The 5 sales pipeline stages every small team needs

Why fewer stages work better

Pipelines with ten stages look thorough but nobody agrees on what each one means. Five clear stages, each with an exit rule, give you a forecast you can trust.

Defining each stage

Lead: someone showed interest. Qualified: they have the budget, need and timeline. Proposal: you've sent pricing. Negotiation: they're reviewing terms. Won: signed.

Attach a probability to each stage — for example 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% — and multiply by deal value to get a weighted forecast.

Automate the hand-offs

When a deal moves to Proposal, create a follow-up task for three days later. When it hits Won, create an onboarding task. Simple automations like these stop deals slipping through the cracks.