{"id":7784,"date":"2023-08-24T11:10:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T11:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartreach.io\/blog\/?p=7784"},"modified":"2025-10-08T09:47:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:47:22","slug":"sales-pipeline-stages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartreach.io\/blog\/sales-pipeline-stages\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Sales Pipeline? 7 Stages & Why You Must Track It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Are you rushing late to your MBA class? Need to impress your peers on “Sales Pipeline”? \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TLDR: Think of the Sales Pipeline as your sales GPS. It’s the ultimate visual tool to track prospects through 7 quantifiable sales pipeline stages, from prospecting to closing. This way, you and your team can easily see how close someone is to making a purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your sales pipeline highlights buying intent, providing your team and leadership with real-time insights into the prospect’s journey, ensuring precise sales tracking and informed decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this guide, you’ll learn:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– The complete sales pipeline definition and why it matters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– The 7 critical sales pipeline stages (with real examples)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Why tracking your pipeline is non-negotiable for B2B teams<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Key insights your sales pipeline should reveal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Best practices to optimize pipeline performance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you feel that’s a lot of jargon, read on where we break down these terms and explain them in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What is a Sales Pipeline?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You already have a Sales Pipeline but may not even know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want to table this problem from the first principles, but first, some commonly used terms in Sales<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prospecting<\/strong><\/a> is the first step in the sales process: identifying potential customer prospects<\/strong>. The goal of prospecting is to develop a database of likely customers and then systematically communicate with them in the hopes of converting them from potential customers to current customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s say there is just a two-member team in charge of selling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hypothesis: A 2-member team can manage their selling just using an Excel sheet and no formal tooling<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many people can a decent rep contact in one day? 40, 60? From \u201cInbound Selling<\/a>\u201d by Brian Signorelli – Chapter 4 \u201cConnect: How to engage Active – and not so Active Buyers\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most reps were cranking out over a hundred attempts daily; the best well into the 120s and 130s<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say your 2 member team is decent – so each is contacting 100 prospects a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

100 x 22 (working days) = about 2200 prospect touch events a month x 2 (reps) = 4400 touch points per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales touchpoints<\/strong><\/a> are the moments when a prospect encounters your brand, whether it’s by email, phone call, LinkedIn, demo, or some other type of outreach. Touchpoints can occur during any stage of the buyer journey: awareness, consideration, and decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Why is it essential for you to track your sales pipeline?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s understand what goes on when you prospect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Gather information and qualify<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Build familiarity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Set an appointment for a meeting to move a prospect closer to a sale OR close a sale<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means, in a month, each of those 2200 x 2 ( reps ) = 4400  touch points need to be marked in the system – as \u201cnot ready for sales right now\u201d, \u201cinterested\u201d, or \u201cgoing to make a purchase right now\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, your team must fill that list with more qualified leads for the next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now imagine if your team size is 10 – that’s 10 x 2200 = 22000 touch points being created monthly, giving you insights on what’s happening with every prospect you are working with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But things will slip through the cracks if you don\u2019t have a formal system tracking your sales pipeline. A team member will go on leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow ups may be missed. A fellow team member will handle a call on behalf of someone else. But the context was missed. The customer specifically mentioned clarification on CSV uploads, and that context was not passed on. And the follow up call was shabby. Or a lead said: call me after a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it was noted down in the Excel sheet. But Excel sheets don\u2019t remind you to call up a lead after a week. And so, a\u00a0 warm prospect will go with a competitor, and your team will lose a deal for reasons well within your control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s another scenario. Your team members don\u2019t fill in the updates into your Excel sheet with as much zeal as you expect them to. Call notes are not put into the column that was designated for the notes. This means a lack of visibility on what’s happening in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I hope by now the need for a formal sales engagement system to track your prospects\u2019 journey is evident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prospects go through a continuous identification process, from qualifying to closing the sale<\/a> and many intermediate business-dependent steps in between. This is the Sales Pipeline; we will get a more formal description.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recommended Read: 7 Sales Cycle Stages: Insights into Sales Process & Playbook<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sales pipeline stages: The 7-step breakdown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every prospect in your sales pipeline moves through quantifiable stages on their journey from initial contact to closed deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding these sales pipeline stages helps you forecast revenue accurately, identify where deals get stuck, and optimize your sales process for maximum efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick Reference: Sales Pipeline Stages at a Glance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage<\/td>Key Actions<\/td>Average Duration<\/td>Success Signals<\/td><\/tr>
1. Prospecting<\/a><\/td>Research, outreach, lead generation<\/td>Ongoing<\/td>Response rate >5%<\/td><\/tr>
2. Qualification<\/a><\/td>BANT questions, lead scoring<\/td>1-3 days<\/td>Confirmed budget + need + timeline<\/td><\/tr>
3. Meeting\/ Discovery<\/a><\/td>Needs analysis, pain point identification<\/td>30-60 minutes<\/td>Discovery call completed<\/td><\/tr>
4. Demo<\/a><\/td>Product walkthrough, use case demo<\/td>30-60 minutes<\/td>Demo completed, trial started<\/td><\/tr>
5. Proposal<\/a><\/td>Pricing presentation, formal proposal<\/td>3-7 days<\/td>Proposal reviewed by decision-maker<\/td><\/tr>
6. Negotiation<\/a><\/td>Objection handling, terms adjustment<\/td>5-14 days<\/td>Terms agreed upon<\/td><\/tr>
7. Closing<\/a><\/td>Contract signing, payment processing<\/td>1-7 days<\/td>Deal closed, payment received<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a breakdown of the 7 critical sales pipeline stages every B2B sales team should track:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage 1: Prospecting | Finding potential customers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Prospecting is the first stage of the sales pipeline where you identify and reach out to potential customers who fit your ideal customer profile. This involves generating leads through cold outreach, marketing campaigns, referrals, or inbound inquiries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In action<\/strong>: Your SDR, Amy, spends her morning prospecting time block making cold calls, sending cold emails, and connecting with prospects on LinkedIn. She’s looking for companies that match your target profile, mid-sized B2B SaaS companies with 50-200 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key activities<\/strong>: Research target accounts, build prospect lists, initial outreach (cold calls, cold emails, social selling), lead generation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success metric<\/strong>: Response rate of 5-10% on outreach<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAAS Tip: Use sales engagement platforms like <\/em>SmartReach.io<\/em><\/a> to automate multi-channel prospecting sequences while maintaining personalization at scale.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage 2: Lead qualification | Separating buyers from browsers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Qualification is where you determine if a prospect has the budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT) to become a viable customer. Not every prospect who responds is qualified; this stage separates serious buyers from tire-kickers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In action<\/strong>: Amy gets on the phone with John, an MQL who downloaded your cold email white paper. She asks qualifying questions: “Are you currently using a cold email solution? What’s your team size? What’s your budget range? Are you the decision-maker, or who else is involved? When are you looking to implement?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on John’s answers, Amy scores the lead in your sales engagement system. John confirms he has a budget of $5,000\/year, he’s the director of sales (decision-maker), his team of 8 SDRs needs a solution, and they want to start within 60 days. This is a qualified lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key activities<\/strong>: BANT questioning, lead scoring, identifying decision-makers, setting discovery calls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success metric<\/strong>: 30-40% of prospects qualify as serious opportunities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAAS Tip: Create a standardized qualification rubric so every rep asks the same questions and scores leads consistently.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage 3: Meeting\/Discovery call | Understanding needs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In this stage, you conduct an exploratory call or meeting to deeply understand the prospect’s pain points, current solutions, goals, and desired outcomes. This is where you gather intelligence to tailor your pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In action<\/strong>: Amy schedules a 30-minute discovery call with John. She asks about his current cold email challenges, what solutions he’s tried before, what features are must-haves versus nice-to-haves, and what success looks like for his team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She learns that John’s biggest pain point is low deliverability rates and manual follow-up processes eating up his SDRs’ time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key activities<\/strong>: Needs analysis, pain point identification, competitor research, building rapport, setting expectations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success metric<\/strong>: 60-70% of qualified leads complete a discovery call<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAAS Tip: Record discovery calls (with permission) and share notes in your CRM so the entire team understands the prospect’s context.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage 4: Demo\/presentation | Showcasing your solution<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The demo stage is where you present your product or service, demonstrating how it solves the prospect’s specific problems. This isn’t a generic feature dump, it’s a customized walkthrough based on discovery insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In action<\/strong>: Amy brings in a solutions engineer for a 45-minute product demo with John’s team. They showcase SmartReach’s automated email sequences<\/a>, deliverability optimization features, and multi-channel outreach capabilities, directly addressing John’s pain points around deliverability and manual work. John asks detailed questions about CRM integration and reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key activities<\/strong>: Product demonstration, feature walkthroughs, use case examples, handling technical questions, trial setup<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success metric<\/strong>: 50-60% of demos lead to trial signups or proposal requests<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAAS Tip: After the demo, immediately schedule a follow-up call for one week later to check on trial progress and answer questions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage 5: Proposal | Formalizing the offer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the proposal stage, you present formal pricing, package options, contract terms, and implementation timelines. This makes your offering concrete and moves the conversation toward commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In action<\/strong>: Amy sends John a customized proposal with three pricing tiers based on his team size and sending volume. She includes a breakdown of features in each tier, onboarding timeline, support options, and ROI projections showing how SmartReach will save his team 15 hours per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key activities<\/strong>: Pricing presentation, proposal creation, ROI calculations, contract drafting, answering budget questions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success metric<\/strong>: 40-50% of proposals move to negotiation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAAS Tip: Include customer testimonials and case studies in your proposal that match the prospect’s industry and use case.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage 6: Negotiation | Addressing objections<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Negotiation is where prospects raise concerns about pricing, features, contract terms, or implementation. Your job is to address objections, offer compromises where appropriate, and move toward mutual agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In action<\/strong>: John comes back with concerns: the pricing is slightly above budget, and he needs a specific integration with their CRM that’s not currently available. Amy negotiates a 10% discount for an annual contract (instead of monthly) and confirms with the product team that the CRM integration will be available within 60 days. John agrees to move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key activities<\/strong>: Objection handling, pricing negotiations, contract modifications, stakeholder alignment, legal review<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success metric<\/strong>: 60-70% of negotiations result in agreement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAAS Tip: Keep a database of common objections and proven responses so your team handles pushback consistently and effectively.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage 7: Closing | Winning the deal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The closing stage is where contracts are signed, payment is processed, and the prospect officially becomes a customer. This is the finish line of your sales pipeline, but not the end of the customer relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In action<\/strong>: John reviews the revised contract, gets final approval from his CFO, signs the agreement electronically, and processes payment. Amy hands off John’s account to the Customer Success team with detailed notes on his goals, pain points, and promised timeline for the CRM integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key activities<\/strong>: Contract signing, payment processing, onboarding kickoff, customer success handoff<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Success metric<\/strong>: 80-90% of agreed deals close successfully (some fall through at the last minute)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAAS Tip: Celebrate wins with your team, but immediately transition the customer to onboarding to maintain momentum and prevent buyer’s remorse.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average B2B SAAS Sales Cycle: 30-90 days from prospecting to closing, depending on deal size and complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sales pipeline stages in action: A real-world example<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now that you understand the 7 sales pipeline stages, let’s see how they work in practice. Here’s a day in the life of an SDR moving prospects through each stage, showing the actual conversations, decisions, and system updates that happen at every step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow along as Amy, an SDR at a SAAS company, works through her pipeline:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage:\u00a0 Prospecting<\/strong> – Finding new potential customers. If there is a Marketing team, they will be generating inbound leads. Otherwise, your SDRs will be cold prospecting, which means cold calling or\u00a0sending out cold emails, or finding the right people on LinkedIn who fit your profile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an inbound sales call center<\/a>, the process differs slightly, SDRs primarily focus on handling incoming inquiries, ensuring high-intent prospects are quickly qualified and moved through the sales pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage: Qualifying – <\/strong>\u00a0People who responded to your cold email and said they are interested are your warm leads. The people on LinkedIn who accepted your connection request are 1 more step away from qualification. You need to send them another message to make your proposition offer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what about those where you have a phone number? Your team will pick up the phone, read out your script, and ask them for an appointment if they are interested in this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your SDR, Amy, is in her prospecting time block. She dials an MQL –  \u201cHi John. This is Amy from SmartReach<\/a>. We noticed you downloaded our white paper on cold email outreach<\/a> to put your sales outreach<\/a> on autopilot. Are you currently looking for a cold email solution? Can I schedule a 15-minute call to speak with you on this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If John answers yes, this is a qualified lead. Amy gets into the sales engagement system and sets an appointment for 15 minutes. Amy continues dialing through the prospects list. Marking them as either interested with an appointment in the system or cold lead. She may update notes on cold leads – like call back in 2 months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, she has made a touch point entry in the system for each of these contact channels and marked the prospect as someone they need to continue further with, or this is not the right time for the product you are selling.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: Amy could manually enter these touchpoint entries or could be auto-detected and tagged based on the sales engagement system you are using. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her qualification calling block is now over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales mode: And now she switches gears, there is hope, money to be made and that quarterly bonus to be collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has a set of appointments to attend. She gets on a call with John. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey John, thank you for taking the time for this exploratory call.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fitment evaluation: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you used any cold emailing solutions before?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you planning on using this solution in-house, or are you an agency?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget quantification: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How big is your team? How many seats are you looking to buy? OR what\u2019s your sending volume?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Competition: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you evaluating any other products?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead to a product demo: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would you like to set up a product demo?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amy gets into the system and scores this lead based on the questions she asked and their answers. These are time-tested questions that have evolved over time in your sales process.  Every rep is supposed to ask these and qualify the prospect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage<\/strong>: Demo setup<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demo appointment: Hi John. Thank you for joining us for this demo. I have today with me who will be demoing our product to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope we have answered your questions, would you be interested in starting a trial? I would like to schedule another call with you a week from now to check on how things are going. But feel free to reach out to us at any time <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage<\/strong>: Trial Follow-up<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hi John. It\u2019s been about a week into your trial. I wanted to understand how things are going with the product. Is there anything I or our Customer support team can help you with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, we can clear your doubts here and now on this call and I can set up another meeting if our time here is not enough to clear your doubts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

. . . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would like to set up another call next week to ensure you\u2019re not facing any roadblocks, and we can meet again to discuss the fitment to your use case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage<\/strong>: Pitch the sale<\/strong>. Score 90.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can see, the software tracks each phase of the touch point, and your Prospect\u2019s status is carefully guided toward success or failure. Tracking the prospect’s journey to the final sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the Sales Pipeline<\/strong>. Detailed tracking of every touchpoint in the sales process and marking off critical stages that indicate that a prospect has moved to the next stage in a quantified manner, surfacing intent to the leadership tracking their sales progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the above, you would have gauged that the sales pipeline stages could vary from business to business. You could define the stages based on your sales playbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-sales mode: If a sale is closed, the customer may be handed over to a Customer Success team, and this may be the last step in the pipeline<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we mentioned in the short introduction, a Sales Pipeline is a detailed tracking of every touchpoint in the sales process and marking off critical stages that indicate that a prospect has moved to the next stage in a quantified manner, surfacing buying intent to the team and leadership tracking their sales progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What insights should a Sales Pipeline give?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Do we have a large enough list of prospects? Here are a couple of lines from \u201cInbound Selling\u201d Chapter 4, pages 63 and 64.\u00a0

    \u201cAt Hubspot we are spoiled. Especially in 2012 we were very spoiled. I asked for leads and the marketing Gods just provided. There were literally tens of thousands of leads for us to call because our marketing team relentlessly created high-quality content to attract visitors to our site and convert them into leads.\u201d\u00a0

    So if your team is not having a large sales pipeline, you need to take a closer look at the Marketing team or ramp up cold prospecting done by your SDRs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Do we have a large enough list of qualified prospects? If your pipeline of qualified prospects is not high enough, it means your SDRs are not making enough sales calls using the Marketing Qualified Leads pipeline to further gather prospect interest about their current buying cycle.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. What is the maximum quantifiable total sale my SDR can\u00a0do this month? (can he meet his target?) If you add up this number across all SDRs, will you meet your target? When a company sets up an incentive program for their SDR team<\/a>, they want them to hit those targets and drive company growth. But if those targets were pulled out of thin air with vanity numbers, then they will not be able to hit those targets and will be demoralized.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. What are the largest deal sizes<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Are the deals scored with a high enough probability? You want your team to work on the highest value; highest probability leads to maximize conversion. Over time your team has figured out key questions that need to be asked at each stage of selling, a lead scoring formula that adds up scores and qualifies leads. Based on this you want your team working on the highest probable conversions. And if there is a tie on scores, you want them working on a lead valued at USD 1000 instead of USD 200.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. What are my SDRs closing ratios?. Amy from your team may need to consume 8 leads before she closes a deal. Bob may need 10.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Are my SDRs filling up the CRM and touch point notes? You want a clear picture of what\u2019s happening on the ground.\n
      \n
    1. Prospect didn\u2019t buy because of feature X<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Prospect didn\u2019t buy since we don\u2019t have compliance Y<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Prospect didn\u2019t have budget<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. At the Lead qualification stage they told us we need to contact them in September<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. Is the system warning me of upcoming doom – lack of pipeline, lack of qualified leads for a 10-member team am I seeing 22000 touch point activities being logged in the system?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    6. Is the system reminding us of all those prospects my SDR marked as contact me in September –  \u201cOur contract is ending in November so we are going to look for something new then?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      <\/div>\n\n\n\n

      What more can a Sales Pipeline tell you?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Let\u2019s think a bit more. The quarter has ended. You and your team are looking back. There are deals your team won and that makes you happy. But there are deals you lose, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Maybe you lost 10 deals to a missing compliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Another 8 deals to a missing feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      And in another 5 conversations, you heard of a new competitor offering something that requires a change in your pricing strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      You have all these insights because you ensured that your team filled out all those reasons diligently and now you can look at things in aggregate via reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      And so you hold a meeting with the product team and give them detailed insights as to what\u2019s working in the market and some trends that you\u2019re seeing, new directions that need to be taken, and pricing changes that need to be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/div>\n\n\n\n

      What else do you want your sales pipeline to tell you?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Let\u2019s say your company uses a CRM. And one fine day it goes down for a few hours. And your sales team is sitting idle. You reach out to their support and you want reasons why it went down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      And you find out their database CPU hit 90% and then they crashed. And after that, their team realized specific tables were not optimized (missing indexes). And by the time they cleaned everything up, it was a few hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      And then you ask them, and yourself, why were no alarms set for such things?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/div>\n\n\n\n

      What about your Sales Pipeline? What kind of alarms do you want set?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      1. Marketing qualified leads are too low<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      2. Sales qualified prospects are too low<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      3. Quantified deal size is too small <\/li>\n\n\n\n
      4. One particular SDR is not filling their touchpoints frequently enough or after too much time has passed, losing context a customer has passed to them. Your CRM is now rotting.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      5. SDRs with below-average contribution to the top of the funnel<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      6. One particular SDR\u2019s closing ratio is way too low.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        In summary, a correctly done Sales Pipeline can help optimize your SDR’s time and sales efficiency and surface the true picture of what\u2019s happening in the field, allowing you to operate as a General, marshaling your troops where needed, yet allowing them autonomy to operate on the highest value deals like Commandos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        <\/div>\n\n\n\n

        Key takeaways: Sales pipeline stages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n