Pipeline management

Your pipeline contains dozens or hundreds of deals at various stages. Without proper organisation, you waste time scrolling through deals trying to remember which ones need attention, which are progressing well, and which have stalled.

This chapter configures personal deal views that show exactly what you need to see, implements deal stage progression automation that moves deals forward based on activities, tracks pipeline velocity so you know how quickly deals are progressing, and establishes systems to manage stale deals before they rot in your pipeline.

Effective pipeline management means you always know which deals to work today, which are on track, and which need intervention.

Deal views are saved filters that show specific subsets of your pipeline. Create views for different work modes and scenarios.

Your daily deal views

Navigate to Sales > Deals > Board view (or List view depending on preference).

Click "Add view" > "Create new view."

View 1: My open deals

Name: "My open deals"

Filters:

• Deal owner is [you]
• Deal stage is not Closed Won or Closed Lost

Sort by: Close date (soonest first)

This view shows everything you're actively working. Check it every morning to see today's priorities.

View 2: Closing this week

Name: "Closing this week"

Filters:

• Deal owner is [you]
• Close date is this week
• Deal stage is not Closed Won or Closed Lost

Sort by: Close date

This view shows deals that should close within 7 days. These need daily attention. Make sure you're doing everything possible to move them across the line.

View 3: Needs action

Name: "Needs action"

Filters:

• Deal owner is [you]
• Last activity date is more than 7 days ago
• Deal stage is not Closed Won or Closed Lost

Sort by: Last activity date (oldest first)

This view shows deals you've neglected. Review each one daily. Either re-engage the prospect or mark the deal closed-lost if it's truly dead.

View 4: High value

Name: "High value deals"

Filters:

• Deal owner is [you]
• Deal amount is greater than £25,000 (or whatever threshold represents high-value for your business)
• Deal stage is not Closed Won or Closed Lost

Sort by: Deal amount (highest first)

This view shows your biggest opportunities. These deals deserve extra attention and resources.

View 5: Recently won

Name: "Recently won"

Filters:

• Deal owner is [you]
• Deal stage is Closed Won
• Close date is within last 30 days

Sort by: Close date (newest first)

This view shows recent wins. Use it to remind yourself what's working and to identify patterns in successful deals.

Board view vs List view

HubSpot offers two ways to visualise deals:

Board view: Kanban-style columns for each deal stage. Deals appear as cards you drag between stages. Visual and intuitive for managing active pipeline.

List view: Spreadsheet-style rows showing all deal properties in columns. Better for analysing data, sorting by multiple criteria, bulk editing.

Use Board view for daily pipeline work. Use List view for analysis and reporting.

You can switch between views anytime. Your saved filters work in both views.

Sharing views with team

When creating a view, toggle "Share this view with all users" if you want teammates to see it.

Useful shared views:

• "Team deals closing this week" - shows whole team's imminent closes
• "Unassigned deals" - shows deals that need owners
• "High-value pipeline" - shows team's biggest opportunities

Don't share personal views ("My open deals") because they're specific to you.

Automate deal movement based on activities and milestones so deals progress consistently without manual stage updates.

Common progression triggers

Create workflows that automatically advance deals when specific conditions are met:

Demo delivered → Move to Proposal stage

Navigate to Automation > Workflows > Create workflow > Deal-based.

Name: "Auto-progress to Proposal after demo."

Enrollment trigger: "Deal stage is Demo delivered" AND "Associated meeting outcome is Completed" AND "Meeting title contains 'demo' or 'presentation'."

Action: Set property value > Deal stage > Proposal sent.

Optional: Add delay of 1 day before progressing, giving you time to actually send the proposal.

Proposal sent → Move to Negotiating

Enrollment trigger: "Deal stage is Proposal sent" AND "Quote sent date is known."

Wait: 3 days (gives prospect time to review).

If/then branch: "Has contact opened quote?"

• If Yes: Move to Negotiating stage
• If No: Create task "Follow up on proposal - they haven't opened it yet"

Contract sent → Move to Closed Won

Enrollment trigger: "Deal stage is Contract sent" AND "Associated document status is Signed."

Action: Set property value > Deal stage > Closed Won.

This automation ensures deals close automatically when contracts are signed, without requiring you to manually update stages.

Activity-based progression

Advance deals based on logged activities:

Call logged → Check if discovery completed

If you log a call with title "Discovery call" and outcome "Completed," workflow checks:

• Is deal in "Discovery" stage?
• If yes, move to "Demo scheduled" stage
• Create task: "Schedule demo with {{contact.firstname}}"

This progression logic reflects that discovery call completion means it's time to schedule a demo.

Preventing manual stage skipping

Some reps manually drag deals to later stages without actually completing required activities (gaming the pipeline).

Create validation workflows that check for required activities before allowing progression:

Validate proposal stage

Enrollment trigger: "Deal stage changed to Proposal sent."

If/then branch: "Has quote been sent?"

• If No: Move deal back to previous stage, create task "You moved deal to Proposal but haven't sent quote. Send quote first."
• If Yes: Allow deal to stay in Proposal stage

This enforces process discipline. Deals can't advance without proper activities.

Pipeline velocity measures how fast deals move through your pipeline. Understanding velocity helps you forecast when deals will close and identify bottlenecks.

Calculate average time in stage

Create custom report: "Average days in each deal stage."

Navigate to Reports > Create custom report > Deals.

Metrics:

• Average time in Discovery stage
• Average time in Demo stage
• Average time in Proposal stage
• Average time in Negotiating stage
• Average time in Contract sent stage

Filters: Deal owner is [you], Close date within last 90 days.

This report shows where deals typically spend the most time.

Example results:

• Discovery: 5 days average
• Demo: 3 days average
• Proposal: 14 days average (bottleneck!)
• Negotiating: 21 days average
• Contract sent: 7 days average

If proposal stage averages 14 days, you know deals stall after you send proposals. Investigate why. Are proposals unclear? Is pricing too high? Are decision-makers not involved in demo stage?

Time to close by deal source

Different lead sources might have different velocity:

Create report: "Average sales cycle by lead source."

Metrics:

• Average time from deal created to closed-won
• Segmented by: Original source (Organic search, Paid ads, Referral, Outbound, Event)

Example findings:

• Referral deals close in 30 days average
• Organic search leads close in 60 days average
• Outbound prospecting closes in 90 days average

This reveals which sources generate faster-closing deals. Prioritise those sources for pipeline building.

Deal progression tracking

Monitor how many deals move forward vs backwards vs stall:

Create report: "Deal stage progression analysis."

Metrics:

• Deals that progressed forward last 30 days
• Deals that moved backward last 30 days (red flag!)
• Deals with no stage change last 30 days (stalled)

Deal owner: [You]

If many deals are moving backward or stalling, your qualification or nurturing process needs improvement.

Personal velocity benchmark

Track your velocity over time to see if you're improving:

Create dashboard with these reports:

• Average sales cycle length (this month vs last month vs quarter average)
• Average time in each stage (trending)
• Number of deals progressed per week

Goal: reduce average sales cycle length quarter-over-quarter. If your average cycle was 75 days last quarter and 60 days this quarter, you're improving qualification or deal management.

Stale deals are opportunities with no recent activity. They clutter your pipeline and inflate your forecast with deals that will never close.

Identify stale deals

Use the "Needs action" view you created in Section 1 (deals with no activity in 7+ days).

Review this view daily. For each stale deal, decide:

Option 1: Re-engage

If the deal is genuinely viable but you've been distracted:

• Call the prospect today
• Send email referencing your last conversation and proposing next steps
• Update close date if timeline has shifted
• Log all activities

Option 2: Mark closed-lost

If the deal is truly dead (prospect ghosted, project cancelled, lost to competitor):

• Move to Closed Lost stage
• Select loss reason (configured in Chapter 2)
• Add note explaining what happened
• Don't let dead deals sit in open pipeline pretending to be real opportunities

Option 3: Push to future quarter

If deal is real but timing is wrong (prospect said "we'll revisit in Q3"):

• Update close date to realistic future date
• Add note: "Prospect confirmed interest but budget not available until Q3. Follow up in August."
• Set task reminder for appropriate follow-up time
• This keeps deal in pipeline but with accurate timing

Stale deal automation

Create workflow that alerts you about stale deals before they rot completely:

Workflow: Alert on 14-day inactivity

Enrollment trigger: "Deal stage is not Closed Won or Closed Lost" AND "Last activity date is more than 14 days ago" AND "Deal owner is [you]."

Action: Create task > "Deal {{deal.dealname}} has had no activity in 14 days. Re-engage or mark closed-lost." > Due today.

This catches stale deals automatically without requiring you to manually check.

Workflow: Auto-close very old deals

Enrollment trigger: "Deal stage is not Closed Won or Closed Lost" AND "Last activity date is more than 90 days ago" AND "Close date is in the past."

Wait: 7 days (gives you warning window).

If still no activity after 7 days: Move to Closed Lost stage, set loss reason to "No response/ghosted."

This automatically cleans up ancient deals that are clearly dead but weren't formally closed.

Quarterly pipeline cleanup

Schedule quarterly pipeline review (2 hours blocked on calendar).

Review every open deal. Ask:

• Is close date still realistic?
• Is deal amount accurate?
• Has anything changed in deal status that's not reflected in CRM?
• Should this deal be closed-lost?

Update all deals. This deep cleaning prevents pipeline from becoming fiction.

After cleanup, your open pipeline should contain only:

• Deals actively being worked
• Deals with realistic close dates
• Deals with accurate amounts
• Deals you genuinely believe can close

This cleaned pipeline becomes the foundation for credible forecasting.

Your pipeline management system is now operational. Personal views show exactly which deals need attention, stage progression automation moves deals forward based on activities, velocity tracking reveals how fast your deals progress and where bottlenecks exist, and stale deal management prevents pipeline rot.

Effective pipeline management means you spend time on deals that will actually close rather than nursing dead opportunities. Your pipeline reflects reality, not fantasy. Your forecast is credible because it's based on clean data.

Next, we'll build personal dashboards and forecasting tools that show whether you're on track to hit your targets.