If your sales forecasts feel more like wild guesses than trustworthy numbers, you’re not alone. Most teams fudge their way through pipeline tracking, hoping the right deals will land. The truth is, if you’re not clear and consistent about tracking each pipeline stage, any forecasting tool—including Charm—is only as good as the info you feed it.
This guide is for sales managers, ops folks, and anyone tired of last-minute forecast scrambles. We’ll walk through getting your pipeline stages set up in Charm, what to actually track (and what’s just noise), and how to keep your forecasts honest.
Why Pipeline Stages Actually Matter
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: You don’t need a CRM to sell. But if you’re managing more than a handful of deals, things get messy fast. Pipeline stages give you a shared language so everyone knows what “in progress” really means. More importantly, they help you spot where deals are stalled and where your revenue forecast is built on wishful thinking.
But here’s the catch: If your stages are vague, overlapping, or ignored, all you’re doing is moving deals around for show. Good forecasting starts with real, well-defined pipeline stages—nothing fancy, just clear.
Step 1: Define Pipeline Stages That Reflect Reality
Before you even open up Charm, get your team to agree on what each stage really means. This isn’t the time for “industry best practices”—it’s about what fits your process.
How to get it right:
- Keep it simple. If you need a cheat sheet to remember your stages, you have too many.
- Make each stage a clear “yes/no.” You should always know if a deal belongs in a stage—no “sort of” answers.
- Don’t copy someone else’s pipeline. What works for a SaaS company might be useless for a services team.
A basic pipeline might look like this: - New Lead: You’ve got contact info, but haven’t qualified. - Qualified: This person could actually buy from you. - Proposal Sent: You’ve sent pricing/terms. - Negotiation: You’re going back and forth. - Closed Won/Lost: Deal is finished, one way or another.
Pro tip: If a stage is always empty, or every deal jumps straight through it, cut it. Less is more.
Step 2: Set Up Stages in Charm
Now that you’ve got your stages, it’s time to put them into Charm. Here’s how to do it without overcomplicating things.
- Log in and head to Pipeline Settings.
- Usually under “Settings” > “Pipeline” or similar. If you can’t find it, search the help docs.
- Add your stages in order.
- Enter the names exactly as you agreed.
- Most CRMs let you drag and reorder—don’t stress about perfection, you can tweak later.
- Set clear criteria for each stage.
- If Charm allows, add a note or description explaining when a deal moves in or out.
- Decide who can move deals.
- Restricting stage changes to deal owners or managers can help avoid “pipeline inflation.”
What to skip: - Probability percentages for every stage. Unless you have years of data, these are mostly guesswork. - Custom fields for everything. Start simple. You can always add more detail later, but you can’t get time back from a messy setup.
Step 3: Train the Team (and Yourself) to Use Stages Consistently
The real challenge isn’t setting up stages—it’s getting everyone to use them the same way. Here’s how to keep it from turning into the Wild West.
- Run a quick training. Walk through what each stage means. Show real examples.
- Create a one-pager. Literally a Google Doc with stage definitions and when to move deals.
- Set a weekly review. Have reps walk through a few deals in a team meeting. Spot-check for consistency.
- Reward honesty, not optimism. If “stuck” deals keep hanging out in “Proposal Sent,” talk about it—don’t just nudge them forward to look good.
What doesn’t work: - Nagging people by email. If someone’s not updating stages, they’ll ignore reminders just as fast. - Overcomplicating with automation. Auto-moves based on email opens or tasks sound cool but often make things worse. Manual updates force real thinking.
Step 4: Track Stage Changes (and Don’t Fudge the Numbers)
Here’s the part most teams skip: regularly looking at which deals move, which don’t, and what that means for your forecast.
- Review the pipeline weekly. Pull up Charm, filter by stage, and talk through stuck deals.
- Look for stage “traffic jams.”
- If tons of deals are stuck in one stage, figure out why. Is it a broken process, or are you just being too optimistic?
- Don’t “massage” the pipeline before reporting. It’s tempting to bump deals forward to hit your numbers. Don’t. You’re only fooling yourself.
- Adjust stages if needed. If a stage never gets used (or always gets skipped), drop it or rename it. Your pipeline should evolve as your process changes.
Pro tip: Encourage reps to move deals backward if they lose momentum. Nobody wants to admit it, but it’s more honest—and your forecasts will be sharper.
Step 5: Use Pipeline Data for Realistic Forecasting
Once you trust your stages, you can actually start forecasting with a straight face.
- Run pipeline reports by stage. Charm should let you see how many deals are in each stage, their value, and expected close dates.
- Spot trends: Are deals getting stuck at a certain point? Are close dates slipping?
- Set forecasting “rules of thumb.”
- For example: “Only count deals in Negotiation or later for next month’s forecast.”
- Don’t get hung up on percentages. Forecasting based on “80% win probability in stage 4” is nonsense unless you have a boatload of historical data. Gut checks plus stage discipline work better for most teams.
What to ignore: - Fancy dashboards with zero context. If you can’t explain where your numbers come from, they’re not worth much. - Auto-generated forecasts from thin data. These are only as good as your pipeline discipline.
Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)
You’ll see the same mistakes over and over. Here’s how to avoid them:
- Too many stages. More stages = more confusion, not more accuracy.
- Vague definitions. If “Qualified” means something different to every rep, your forecast is fiction.
- Ignoring lost deals. Move them to Closed Lost—don’t just delete or let them rot in the pipeline.
- Letting deals age forever. If it’s been six months without movement, call it. Your pipeline isn’t a museum.
Keeping It Simple (and Honest)
The key to accurate forecasting isn’t more tech, fancier dashboards, or complicated rules. It’s tracking a few well-defined stages in Charm, using them consistently, and having honest conversations about what’s real.
Start with the basics, review your process every month, and don’t be afraid to trim the fat. The simplest system that actually gets used will always beat the “perfect” one nobody follows.
If you’re not sure where to start, pick three to five clear pipeline stages, set them up in Charm, and just start tracking. You can always tweak as you go—just don’t wait for “perfect.” A simple, honest pipeline beats a fancy, fake one every time.