If you run sales, you know how easy it is for pipelines to get messy. Deals stall, leads go cold, and you’re stuck guessing what actually moved the needle. This guide’s for sales managers and reps who want to use Lonescale to keep their pipeline organized, honest, and productive—without wasting time on busywork.
Let’s skip the fluff and get right into what actually works.
1. Start Simple: Map Your Real Sales Process
Before you start clicking around Lonescale, take five minutes to sketch your real sales process. Not the ideal one from a sales book—the messy, real-life steps your team actually takes.
- Write down each stage a deal goes through, from “New Lead” to “Closed Won/Lost.”
- Be honest: Do you actually need seven stages, or are three enough?
- If your process is different for inbound vs. outbound, map both.
Pro tip: Ask your reps what actually happens. If they’re skipping stages or making up workarounds, your pipeline isn’t helping anyone.
What to ignore: Pre-made templates that don’t fit your reality. Lonescale has defaults, but they’re just placeholders.
2. Set Up Your Pipeline Stages in Lonescale
Now, put your stages into Lonescale—no more, no less.
- Go to Pipeline Settings and add each stage from your sketch.
- Name stages so they’re obvious. “Proposal Sent” is better than “Stage 3.”
- Arrange them in the order deals really move.
Quick wins: - Delete unused stages. Clutter breeds confusion. - Set clear criteria for moving deals forward (e.g., “Demo scheduled” isn’t just a calendar invite—it happened).
3. Define What “Qualified” Actually Means
Every pipeline gets clogged with junk deals. The root cause? Nobody agrees on what “qualified” means.
- Write down your non-negotiables for a qualified lead—budget, need, timeline, whatever matters most.
- Add custom fields in Lonescale to capture this info up front.
- Make it part of your team’s habit: If a deal isn’t qualified, move it out or close it fast.
Honest take: Don’t let “it might close someday” clog your pipeline for months. If you wouldn’t bet your own money on it, it’s not qualified.
4. Use Tasks and Reminders—But Don’t Go Overboard
Lonescale lets you set tasks, reminders, and follow-ups. These are useful—until you drown in notifications.
- For each deal, set a next step. Doesn’t matter if it’s a call, email, or “wait two weeks.”
- Use reminders for real follow-ups, not just to check a box.
- Once a week, clear out tasks that don’t matter anymore. No shame in deleting busywork.
What to ignore: Overcomplicated task automations. If you’re spending more time managing reminders than talking to customers, scale it back.
5. Keep Your Pipeline Clean—Make It a Habit
A pipeline full of dead deals is worse than no pipeline at all.
- Once a week, review every open deal. Ask: Is this real, or am I kidding myself?
- Move stalled deals to “On Hold” or close them. You can always bring them back later.
- Don’t let your pipeline become a graveyard for wishful thinking.
Pro tip: Schedule a “pipeline clean-up” meeting every Friday. Make it short, make it honest.
6. Track What Matters—Not Just What’s Easy
Lonescale gives you a lot of reporting options. It’s tempting to track everything, but most of it won’t help you sell more.
- Focus on metrics that drive action: new deals added, deals moved forward, deals closed.
- Ignore vanity metrics like “number of activities logged” if they don’t link to sales.
- Use win/loss analysis: After deals close, take five minutes to write why. Patterns will jump out.
What to ignore: Fancy dashboards that look impressive but don’t help you make decisions.
7. Automate the Boring Stuff (But Not Everything)
Lonescale offers automations for things like assigning leads, sending follow-up emails, and updating stages. Use these for repetitive admin—not for anything requiring actual judgment.
- Automate lead assignments based on territory or product line.
- Set up automatic reminders for deals stuck in a stage too long.
- Don’t automate personal outreach. Your prospects can smell a robot.
Honest take: Automation saves time, but if it makes your pipeline less personal or less accurate, skip it.
8. Make Collaboration Easy—But Keep Ownership Clear
Deals often involve multiple team members. Lonescale lets you tag in others, add notes, and share updates.
- Use notes to document key conversations, not just “followed up.”
- Assign clear owners for each deal. Too many cooks = no accountability.
- Keep internal chatter in Lonescale, not buried in email threads.
What to ignore: Sharing every deal with the whole company. Only involve people who really help move things forward.
9. Review and Improve—Don’t Set and Forget
Sales processes (and pipelines) aren’t static. What worked last quarter might not help now.
- Every month, review your pipeline stages. Are they still accurate?
- Cut stages or fields nobody uses. Add new ones only if they solve a real problem.
- Ask your team: What’s slowing you down? What’s unclear? Fix those first.
Pro tip: Changing your pipeline isn’t failure—it’s progress. Iterate fast.
10. Common Pitfalls to Avoid
A few honest warnings, so you don’t waste time:
- Too many stages: More stages don’t mean more control. They just slow you down.
- Pipelines as wish lists: If you’re keeping every “maybe someday” deal, you’ll lose focus on real opportunities.
- Relying on memory: If it’s not in Lonescale, it didn’t happen. Don’t trust your brain to remember every follow-up.
- Ignoring cleanup: Piles of old, dead deals will mess with your forecasting and momentum.
Keep It Simple—and Keep Moving
Managing sales pipelines in Lonescale isn’t about using every feature or making things look pretty. It’s about staying honest, keeping your process lean, and making sure your team knows exactly what to do next.
Start simple. Clean up often. Don’t be afraid to tweak your process as you learn. The best pipeline is the one your team actually uses—and trusts.
Now go close something.