Define stages by what happened, not what you hope
A good stage name describes a fact that anyone can check: "Quote sent" is clear; "Hot lead" is an opinion. For each stage, write an entry criterion — the event that moves a deal into it.
An example pipeline
| Stage | Entry criterion | Owner | Typical automation |
|---|---|---|---|
| New inquiry | Form, call or email received | Routing rule | Acknowledgement, assignment |
| Contacted | First human reply made | Assigned owner | Follow-up task if no response |
| Qualified | Need, area and timing confirmed | Assigned owner | Site visit or call booking link |
| Quote sent | Written quote delivered | Assigned owner | Reminder task after a few days |
| Won | Quote accepted / agreement signed | Assigned owner | Handoff to delivery |
| Lost | Customer declined or went quiet past a set time | Assigned owner | Loss reason required |
Adjust the names to your trade. A design studio might have "Discovery call held" instead of "Qualified"; an HVAC business might split "Repair" and "Installation" into separate pipelines because they move at very different speeds.
One pipeline or several?
Use separate pipelines when the steps genuinely differ — for example, quick repairs versus large projects. Use one pipeline with a "service type" field when the steps are the same and only the work differs. HubSpot's guide to setting up pipelines shows how one CRM handles this; most others are similar.
Required fields per stage
Ask only for what the stage needs:
- Qualified: service type, area, rough timing.
- Quote sent: quote amount, date sent.
- Won: accepted amount, start date.
- Lost: loss reason from a short list (price, timing, chose competitor, no response, not a fit, other).
Requiring every field at the start slows people down and produces junk data.
Automations that help at each stage
- Stalled deal alerts. If a deal sits in "Quote sent" longer than your normal follow-up time, create a task.
- Stage-change notifications for handoffs between people.
- Automatic "Lost" after inactivity, with a task for the owner to confirm the reason, rather than silently closing.
Avoid automated customer messages triggered purely by a stage change unless the stage is reliably updated. Staff forget to move deals; customers then get messages out of sequence.
Review monthly
Look at how long deals spend in each stage and where they're lost. That tells you which workflow to improve next — see which workflow to automate first.
Questions
How many stages should I have?
As few as let you see where deals get stuck — often five to seven for a small service business. If a stage is regularly skipped, remove it.
Should lost deals stay in the CRM?
Yes. Record why they were lost. Over time, loss reasons tell you more about pricing, speed and fit than won deals do.
Sources and further reading
- setting up pipelines knowledge.hubspot.com
Official documentation changes. Check the current version before you rely on a rule, limit or setting.
Next step
Start with one workflow worth fixing.
Bring the real steps, the tools you already use and the place the handoff gets stuck. We review feasibility, access and approval points before quoting — no instant integration promise.
See Business Automations for what we scope, or prepare a custom quote brief.