Almost every small business has tried a CRM. Most have a graveyard of half-updated deals to show for it. The tool usually isn’t the problem — the pipeline is. Twelve stages, vague names, no rules about when a deal moves. Within a month nobody trusts it, so nobody updates it, so it becomes fiction.
Salesforce’s State of Sales research found reps spend only 28% of their week actually selling. A pipeline that takes effort to maintain makes that worse. A good one does the opposite: it tells you, in seconds, who to call today.
Here’s a seven-stage pipeline built to stay true.
The 7 stages (and the rule for leaving each one)
| Stage | What it means | Moves on when… |
|---|---|---|
| 1. New | Just arrived. Nobody has spoken to them. | You’ve had a real two-way conversation (not just left a voicemail). |
| 2. Contacted | You’ve reached them and understood what they want. | You’ve confirmed need, rough budget and timing — and they’re a fit. |
| 3. Qualified | A good fit, interested, worth your time. | You’ve sent a price, quote or proposal. |
| 4. Proposal | They have your offer in writing. | They’re discussing terms, scope or price with you. |
| 5. Negotiation | Agreeing the final details. | They’ve said yes and paid or signed → Won. Or said no → Lost. |
| 6. Won | A customer. 🎉 | Hand over to delivery; ask for a review later. |
| 7. Lost | Not buying now. Record why. | Optional win-back in 30–90 days. |
Notice the exit rules describe what the customer did, not how you feel about the deal. “They seemed keen” isn’t a stage. “They received the quote” is.
Why “Lost” is the most important stage
Dead deals left open poison your pipeline. They inflate your forecast, clutter your board and hide the live deals. Be ruthless: if a lead hasn’t responded after your full follow-up sequence, mark it Lost with a reason. Common reasons to track:
- Price
- Timing (“maybe next quarter”)
- Chose a competitor
- Not a fit (wrong area, wrong service)
- No response
After three months, these reasons are a goldmine. If “no response” dominates, your speed to lead is the problem. If “price” dominates, it’s your offer or your targeting.
The three numbers that matter
1. Stage conversion rates
What share of leads move from each stage to the next? If 80% of New leads get Contacted but only 20% of Contacted leads become Qualified, your ads may be attracting the wrong people. If plenty get Proposals but few are Won, look at price, proposal quality or follow-up.
2. Time in stage
Deals that sit too long rarely close. Set a simple alarm: anything in New for more than a day, or in Proposal for more than a week without contact, needs a task.
3. Weighted pipeline value
Multiply each deal’s value by a rough probability for its stage, then add them up. It’s not precise — it’s a sanity check on whether next month is going to be OK.
| Stage | Example probability |
|---|---|
| New | 5% |
| Contacted | 10% |
| Qualified | 25% |
| Proposal | 40% |
| Negotiation | 70% |
These are starting points. After a few months, replace them with your own historical rates.
The 15-minute weekly pipeline review
- Move what moved (5 min). Drag every deal that changed to its true stage.
- Kill what’s dead (3 min). Mark anything with no response after your full sequence as Lost, with a reason.
- Unstick what’s stuck (5 min). Every deal untouched for 7+ days gets a task with a date.
- Check the top (2 min). Are enough new leads coming in to hit next month’s target? If not, that’s a marketing problem for this week.
Make the pipeline update itself
The best pipelines are mostly maintained by rules, not people:
- Leads from landing pages and website chat enter New automatically.
- A lead that’s still New after two days creates an urgent task.
- Moving to Proposal starts a follow-up sequence.
- Moving to Won records the deal and triggers a review request.
See 7 marketing automations to set up first for the exact workflows.
How the pipeline works in Cotnek
Cotnek’s pipeline uses exactly these stages — New, Contacted, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, Won and Lost. Each card shows the person, company, deal value, a lead score and open follow-up tasks (red when overdue). Leads from landing pages and the website AI chat arrive automatically; duplicates by email or phone are merged into the existing lead. Moving a lead to Won records the deal in your reports. You can update leads by asking the assistant — “Move Meera Sharma to qualified” or “Remind me to call her on Thursday at 10” — and every change appears in the lead’s history.
Sources
- Salesforce, State of Sales research.
Describe what you need in English or Arabic. Cotnek prepares the campaign, the posts, the landing page or the follow-up — and waits for your approval before anything goes live.
