If you’re trying to actually use a CRM (not just tick a box for your boss), you need your deal stages and conversion tracking to make sense for your sales process—not just mimic some “best practice” you read about on a blog. This is for anyone who’s either new to Breakcold or tired of using it like a basic Rolodex. You want to know where every deal stands and what’s moving the needle—without wrestling with a mess of confusing pipelines or vague reports.
Let’s cut through the noise and get your deals flowing.
Step 1: Understand What Deal Stages Really Mean
Before you jump in, take a minute. Deal stages aren’t just “steps in a pipeline.” They’re checkpoints—clear signals about what needs to happen before a deal moves forward. If your stages are too vague (“In Progress”), you won’t know what’s working. If you have 14 stages, you’ll spend more time moving cards than closing deals.
What a good deal stage looks like: - Clearly defined and actionable (“Demo Scheduled,” not “Maybe Interested”) - Tied to real milestones in your process (did the client sign? did you send a proposal?) - Not so granular you lose the plot, but not so broad you can’t tell what’s happening
Don’t: Copy the default stages if they don’t fit your sales style. Do: Write out your actual process first—on paper, if you have to.
Step 2: Map Out Your Sales Process (on Paper First)
Breakcold lets you customize your pipeline, but you’ll save time if you’re clear on your process first.
Try this: - List the steps you actually go through to close a deal. - Ignore fancy terminology—write it how you’d say it to a coworker. - Example for a simple B2B process: - New Lead - Contacted - Discovery Call Scheduled - Proposal Sent - Negotiation - Won - Lost
Pro tip: If you’re a team, do this on a whiteboard or shared doc. Get buy-in now so you’re not redoing stages later.
Step 3: Set Up Deal Stages in Breakcold
Now, let’s get this into Breakcold. Here’s how to do it without getting lost in menus:
- Log in and head to your Pipeline.
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Click “Pipelines” or whatever your deals board is called.
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Edit stages.
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Look for an “Edit Stages” or “Customize Pipeline” button. (Breakcold’s interface changes sometimes, but it’s usually near the top or in settings.)
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Add, rename, or remove stages.
- Set up the stages you wrote down—don’t overthink the names.
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Delete the ones you don’t need. Don’t keep “Qualified” as a stage if you never use that word.
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Order matters.
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Drag and drop to match the order deals really move through.
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Save changes.
- Breakcold usually autosaves, but double-check you’re not losing work.
Honest take: You don’t need a stage for every tiny action (“Sent Follow-up 2”). If you find yourself adding micro-stages, step back and ask, “Does this help me close more, or just look busy?”
Step 4: Add Your Deals (and Clean Up Old Data)
Don’t just dump contacts in and call it a day.
- Import deals/leads only if they’re real (not just scraped emails you’ll never call).
- Assign each deal to the right stage—don’t leave everything in “New.”
- Clean up duplicates and junk contacts now, or you’ll regret it later.
Pro tip: If you’re coming from another CRM, resist the urge to “import everything.” Old, dead leads will only clog up your pipeline and mess with your conversion rates.
Step 5: Track Conversions Honestly
Here’s where most people mess up: They set up stages, move deals along, and then wonder why their “conversion rate” looks weird. Conversion tracking is only useful if your stages mean something real.
In Breakcold, conversion tracking is mainly about: - Seeing how many deals move from one stage to the next - Measuring how many deals you “win” compared to how many you start with
How to actually track this: 1. Move deals as soon as real progress happens. - Don’t wait until Friday to update everything. Move the card when the call is booked, not “later.”
- Use the reporting tools, but don’t obsess.
- Breakcold will show you conversion rates between stages, win/loss rates, and sometimes bottlenecks.
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Look for trends, not just numbers. If you always lose deals at “Proposal Sent,” that’s a signal.
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Don’t fudge the numbers.
- Moving deals to “Won” before they’ve actually signed just to boost your stats is pointless (and you’ll only be lying to yourself).
Ignore: Any metric you don’t understand after 10 seconds. If Breakcold shows you a chart that makes no sense, skip it—focus on what helps you actually close more deals.
Step 6: Review and Adjust Your Pipeline
No one gets it perfect the first time. The best sales teams tweak their pipeline every month or so.
Do this every few weeks: - Ask yourself: Are deals getting stuck at a certain stage? - Is there a stage no one ever uses? - Are you winning more deals—or just moving them around?
Cut stages that don’t help, rename confusing ones, and keep it simple. If you add a new product or service, revisit your stages.
Pro tip: Don’t let your pipeline become a graveyard. Archive or delete deals that have gone cold for months—otherwise, your conversion rates are just fantasy.
Step 7: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What’s Overhyped
- Works: Keeping stages simple and actionable. Actually using the pipeline daily.
- Doesn’t work: Overcomplicating with 10+ stages or chasing every metric Breakcold throws at you.
- Ignore: Fancy automations or AI “deal scoring,” unless your basics are rock-solid. These sound nice, but they won’t save a messy pipeline.
If your process is clear and your deal stages make sense, the software just works. If you’re struggling, go back to pen and paper and rethink your stages.
Keep It Simple—And Iterate
You don’t need to reinvent sales tracking. Set up clear deal stages in Breakcold, move deals honestly, check your conversion rates now and then, and adjust when things feel off. Don’t get bogged down tweaking for hours—most of the value comes from actually using the pipeline, not setting it up.
Start simple, fix what’s broken, and remember: a messy, active pipeline beats a perfect, unused one every single time.