Pipeline stages

Pipeline stages are the steps an opportunity moves through from first contact to close. Every pipeline you create is made up of stages, and every opportunity always sits in exactly one stage. Well-designed stages reflect the real actions and decisions that happen in your sales process, making it easy for your team to know when a deal should move forward.

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How stages work

Stages are displayed as columns on the kanban board, arranged from left to right in the order you define. Opportunities move between stages by drag-and-drop on the board, by selecting a new stage in the opportunity detail panel, or automatically through workflow automations. Every pipeline automatically includes two system stages that cannot be deleted:

• Won — for opportunities closed successfully
• Lost — for opportunities that did not close

These appear at the far right of your board and are special: moving an opportunity to Won or Lost changes its status (and prompts for a lost reason, in the case of Lost) in addition to changing its stage.

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Creating a pipeline and its stages

Stages are created as part of the pipeline setup. To add a new pipeline with stages:

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Adding stages to an existing pipeline

To add a stage to an existing pipeline:

1. Go to Opportunities > Opportunity Settings
2. Select the pipeline you want to edit
3. Click + Add Stage
4. Name the stage and position it by dragging it to the right place in the sequence
5. Click Save

The new stage appears immediately as a new column on the board. Any opportunities already in the pipeline remain in their current stages.

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Naming stages

Stage names should be action-oriented and unambiguous — your team should be able to tell at a glance exactly what it means for an opportunity to be in that stage. Effective stage names:

• New Lead
• Qualification Call Booked
• Proposal Sent
• Negotiation
• Contract Signed

Avoid vague names like:

• Follow Up (what kind?)
• In Progress (relative to what?)
• Stage 1, Stage 2 (not descriptive)

Think about what specific action or outcome moves a deal into each stage and name the stage to reflect that state.

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Reordering stages

To change the order stages appear on the board:

1. Open Opportunities > Opportunity Settings and select the pipeline
2. Drag the stages into the order you want (left to right on the board)
3. Click Save

The board updates immediately to reflect the new order. Opportunities remain in their stages — the stage itself moves, not the opportunities within it.

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Dashboard visibility settings

Each stage has two visibility controls that determine whether it appears in reporting widgets: Toggle these settings per stage in Pipeline Settings. For example, you might exclude a “Nurture” holding stage from your funnel chart because it is not a linear step in the sales progression, while keeping it visible in the stage distribution to see how many deals are parked there.

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Editing a stage name

To rename an existing stage:

1. Open Opportunities > Opportunity Settings and select the pipeline
2. Click on the stage name to edit it
3. Enter the new name
4. Click Save

The new name appears immediately on the board and in all filters, reports, and dropdowns. All opportunities in that stage are unaffected.

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Deleting a stage

Before you can delete a stage, any opportunities currently in that stage must be moved. The platform will prompt you to select a destination stage when you attempt to delete.

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Designing effective pipelines

The stages in your pipeline should map to the real steps in your sales process — not an idealized version of it. A few principles: Keep it lean. Most sales processes can be represented in 5 to 8 stages. More stages than that often reflect edge cases rather than the main path. If you have 15 stages, consider whether some could be merged. Each stage should have a clear entry criteria. What has to be true for a deal to move into this stage? If the answer is “it depends,” the stage may need to be redefined or split. Match automation to stages. If a workflow triggers when a deal enters a stage (e.g., send a proposal template when entering “Proposal Sent”), the stage name becomes a critical system reference — keep names stable once automations are attached. Use separate pipelines for different processes. If you have meaningfully different sales motions (e.g., one for inbound leads and one for enterprise outbound), use separate pipelines with stages tailored to each. Trying to handle both in one pipeline usually results in awkward stage names that don’t quite fit either process.

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Example stage configurations

Service business:

1. New Inquiry
2. Discovery Call Booked
3. Discovery Call Completed
4. Proposal Sent
5. Contract Signed
6. Won / Lost

E-commerce / product sales:

1. Lead
2. Contacted
3. Demo Scheduled
4. Demo Completed
5. Negotiation
6. Won / Lost

Appointment-based business:

1. New Lead
2. Appointment Booked
3. No Show
4. Showed — Not Ready
5. Ready to Buy
6. Won / Lost

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FAQs