;
};
The pipeline is your visual sales board — a Kanban-style view where every active lead sits in a stage that reflects where they are in your sales process. When you move a contact from "New Lead" to "Proposal Sent" to "Closed Won," you always know exactly where your revenue is coming from and what action each deal needs next.
## Why this matters
Most businesses lose leads not because they were a bad fit — but because nothing happened next. A well-maintained pipeline eliminates this problem. Every lead has a stage, every stage has a next action, and your pipeline view shows you — at a glance — exactly which deals need attention right now. The pipeline is the bridge between your lead generation and your revenue.
Before building your pipeline, define your sales stages by mapping out the exact steps a lead takes from first contact to closed deal. Having 5–7 clear stages makes your pipeline actionable and easy to maintain.
## How to set up and use your pipeline
Go to **CRM** > **Opportunities** (or **Pipelines**) in the left sidebar. This is your pipeline board — a visual view of all active deals organized by stage.
Click **Settings** > **Pipelines** (or the gear icon on the pipeline board) to manage your pipeline stages.
* **Create a new pipeline** if this is your first time — name it based on the business process it represents (e.g., "Sales Pipeline" or "Client Onboarding")
* **Add stages** by clicking **Add Stage** — give each stage a clear name that represents where the lead is in your process
* **Set stage colors** to differentiate stages visually at a glance
Common sales pipeline stages:
* New Lead
* Contacted
* Qualified
* Proposal Sent
* Negotiation
* Closed Won
* Closed Lost
Keep your pipeline stages to 5–7 maximum. Too many stages create friction and make it hard to keep the pipeline updated. Each stage should represent a clear, distinct milestone in your process.
From the pipeline board, click **Add Opportunity** (the + button) in any stage. Fill in the opportunity details:
* **Contact:** Select the existing contact this opportunity is for — or create a new one
* **Pipeline:** Choose which pipeline this opportunity belongs to
* **Stage:** Select the current stage
* **Opportunity name:** A short description of the deal (e.g., "Website Build — Smith Co.")
* **Value:** The estimated or actual dollar value of the deal
* **Close date:** Your target close date for this opportunity
* **Assigned to:** The team member responsible for this deal
Drag and drop opportunity cards between columns to move them through stages as deals progress. Alternatively, open an opportunity and change the stage from within the record.
Every time you move an opportunity, the platform records the stage change — giving you a complete history of how the deal progressed over time.
Mark opportunities with a status when they reach a final outcome:
* **Won:** The deal closed and the client converted
* **Lost:** The deal did not close — record a lost reason for analysis
* **Abandoned:** The contact became unresponsive
Marking outcomes accurately gives you reliable data on your close rate, average deal value, and pipeline velocity.
Connect your pipeline to workflows for automatic stage updates. For example:
* When a form is submitted, create a new opportunity and place it in the "New Lead" stage
* When an appointment is booked, move the opportunity to "Qualified"
* When a payment is received, move the opportunity to "Closed Won" automatically
Go to **Automation** > **Workflows** and use the **Create Opportunity** or **Update Opportunity Status** action to build this automation.
Automating pipeline updates keeps your pipeline accurate without relying on manual entry. The more your pipeline updates automatically, the more useful it becomes as a real-time picture of your business.
From the pipeline view, switch to the **Statistics** or **Analytics** tab to see:
* Total pipeline value by stage
* Number of opportunities per stage
* Average time in each stage
* Win rate and close rate over a selected date range
Use this data to identify your pipeline's bottlenecks — the stages where deals stall the longest — and focus your process improvement there.
## Key points
A **contact** is a person or business in your CRM. An **opportunity** is a potential deal associated with a contact. One contact can have multiple opportunities — for example, a returning client may have an opportunity for each new project or service they consider. Pipelines organize opportunities (deals), not contacts directly.
You can create multiple pipelines for different business processes. For example, a sales pipeline for new client acquisition, a separate onboarding pipeline for clients who have already paid, and a referral pipeline for partner leads. Each pipeline has its own set of stages tailored to that specific process.
Every time a lead submits a form, books a discovery call, or texts a keyword, you can automatically create a new opportunity in your pipeline using a workflow action. This ensures no lead falls through the cracks — every new contact becomes a tracked deal from the moment they enter your system.
The total value of all open opportunities in your pipeline is your pipeline value — a forward-looking estimate of potential revenue. Tracking this number weekly helps you forecast income and identify when you need to generate more leads before revenue drops.
## Key benefits
See every active deal in one view — no leads lost in spreadsheets or missed in your inbox.
Stages tell you exactly what needs to happen next for each deal — so you always know where to focus.
Pipeline value gives you a data-driven view of expected revenue before it lands in your account.
Workflows move deals through stages automatically, keeping your pipeline accurate without manual updates.
Win rate, close rate, and stage velocity data help you continuously improve your sales process.
