So you want a sales pipeline that actually matches the way your team sells—not just a cookie-cutter template some software designer thought “looked good.” You’re in the right place. This guide is for sales managers, startup founders, and anyone tired of wrestling with CRMs that get in the way. We’ll walk through setting up custom pipelines in Aisalescoach, step by step, with no fluff and no vague “best practices.” Just what actually works.
Why bother with a custom pipeline?
Most CRMs come with generic pipelines (“Lead,” “Contacted,” “Demo,” “Closed Won/Lost”). If those match how your team sells, great—stop reading. But if you have a longer cycle, sell services, or want to track deals a little differently, you need something custom. Otherwise, people won’t use it, or worse—they’ll fudge the numbers to make things fit.
Step 1: Understand your real sales process
Before you even log in, sketch out how deals actually move from start to finish at your company. Forget the software for a second.
- How do leads come in?
- How many steps does it really take before a deal closes?
- Are there any “dead zones” where deals get stuck?
- What has to happen to move a deal forward? (Not just what you wish would happen.)
Pro Tip: Grab a whiteboard and talk to your sales team, not just the VP. The folks doing the work know where things get weird.
Step 2: Log into Aisalescoach and find the Pipelines section
Open up Aisalescoach and head to the main dashboard. The navigation might change as they update the product, but you’re looking for something labeled “Pipelines,” “Sales Pipelines,” or maybe under “Deals.”
- If you can’t find it, use the search or help feature. No shame in that—CRMs love to bury the good stuff.
Click into Pipelines. If it asks you to pick a template, skip it. You want to build your own.
Step 3: Create a new pipeline
Look for a “Create Pipeline” or “New Pipeline” button. Name your pipeline something obvious, like “B2B Sales - North America” or “Inbound Service Requests.” Don’t get clever—your team will thank you later.
- You can always create more than one pipeline if you have radically different sales processes (e.g., inbound vs. outbound, or SMB vs. enterprise). But resist the urge to overcomplicate things at first.
What works: Starting simple and adding complexity later. You can always tweak the pipeline once people start using it.
What doesn’t: Creating five pipelines because you might need them. That’s how CRMs become graveyards.
Step 4: Add and name your stages
Here’s where it gets real. For each stage, ask: what’s the real milestone a deal has to hit before moving forward? Be honest—don’t create a stage just because the software suggests it.
Example for a service business:
- New Inquiry
- Qualified
- Needs Analysis
- Proposal Sent
- Negotiation
- Closed Won
- Closed Lost
Tips: - Use language your team already uses. - Don’t add “fluff” stages like “Follow Up” unless it’s a distinct, trackable action. - Avoid more than 7-8 stages. More than that, and people start gaming the system or just clicking through to get deals off their desk.
Ignore: Stages you “wish” existed but never actually do. If “Onboarding” never happens before the deal is closed, don’t add it here.
Step 5: Set stage requirements (if needed)
Aisalescoach lets you set requirements for each stage—like mandatory fields, checklists, or tasks before you can move a deal forward.
This can be useful if: - You want to make sure reps don’t skip key steps (like confirming budget or getting a signed NDA). - You’re trying to clean up your data (no more missing contact info).
But be careful: - Too many requirements, and people will put in junk data just to move deals forward. - If a stage requirement is always ignored, get rid of it.
Pro Tip: Start with minimum requirements. You can always tighten things up once you see where deals fall apart.
Step 6: Customize deal fields and views
Every business tracks different info. In Aisalescoach, you can usually add custom fields to deals—stuff like “Industry,” “Referral Source,” or “Contract Value.”
- Only add fields you’ll actually use for reporting or day-to-day work.
- Too many fields is a good way to get garbage data. People will pick the first option or leave it blank.
Set up your main pipeline view so reps can see the info that actually helps them—like deal value or next step, not just the company name.
Ignore: Fancy widgets and “AI insights” unless you know exactly what problem they solve for your team.
Step 7: Add automations (carefully)
Aisalescoach offers automations—things like sending emails, assigning tasks, or moving deals based on triggers.
Automations that actually help: - Automatically assign new deals to the right rep. - Send a reminder if a deal sits in a stage for too long. - Create follow-up tasks when a proposal gets sent.
What to avoid: - Over-automating. If your CRM starts sending robot emails that sound weird, prospects notice. - Automations that create more busywork or notifications than they solve.
Pro Tip: Start with one or two automations, see how they work, then add more if they actually save time.
Step 8: Test the pipeline with real deals
Before rolling out to your whole team, run a couple of deals through the pipeline yourself or with a small group. You want to catch:
- Stages where deals get stuck or skipped.
- Required fields that are annoying or unnecessary.
- Anything confusing (“Wait, what does ‘Needs Analysis’ actually mean?”).
Make changes based on what actually happens, not what you thought would happen.
Step 9: Roll out to your team—and listen
Tell your team why things are set up this way (based on what actually happens in your sales process). Show them how to use the new pipeline. Don’t just email a PDF and hope for the best.
- Ask for feedback after a week or two. What’s working? Where are people getting lost?
- Make small changes. Don’t overhaul the whole thing every time someone complains, but do fix stuff that’s obviously broken.
Honest take: Most pipeline rollouts flop because the setup was forced from the top down, not because the software is bad.
Step 10: Review and iterate (but don’t obsess)
Set a reminder to look at your pipeline every month or so. Are people using it? Are deals moving, or getting stuck in one stage? Does the data make sense?
- Make tweaks as your process changes, but resist the urge to constantly fiddle.
- If people are skipping stages or making up data, make it simpler.
Ignore: Dashboard “insights” that don’t help you make better decisions. If you can’t tell what to do differently after looking at a report, it’s not useful.
That’s it. Custom sales pipelines in Aisalescoach aren’t rocket science, but it’s easy to get bogged down in options and overthinking. Start simple, use the language your sales team already speaks, and only add features when you know they help. The best pipeline is the one your team actually uses—so build it for them, not for a demo. Keep it simple, and tweak as you go.