salespipeline

A sales pipeline is a structured framework that tracks potential sales opportunities as they move through a series of defined stages from initial contact to final sale. It provides a live view of remaining deals, helping sales teams manage work in progress, forecast revenue, and optimize selling activities.

While exact stages vary by organization, common steps include Prospecting or Lead Capture, Qualification, Needs Analysis, Proposal or Quote, Negotiation, and Closed Won or Closed Lost. Some models add Discovery, Demo, or Contract Review. The pipeline focuses on opportunities and their progress, whereas the term funnel emphasizes conversion and volume across stages.

Uses include revenue forecasting, prioritization of activities, and resource planning. Typical metrics tracked in a pipeline are pipeline value, number of opportunities, win rate, average deal size, sales cycle length, stage-to-stage conversion rates, and forecast accuracy. Many pipelines assign probability percentages to stages to aid forecasting.

Management is usually performed in a customer relationship management (CRM) system. Opportunities should be updated regularly by sales personnel to reflect current stage and next steps. Inaccurate or stale data can distort forecasts and undermine pipeline health, so data hygiene and routine reviews are important.

Best practices include aligning the pipeline with the overall sales process and with marketing efforts, defining clear criteria for advancing between stages, and standardizing next steps. Regular pipeline reviews, automation, and analytics help identify bottlenecks and improve win rates. Pipelines can be tailored to industry, deal size, and sales model.