If you're running a sales team and tired of deals falling through the cracks, pipeline stages are probably on your mind. And if you’re using Leadpipe, you want a setup that actually works for your team—not just something that looks good in a sales meeting.
This guide is for anyone who’s ready to get their pipeline out of spreadsheet chaos, set up clear stages, and—more importantly—actually use them to close more deals. Whether you’re new to Leadpipe or just want to tighten up your process, I’ll walk you through the practical stuff: setting up stages, assigning leads, tracking progress, and avoiding common headaches.
Step 1: Get clear on what pipeline stages actually mean for your team
Before you open up Leadpipe and start clicking around, stop for a second. Pipeline stages are only useful if everyone on your team agrees on what they mean. If your stages are fuzzy or too generic, they’ll get ignored. Or worse, people will make up their own versions.
A good pipeline stage should:
- Reflect a real step in your sales process (not just a checkbox)
- Be obvious to anyone on the team (“Is this lead in ‘Contacted’ or ‘Qualified’?” should have one answer)
- Be actionable—when a deal moves to this stage, something actually happens
Example stages for a typical B2B sales team:
- New Lead
- Contacted
- Qualified
- Proposal Sent
- Negotiation
- Closed Won
- Closed Lost
Don’t overthink it. Five to seven stages is usually enough. If you have more than ten, you’re making life harder for no good reason.
Pro tip: If you’re not sure what your stages should be, map out the last five deals you closed (and lost). What steps did they actually go through? Use that as your starting point.
Step 2: Set up your pipeline stages in Leadpipe
Now that you’ve got your list, it’s time to set them up in Leadpipe. Here’s how to do it—assuming you have admin access (if you don’t, find the person who does).
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Go to Pipeline Settings
In Leadpipe, open the main menu, then look for “Pipeline” or “Stages.” It should be under the admin or settings section. -
Add your stages
You’ll see a list of existing stages—these might be defaults or leftovers from someone else’s setup. Edit or delete anything you don’t need. - Click “Add Stage” or similar.
- Enter the stage name (keep it short and clear).
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Drag to reorder them so they match your real process.
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Optional: Color code or assign probabilities
Some teams like to color-code stages or add win probabilities (e.g., “Proposal Sent” = 50% likely to close). This can be handy for forecasting, but it’s not essential. -
If you do use probabilities, keep them simple and round. Don’t pretend you can tell the difference between 32% and 35%.
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Save and publish
Make sure your changes are saved and visible to your team. Sometimes you need to hit “Publish” or “Apply Changes”—don’t skip this, or you’ll spend the next hour wondering why nothing updated.
Step 3: Assign leads or deals to the right stages
This is where most teams drop the ball. Setting up pipeline stages is easy—using them consistently is the hard part.
How to actually get leads into the right stage:
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New leads:
When a new lead comes in (from a web form, import, or manual entry), make sure it lands in the “New Lead” or equivalent stage. -
Moving deals forward:
As you or your team take action—call the lead, qualify them, send a proposal—move the deal to the next stage. In Leadpipe, this is usually as simple as dragging and dropping the deal card, or selecting the new stage from a dropdown. -
Who’s responsible?
Decide up front who moves deals through the pipeline. Is it always the account owner? Can sales ops update stages? Make it clear, or you’ll get finger-pointing later. -
Bulk updates:
If you’re cleaning up old data or migrating, use Leadpipe’s bulk edit tools. Don’t waste an afternoon updating hundreds of records by hand.
What to watch out for:
- Leads lingering in one stage for weeks—this usually means someone forgot to update, or the stage definitions aren’t clear.
- Deals jumping back and forth—your stages might be too broad, or your process isn’t strict enough.
- Salespeople skipping stages because “it’s faster”—that’s a red flag your process is too complicated, or not actually helpful.
Step 4: Track progress and spot bottlenecks
Once your pipeline is humming along, you need to actually look at it. Otherwise, it’s just a fancy to-do list.
In Leadpipe, you can:
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Use the pipeline view:
Most teams default to a Kanban-style board. You’ll see columns for each stage, with deal cards you can drag and drop. This gives you a bird’s-eye view of where things are getting stuck. -
Run basic reports:
Leadpipe typically has built-in reporting for things like: - Number of deals in each stage
- Average time spent in stage
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Conversion rates between stages
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Set up alerts or reminders:
If a deal sits too long in one stage, set up an alert. Some tools call this “stale deal warnings.” It’s not annoying if you keep it focused.
What actually matters:
- Stage health:
Are deals moving forward regularly, or piling up in “Qualified” forever? - Conversion rates:
Where are you losing the most deals? If 80% of leads never get qualified, that’s worth digging into. - Pipeline value:
What’s the dollar value of deals in each stage? This helps with forecasting, but don’t get too caught up in fantasy numbers.
Don’t waste time on:
- Overly complex dashboards nobody reads
- Vanity metrics (e.g., “deals touched per week” if it doesn’t tie to revenue)
- Manual reports you dread updating
Step 5: Review and refine—don’t set it and forget it
Your pipeline setup should evolve as your team and business change. The best teams review their pipeline stages and process every quarter (or at least twice a year).
What to look for:
- Stages nobody uses:
If “Demo Scheduled” is always empty, do you really need it? - Stages that confuse people:
If salespeople keep asking “what counts as Qualified?” your definition isn’t clear enough. - Process changes:
Did your product change? Did you start selling to a new customer type? Update your pipeline to match reality.
How to keep it simple:
- Ask your team what’s working and what’s a pain. They’ll tell you.
- Remove unnecessary stages. More isn’t better.
- Keep definitions short—one or two sentences max.
Pro tip: Don’t let your pipeline become a graveyard for dead deals. Regularly close out anything that’s gone cold, so your numbers stay honest.
Final thoughts: Keep it simple, fix it often
Pipeline stages only matter if they help your team close deals and spot problems early. You don’t need a perfect setup—you just need one that’s clear, simple, and actually used.
Set up your stages, get everyone on the same page, and revisit your process as you learn what works (and what doesn’t). The best sales teams don’t have the fanciest tools—they just make sure their tools fit their real-world process.
Now, get your pipeline out of theory and into action. And remember: the simpler you keep it, the more likely your team will actually use it.