Hey Minesh Tailor, salesforce to pipedrive is a proper adjustment, I won't lie 😅
Pipedrive's Leads inbox is basically just a waiting room, there's no real stage progression built in, which is frustrating when you're used to Salesforce's lead object.
Two things that actually work in practice:
First, build a separate pipeline just for pre-deal stages. Call it whatever makes sense, "Lead Pipeline", "Prospecting", whatever. mql then sql thn qualified, then convert to your main deal pipeline when they're ready. It's a bit of a hack but most Pipedrive teams end up doing some version of this.
Second , if you need automation on top of that (lead assignment, notifications, lifecycle triggers) you're probably looking at make or zapier to fill the gaps Pipedrive leaves.
The honest truth though, if you're coming from Salesforce and trying to build anything resembling a proper lead lifecycle, you're going to keep hitting pipedrive's ceiling. might be worth having that crm conversation sooner rather than later depending on where the business is heading.
Happy to chat through it if useful, I deal with this kind of thing a lot.