# Pipeline stages that mean something > Define each pipeline stage by what the buyer did, set entry criteria you can check, and flag stuck deals by days in stage and buyer silence. - Course: [B2B Marketing and Sales: Win Your First Company Customers](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales.md) - Module: The pipeline - Lesson 9/32, ~21 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/stages-that-mean-something ## Hot, warm, very interested **Alex Tutor:** You've just decided whom Klasna for Teams should chase, as its first marketing-and-sales hire. This module is about what happens next: the pipeline of deals, and whether it tells the truth. **Marta:** Here's our sheet. Stages: «contacted», «interested», «very interested», «almost there». Leo has eleven deals at «almost there». **Sofia:** Eleven deals nearly closed sounds great. **Alex Tutor:** It sounds great because those names describe how the seller feels. «Very interested» after a warm call and «very interested» after the finance director approved a budget are one label for two very different deals. **Alex Tutor:** A stage should name something the **buyer did** that you can check: a meeting held, a budget owner named, a contract sent to their legal team. > **Exercise:** Which stage definition can someone else check? ## Four stages, defined by the buyer **Marta:** Then give me stages I can check. **Alex Tutor:** Four for Teams. **Discovery**: the buyer described their problem in a call and agreed to a next meeting. **Qualified**: we know the need, who owns the budget and how they buy, the timing, and the alternative they'd choose instead. **Alex Tutor:** **Proposal**: the budget owner has our proposal, with a scope they asked for. **Contract**: the buyer sent our contract to their legal or procurement team. Then won or lost. **Sofia:** So «they loved the demo» doesn't move a deal anywhere? **Marta:** Not by itself. Loving the demo is nice. Agreeing a second meeting with their operations director is a stage. > **Exercise:** Match each Teams stage with the evidence that lets a deal enter it. ## Entry criteria, no half-stages **Sofia:** What if a deal has some of the qualified answers, but not all? **Alex Tutor:** Then it stays in discovery. Each stage has an **entry criterion**: what must be true to enter. The exit is simply the next stage's entry. No «qualified-ish». **Alex Tutor:** A deal may skip a stage: a renewal can go straight to contract, because the need and budget are already proven. What it can't do is enter a stage without that stage's evidence. **Alex Tutor:** Try it on a real deal from the sheet. > **Exercise:** A deal with a logistics company: the buyer described the problem in a call and booked a next meeting. You know the need and the timing, but not who owns the budget or what they'd do instead of buying from Teams. Which stage is it in? **Marta:** And lost? Leo never marks anything lost. **Alex Tutor:** Lost is a stage too, with a reason. A pipeline with no losses isn't healthy; it's unedited. And those reasons are exactly what we used to build the disqualifiers. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** if the champion at a prospect says «we'll definitely sign next month», the deal can move to the contract stage. **Alex Tutor:** Back to Marta's question about lost deals. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a pipeline in which no deal has been marked lost for half a year shows a healthy sales process. ## Stuck deals **Sofia:** Some of Leo's deals have sat in the same stage since summer. **Alex Tutor:** That's the second signal: time. Track **days in stage** and **days since the buyer last did anything**: replied, booked a call, sent a document. **Marta:** Our rule: no buyer activity for more than 30 days, or a close date moved twice, and the deal is flagged. It's our house rule, not an industry number. **Alex Tutor:** A flagged deal gets one honest question to the buyer: «Is this still a priority this quarter?» Then it moves forward, back, or to lost. **Sofia:** Isn't that pushy? **Alex Tutor:** It's the opposite. A clear question lets the buyer say no without a meeting, and saves both sides time. > **Exercise:** Under Teams' rule (no buyer activity for more than 30 days, or a close date moved twice), which deals get flagged? Select all that apply. ## Our effort is not their action **Marta:** Leo will say he emailed them last week. **Alex Tutor:** Our emails measure our effort. The flag counts the buyer's actions. Five follow-ups with no answer is still thirty-five days of silence. **Sofia:** So I log what the buyer did, with a date. **Alex Tutor:** Yes. Then the pipeline is a record of facts anyone can audit, not a mood board. **Marta:** Leo has one he swears is alive. Check it. > **Exercise:** Leo says his deal with an insurance broker isn't stuck: he sent follow-ups 20, 12 and 5 days ago. The broker last replied 45 days ago. Under Teams' rule, what is the deal's status? > **Exercise:** A fintech startup in Leo's sheet sits at «almost there». The buyer's last reply was in August, 41 days ago; Leo has written twice since. What should happen first? **Marta:** Fine. Write to that fintech startup. Their head of people was keen in August, then nothing. **Sofia:** Without making her feel chased? **Alex Tutor:** Short, polite, easy to answer: what you understood last time, one direct question about timing, and a «no» that's clearly welcome. **Marta:** And no fake deadline. No «prices go up next month» unless they really do. > **Exercise:** In August the fintech startup's head of people was keen: her support team needs English for calls with clients abroad, and she wanted to start in the autumn. She hasn't replied for 41 days. Write her a message (3–4 sentences). Recap what you understood in August, ask one direct question about whether this is still a priority this quarter, and make «no» easy to say. > **Key ideas** > > - Stages named after feelings («hot», «very interested», «almost there») can't be checked, so the pipeline can't be trusted. > - Define each stage by a buyer action: Teams uses discovery, qualified, proposal and contract, then won or lost. > - Each stage has an entry criterion; without its evidence, the deal stays where it is. > - Lost is a stage with a reason; those reasons feed the disqualifiers. > - Track days in stage and days since the buyer last acted. Teams flags a deal after more than 30 days of buyer silence or a close date moved twice (a house rule). > - Our follow-ups are our effort, not the buyer's action. A flagged deal gets one honest question. **Alex Tutor:** Next: the four questions that move a deal from discovery to qualified, and how to ask them honestly. - Previous lesson: [Case: forty companies, who is our ideal customer?](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/forty-companies-case.md) - Next lesson: [Qualifying a deal: four honest questions](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/qualifying-four-questions.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.