sales pipeline
Also called: deal pipeline, pipeline stages
The list of open deals arranged by stage, from first qualified conversation to signed contract, with a value and an expected close date for each. It is only useful when every stage is defined by something the buyer did, not by how the seller feels.
A sales pipeline is the list of open deals, each placed in a stage, with a value and an expected close date. It answers three working questions: what could be signed, roughly when, and what has to happen next in each deal. In B2B, where one deal can take months and involve a whole committee, it is the main tool a small sales team runs on.
Stages only mean something when each one is defined by a buyer action that can be checked. For example: discovery (the buyer described the problem and agreed to a next meeting), qualified (need, budget owner and buying process, timing and alternative are all known), proposal (the budget owner has the proposal), contract (the buyer sent the contract to legal or procurement). A stage defined by what the seller did ("sent the deck") or felt ("looks hot") turns the pipeline into a wish list.
Each deal also needs a value in one consistent unit (for example annual contract value), the buyer's next step with a date, and the date of the buyer's last activity. Those fields make problems visible: a deal with no buyer activity for a month, or a close date moved twice, is stale and should not sit at full value. The pipeline is the raw material for the forecast, coverage and win rate; it is not a forecast by itself.
Example
Klasna for Teams, the corporate line of an online tutoring school, reviewed its pipeline on 5 October 2026. Value is annual contract value: lessons a month × 800 UAH × 12.
The total looks large, but two checks shrink it. Seven deals worth 3,312,000 UAH are stale (no buyer activity for more than 30 days or a close date moved twice), including a contract-stage deal its owner rated at 95% whose buyer had been silent for 46 days. And the three biggest deals, Veloria, Cobalt and Orchid (11,040,000 UAH together), were dated in the fourth quarter although none of them could sign before 2027. The pipeline is the same list after the review; what changes is how much of it anyone should expect this quarter.
Common mistakes
- Stages named after seller activity. "Demo done" or "proposal sent" says what you did, not what the buyer decided. Define each stage by a buyer action you can check.
- Keeping stale deals at full value. Agree a rule (for example no buyer activity for 30 days or a close date moved twice) and review those deals separately.
- Mixing value units. Monthly and annual values, or list and discounted prices, in one column make every total meaningless.
- Reading the total as the forecast. The pipeline is what could close; the forecast is what you expect to close, after stages, dates and history are applied.
- No next step. A deal without a buyer's next step and a date is not moving, whatever its stage says.
Learn it in the course
- 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.