
• “Not the right time” might suggest 3 months
• “Missing feature” might suggest when the feature is expected to ship

When to accept the suggested:

If you don’t have specific information about when circumstances will change, the default is a reasonable starting point. It’s based on typical patterns for that type of loss.

When to set a custom date:

Use your own date when you have specific knowledge:

• “They said check back after January when their fiscal year starts”
• “Their contract with the competitor renews in November”
• “The decision-maker is on leave until September”
• “They’re going through a merger that should close in Q3”

Specific information beats generic defaults. If you know when to follow up, set that date.

Thinking about timing:

Consider how long your sales cycle is. If deals take 3 months to close, and you want to close by year-end, you need to re-engage by October at the latest. Work backward from when you want the outcome.

Competitor information

If a competitor won the deal, capture that here. This section has several fields:

Switched to:

What did the prospect choose instead of you?

• Competitor — A named competitor won
• In-house solution — They decided to build their own
• No solution — They decided not to solve the problem at all
• Unknown — You don’t know what they chose

Competitor name:

If they switched to a competitor, which one? Select from your configured competitors or add a new one on the fly.

Competitor product:

If you know the specific product, select it. This enables more detailed competitive analysis.

Satisfaction:

How satisfied does the prospect seem with their choice? This is subjective — based on what you’ve heard or inferred. It helps prioritize re-engagement later. Someone unhappy with their choice is warmer than someone thrilled with it.

Contract timing:

If you know when the competitor contract started or when it renews, record it. This helps time your callback around renewal periods.

Missing feature

If the deal was lost because you’re missing a feature, link it here:

Feature selection:

Pick from your tracked missing features. If the feature isn’t in the list yet, you can add it from this form.

Importance rating:

How critical was this feature to the deal? Rate from 1-5:

• 5 — Deal-breaker; couldn’t proceed without it
• 4 — Very important; major factor in the decision
• 3 — Important; would significantly improve their experience
• 2 — Nice to have; helpful but not critical
• 1 — Minor; mentioned but not a real factor

This rating helps prioritize which features to build. A feature that’s a 5 on ten deals is more urgent than one that’s a 2 on twenty deals.

Why this matters:

When you mark that feature as Completed in Rizer, all deals linked to it automatically move to Ready for callback. Your team gets notified that it’s time to reach out with the good news.

Sales execution issues

The AI sometimes identifies potential process problems that contributed to the loss:

• Long gap between demo and follow-up
• Only one stakeholder engaged when multiple were involved
• Slow response to prospect questions
• Missing steps in your sales process

These appear as suggestions in the form. You can accept them, dismiss them, or select your own.

This information shows up in reporting and helps identify coaching opportunities. If the same issues keep appearing, there’s a process problem to address.

Managing recycled deals

Once deals are in recycling, you’ll occasionally need to update them. Here’s how to manage deals in the Recycling list.

Viewing Deal Details

1. Go to Deals > Recycling.
2. Click any deal row to view it.

The view shows everything about the recycled deal:

• Contact and company information
• Original deal value and products
• Recycle reason and callback date
• Competitor information
• Linked missing features
• Activity timeline

Editing recycling details

Things change. Maybe you learned new information, or the original entry was wrong. To update a recycled deal:

1. Find the deal in In recycling.
2. Click the row to expand it.
3. Click Edit.
4. Update whatever needs changing:
   • Recycle reason
   • Callback date
   • Competitor information
   • Missing feature links
5. Click Save.

Changes take effect immediately. If you change the callback date to today or earlier, the deal moves to Ready for callback.

Marking a deal as ready early

Sometimes you want to act on a deal before its scheduled callback date:

• The prospect reached out to you
• You heard about a change in their situation
• An opportunity came up that’s worth pursuing now

To manually move a deal to ready:

1. Find the deal in Recycling.
2. Click Mark ready for callback.

The deal immediately moves to the Ready for callback tab.

Filtering and finding deals

As your recycling list grows, finding specific deals becomes important.

Filter options

The Recycling tab offers several filters:

Product filter — Show deals involving specific products. Useful for product-focused reviews or when a product team wants to see their deals.

Owner filter — Show deals assigned to specific reps. Useful for managers reviewing team performance or reps focusing on their own deals.

Recycle reason filter — Show deals with specific loss reasons. Useful for pattern analysis or when following up on a specific issue.

Callback date range — Show deals with callbacks in a specific period. Useful for planning upcoming re-engagement work.

Year/Month filter — Show deals lost in a specific time period.

Search

The search box finds deals by:

• Company name
• Contact name
• Deal name

Type a few characters and matching deals appear.

Sorting

Click column headers to sort by:

• Lost date (when the deal was originally lost)
• Callback date (when it’s scheduled for follow-up)
• Deal value (highest or lowest first)

Sorting by callback date with soonest first shows you what’s coming up. Sorting by value with highest first helps you prioritize.

Returning deals to the HubSpot pipeline

When a deal reaches its callback date and you decide to pursue it, you re-engage by creating a new opportunity in HubSpot.

Finding ready deals

1. Go to Deals > Ready for callback.
2. You’ll see deals that have reached their callback date or triggered early.

Each deal shows:

• Ready date — When the deal became ready for callback
• Company — Company name and contacts
• Owner — Current and suggested next owner
• Triggered by — What caused the deal to become ready (date arrived, feature shipped, manual)
• Recycle reasons — Why each product was lost
• Products — Products with competitor info
• Deal value — Original value
• AI suggestions — Recommendations for re-engagement approach

Re-engaging a single deal

1. Click a deal to view its details.
2. Review the information — remind yourself why it was lost and what might have changed.
3. Click Re-engage prospect.
4. Choose whether to create a Lead or Deal in HubSpot:
   • Lead if the opportunity needs re-qualification
   • Deal if it’s ready for your sales pipeline
5. Select which owner should be assigned the new record.
6. Click Create.

[Screenshot: Re-engage modal showing the lead/deal radio buttons and owner selection dropdown]

Rizer creates a new record in HubSpot immediately. You’ll see a confirmation with a link to the new opportunity.

Re-engaging multiple deals

When you have several ready deals to process:

1. In the Ready for callback list, check the box next to each deal you want to re-engage.
2. Click Re-engage prospect (the bulk action button at the top).
3. Choose Lead or Deal — this applies to all selected deals.
4. Assign owners:
   • Same owner for all, or
   • Individual owners for each deal
5. Click Create.

All the new records get created in HubSpot. You’ll see a summary showing successes and any failures.

What gets created in HubSpot

The new record includes:

• Association to the same contact from the original deal
• Association to the same company
• Deal or lead name (with an indicator that it’s from recycling)
• Product information (for deals)
• The owner you selected

This gives your team a clean slate while keeping the relationship context through contact and company associations.

What happens to the recycled deal

After re-engagement, the original recycled deal stays in Rizer for tracking:

• It’s linked to the new HubSpot opportunity
• Rizer watches the new deal’s progress
• If the new deal closes as won, the recycled deal updates to Won
• If the new deal is lost again, you can recycle it for another attempt

Auto-creation settings

During setup, you configured an auto-creation strategy that controls how Rizer creates records in HubSpot when deals become ready.

Understanding the strategies

Unlimited — Rizer creates records in HubSpot as soon as deals become ready. No limits. Good if your team can handle variable volume.

Limited — Rizer creates up to a set number of records per owner per day or week. Deals beyond the limit wait in the queue until the next period. Good for controlling the pace.

None — Rizer never auto-creates records. All re-engagement is manual. Good if you want full control.

How limited works

With a limited strategy, say “5 deals per week per owner”:

1. On Monday, three deals become ready for Rep A
2. Rizer auto-creates those three in HubSpot
3. On Wednesday, four more deals become ready for Rep A
4. Rizer creates two more (hitting the limit of 5 for the week)
5. The remaining two wait in Ready for callback until next week

You can also restrict which days auto-creation happens. Maybe only Monday through Thursday, so reps don’t get new deals on Friday.

Changing the strategy

If your current strategy isn’t working:

1. Go to Settings > Integrations > HubSpot > Settings.
2. Click the Deal Export tab.
3. Update the Auto-creation strategy section.
4. Click Save.

Changes apply immediately to all deals in Ready for callback.

Tips for effective deal recycling

A few practices that help teams get more from recycling:

Recycle promptly

The sooner you recycle a lost deal, the better. Details are fresh, notes are recent, and you remember what happened. Waiting weeks or months means relying on incomplete records and fuzzy memories.

If auto-recycle is on, review new imports within a day or two to verify accuracy. If it’s off, review the Not in recycling list at least weekly.

Be specific about reasons

“Buyer stopped responding” is less useful than knowing they stopped responding after you sent pricing. The more specific your recycle reason, the better you can tailor re-engagement.

If the standard reasons don’t capture what happened, add notes. “Too expensive” plus a note saying “specifically balked at implementation fees” tells you what to address when you follow up.

Capture competitor intel

When you lose to a competitor, record as much as you know:

• Which competitor and which product
• What made them choose that option
• Contract timing if you can find out
• How satisfied they seemed with the choice

This intel is gold for timing re-engagement and crafting your message.

Review AI suggestions

The AI is helpful but not perfect. It’s working from deal notes, which may be incomplete. Take 30 seconds to verify suggestions make sense, especially for important deals.

Keep callback dates realistic

A callback date that’s too aggressive (2 weeks when nothing will change that fast) just creates noise. A callback date that’s too conservative (2 years from now) means you might miss the window.

Think about when circumstances could realistically change and set the date accordingly. You can always adjust later if you learn new information.

Don’t hoard ready deals

When deals hit Ready for callback, act on them. Review, decide, and either re-engage or mark completed. Letting deals pile up in the ready queue defeats the purpose — you’re back to lost deals sitting unworked.

Make reviewing ready deals part of your regular rhythm. Daily if you have high volume, at least weekly otherwise.