Sales pipeline: which stages to use and how to track it
Ask a salesperson how sales are going and you'll hear "fine, there are a few conversations". A sales pipeline turns "a few conversations" into something you can see: how many deals are in progress, where each one stands, where they get stuck and how much is likely to come in this month.
What a sales pipeline is
It's the path every sale follows, split into stages: from the first conversation to "yes" or "no". Every sale in progress (a deal, in the CRM) sits in exactly one stage and moves forward as the customer makes decisions.
The pipeline answers three questions:
- How many deals are in progress, and worth how much?
- Where do they stall? If many quotes sent never reach negotiation, the problem is in the quotes.
- How much will we bring in this month? Values, close dates and probabilities add up to a forecast.
Stages follow what the customer does, not what you do
The most common mistake is a stage for every internal task: "to call", "to prepare the quote", "to check with the boss". Those are tasks, not stages. A stage changes when the customer has taken a step.
An example that fits many service businesses:
- New enquiry — the customer asked for something; you don't know yet how serious they are.
- Qualified — you've talked: they have the need and the budget, and they decide (or you know who does).
- Quote sent — they have the price and terms in writing.
- Negotiation — you're discussing details: timing, discount, contract.
- Won or Lost.
For products with repeat deliveries it may look different (Enquiry → Sample sent → Trial order → Contract), and in real estate different again (Enquiry → Viewing → Offer → Deposit). Two rules matter:
- Between 4 and 7 open stages. With more, nobody remembers the difference between them.
- Every stage has a clear exit criterion. "Quote sent" means the quote has gone out, not that "we're working on it".
Leads and deals
Not every enquiry is a sale. A lead is someone who asked for something. Only after the first conversation, once you can see it's a real sale, does the lead get converted into a customer with a deal in the pipeline. That keeps the pipeline free of enquiries nobody ever answered, and keeps its numbers honest.
What every deal needs
- A value — even a rough one. Without it the pipeline shows the number of sales but not the money.
- A close date — when you think the customer will decide. Keep it up to date: the forecast comes from it.
- An owner — one person.
- A next step — an activity with a date: a call, a meeting, sending the quote. A deal with no next step is a deal that gets forgotten.
Each stage's probability
Each stage gets a probability: how often a sale at that stage ends up won. At first you estimate it (say 10% for a new enquiry, 30% qualified, 50% quote sent, 70% negotiation), and after a few months you correct it based on what actually happened.
This month's forecast = sales already won + the value of every open deal closing this month, multiplied by its stage's probability.
How to set it up in Intrawebix CRM
- An administrator sets up the stages in Settings → Pipelines: the name, the Probability and the stage type (open, won or lost). You can have several pipelines, for example one for projects and one for subscriptions.
- In Deals, the Kanban view shows the pipeline as columns, with the total for each stage. You move a deal by dragging its card to the next column.
- Days until stale on each stage flags deals with no activity for that many days: a red border on the card and the Stale filter in the list.
- When a deal moves to a lost stage, the CRM asks Why was it lost?. The list of reasons lives in Pipelines too.
- Targets (in Settings) puts each salesperson's actual and forecast for the month next to their target, worked out from the deals automatically.
The pipeline review: 30 minutes a week
Once a week the sales team goes through the pipeline from right to left — starting with the deals closest to signing:
- What closes this month? For each one: what's still missing and who takes the next step.
- What's stale? Every flagged deal either gets a new step with a date or is closed as lost.
- Why did we lose? The reasons from the past month. If "price" comes up a lot, the problem may be who you're selling to, not the price.
Close dead deals without mercy. A pipeline full of six-month-old deals looks good but lies: the forecast is inflated and nobody believes it any more.
Common mistakes
- Too many stages, or stages that are really tasks.
- Deals with no value and no close date. Forecasting becomes impossible.
- Stages moved "out of optimism". The quote hasn't gone out, but the card is already in "Quote sent".
- No lost deals at all. It means nobody closes them, not that none are lost.
Deals, pipelines and targets are included in every plan; try them in the free 30-day trial with the sample data loaded.