Define your pipeline stages

Sales pipelines collapse when stage names feel like guesswork. I learnt this the hard way after inheriting a CRM where “Proposal” meant anything from first deck to signed contract. Forecasts were fantasy and marketing could not tell which campaigns created momentum. Once I rebuilt the stages around the buyer’s real actions, deal velocity doubled and revenue calls stopped feeling like roulette.

This chapter walks you through my repeatable process to carve a buyer-verified pipeline. First you map the journey from first touch to closed deal. Then you label each turning point with clear, short names that everyone can pronounce the same way. Third you lock entry and exit criteria so a deal only moves when the customer moves. Finally you align marketing, sales, and ops around the shared definitions so the CRM becomes a single source of truth.

Begin by breaking down your buyer journey. Open three recent closed-won deals and three closed-lost deals. List every observable action the prospect took: booked discovery, attended demo, involved legal, confirmed budget. Ignore internal tasks like “sent slide deck” that buyers never see.

Group these actions into natural milestones. A typical sequence for B2B services looks like: Discovery call, Solution workshop, Commercial proposal, Decision, Contract review, Closed. If an action did not influence progress—such as a quick clarifying email—drop it. The goal is a skeleton of unavoidable steps, not an exhaustive diary.

Check the timeline between milestones. Long gaps signal hidden hurdles such as procurement or security review. Surface them now so you can design supporting assets later.

Bridge: with a skeletal journey on the table you can craft stage names that communicate those milestones at a glance.

Stage names must be short, buyer-centred, and mutually exclusive. Use plain verbs plus a noun: “Need agreed” beats jargon like “Qualified.” I default to six core stages for most service and consultancy pipelines:

• Discovery booked
• Needs confirmed
• Solution presented
• Proposal sent
• Decision pending
• Contract signed

Avoid overlapping labels such as “Negotiation” and “Decision” if, in practice, the same calls cover both. Fewer stages give clearer data. Spell the names exactly the same in slides, CRM, and playbooks to kill ambiguity.

Test the list with two junior reps. If they can place a sample deal in a stage without coaching, the language works.

Bridge: crisp names alone are not enough—you need hard gates that decide when a deal moves forward.

Define entry and exit criteria for every stage. Entry tells the rep what evidence is required to move a deal into the stage. Exit tells them what buyer action propels it to the next. Example:

Stage: Solution presented
Entry: Prospect attended live demo or workshop.
Exit: Prospect requested or accepted a commercial proposal.

Use observable events, not gut feel. “Prospect is excited” is useless; “Prospect emailed written approval to proceed to legal” is concrete. Document the criteria in a one-page Notion table and pin it in the CRM sidebar for reference.

Automate what you can. If the proposal is generated in HubSpot quotes, trigger the stage change automatically. Less manual data entry equals higher hygiene.

Bridge: now you must rally every stakeholder around these rules so data stays trustworthy beyond week one.

Alignment starts with a live walkthrough. Gather marketing, sales, customer success, and finance for a thirty-minute session. Show one real opportunity and move it through the new stages, citing the entry and exit evidence at each step. Invite questions until silence signals shared understanding.

Next update training materials. Record a five-minute Loom video explaining the pipeline and embed the Notion table below. New hires can self-serve instead of peppering veterans with repeat questions.

Finally bake compliance into reporting. Weekly pipeline reviews should highlight any deal that violates stage rules. Reps correct errors on the spot, reinforcing the standards. Marketing uses the same stages in attribution dashboards, closing the loop between lead source and revenue.

Bridge: with everyone aligned the pipeline becomes a decision engine, not a spreadsheet graveyard—time to wrap up the playbook.

A pipeline you can trust rests on four pillars. Map the buyer’s real journey, name each milestone in simple language, anchor stage moves to observable actions, and align every team around the same playbook. When these pillars stand firm, forecasts turn from fiction to fact and growth conversations shift from blame to optimisation.

Block two hours this week to run the exercise with your team. Export six recent deals, draft the stage list, and agree the criteria. By Friday your CRM should reflect reality, and by next quarter you will feel the compound lift of cleaner data, sharper forecasting, and faster deal cycles.