CRM pipeline
A staged board showing every potential deal from first inquiry to signed, with the next action that keeps each one moving.
See it
What it is
A CRM pipeline is the staged view of potential deals moving from first contact to a signed agreement, a loss, or a deliberate pause. Each card is a deal, not merely a person, and each stage should describe a verifiable event such as discovery booked, proposal sent, or contract signed.
Use it when follow-ups live in memory or several opportunities are open at once. Give every active deal an amount, owner, next action, and next action date. Review the board weekly, close dead deals honestly, and measure conversion and time spent in each stage before adding more automation.
Gotcha: stages named after feelings, such as warm or likely. Nobody can agree when a deal enters them, so the board becomes fiction. Salesforce ships defaults with this problem baked in: Needs Analysis and Value Proposition describe an internal mood, not an event either side could confirm, while Proposal/Price Quote is checkable in one glance at your sent folder. Rename the mood ones. Another trap is confusing pipeline value with revenue: an unsigned 20,000 deal is a possibility, not cash.
Ask AI for it
Design a HubSpot deal pipeline for the sales process below. Use event-based stages from new qualified inquiry through discovery booked, discovery complete, proposal sent, verbal yes, closed won (contract countersigned), and closed lost. For each stage define its entry rule, exit rule, required HubSpot properties, maximum age, next-action task, and one automation trigger. Include deal amount, owner, next activity date, lead source, expected close date, and loss reason. Then provide a weekly review checklist and flag any stage that duplicates another or depends on a subjective label such as warm.