6 Sales Pipeline Examples With Stages and Exit Criteria

A simple sales pipeline is Qualified → Discovery → Proposal → Decision, with Won and Lost as the outcomes. Each stage should describe something you can verify about the deal. “Proposal” means the buyer has received a proposal; “Decision” means the buyer is reviewing an agreed offer with a decision process in place.

The six examples below are starting points for different sales processes. Each has a rule for moving forward. Adapt the stages to how your customers buy, then use the same rules across your team.

Choose a pipeline for your sales process

Use a separate lead list for people you may contact. Add a deal to the sales pipeline when there is a specific opportunity. A person who downloaded a guide may be a lead; a company discussing a paid project has a deal to track.

1. A simple pipeline for a small business

Start here if you sell one main service and most decisions involve one or two people.

Example: A bookkeeper speaks with a retailer about monthly accounts. After confirming the work required, the bookkeeper sends a fixed monthly offer. The deal moves to Decision when the retailer has the offer and a date to respond.

Keep the next action specific: “Call on Thursday to review the monthly package.” If the prospect stops responding, record the follow-up and date. Repeated unanswered messages are a reason to review the deal, not evidence that it has progressed.

2. An agency pipeline for project work

Agency deals often stall because the brief and scope keep changing. Give scope agreement its own stage.

Example: A design agency is quoting a website redesign. The buyer wants six page templates, content migration, and a June launch. The deal stays in Scope agreed while the team settles who will write the content. A proposal based on an unresolved assumption is likely to need rework.

Track delivery work on a project board after the sale. “Homepage in review” describes project progress; the sales pipeline should show whether the project has been sold.

3. A software pipeline with a demo or trial

Give an evaluation a clear success condition and end date. “Trial started” alone says little about the chance of a sale.

Example: A five-person team is evaluating a support tool. Its test is to handle a week's incoming requests with clear ownership. The seller and buyer agree to review the result on Friday. The deal moves forward when the buyer confirms the workflow meets that need.

Keep self-service signups separate from sales-assisted opportunities unless someone is actively responsible for a sales conversation. This keeps the board useful for the people who must follow up.

4. A B2B pipeline with several approvers

A larger sale may need both a business decision and procurement approval. Make those steps visible.

Example: A manufacturer wants a new reporting service. The operations team accepts the pilot, but procurement still needs vendor registration. Keep the deal in Procurement with an owner for that step and a next review date.

Record the people involved and what each needs to approve. One enthusiastic contact does not establish that every approval is complete.

5. A pipeline for quotes and local services

Use this when an enquiry leads to an assessment, a quote, and a booking.

Example: An installer receives a request for office lighting. After a site visit, the installer sends a quote and follows up two working days later. The deal is Won when the business's booking conditions are met.

For a fast sales process, avoid adding a stage for every call or email. Record those as activities on the deal.

6. A pipeline for renewals and expansion

Existing customers need a different conversation from new prospects. Start with the current service and the next decision.

Example: A customer uses a service for one department and wants to add another. Create an expansion deal linked to the same organization. Record the added value separately from the existing contract so you can see what is new.

Choose a consistent value measure for each pipeline. Mixing monthly fees and full-year contract values makes the total difficult to use.

Give every deal a useful record

These fields are enough to make the examples actionable:

• Deal name: The piece of work being sold, such as “Website redesign.”
• Customer and contact: The organization and people involved.
• Owner: One person responsible for the next step.
• Value and currency: A value measured consistently across the pipeline.
• Stage: The current step, based on the rules you agreed.
• Next action and date: What the owner will do next, and when.
• Expected close date: The current estimate, updated when the buyer's timing changes.
• Outcome and reason: Won or Lost, with a short explanation.

Illustrative deal record:

The example is fictional. Its purpose is to show the information a colleague needs to take over the next conversation.

Set up the pipeline in Tooling Studio Sales CRM

Sales CRM by Tooling Studio gives Google Workspace teams visual deal boards in Gmail, alongside contacts and organizations. You can create stages, add deal cards, link contacts, and keep notes and supporting information with the opportunity.

To use one of these examples:

1. Create a Deal board for the sales process.
2. Add the stages you need from the example.
3. Create a deal for each active opportunity and link its contacts or organization.
4. Add the value and expected close date. Record the next action in the deal's notes or a linked task.
5. Move the deal when the stage rule is met. Record Won or Lost when the decision is final.

For a team review, open the shared board and work through the deals with an overdue next action or an unclear decision date. Board and table views let you review the same CRM records in different ways.

If your customer details are still in a spreadsheet, start with the Google Contacts import guide. The Google Contacts CRM guide explains how to build on that address book.

Review the pipeline each week

Use the review to decide what happens next. Ask: What changed? Who is responsible? What is the next action? Does the close date still reflect the buyer's plan?

Measure a few things consistently:

• Open pipeline value: Add the values of open deals, using one currency and value basis.
• Win rate: Divide Won deals by Won plus Lost deals for the same period. For example, 8 wins and 12 losses give a 40% win rate.
• Stage conversion: Follow one group of deals from a stage and count how many move forward. Do not divide today's stage totals and treat the result as conversion.
• Time in stage: Review how long each deal has stayed at its current step. Use the sales process to decide when to investigate.

Do not treat an estimated pipeline total as booked revenue. A clear next action and buyer-confirmed progress make the forecast more useful than an extra stage.

Common questions

How many stages should a sales pipeline have?

Start with four or five active stages if they describe your process. Add a stage only when it has a distinct buyer action, approval, or handoff to track. Use Won and Lost to record the outcome.

What is the difference between a sales pipeline and a sales funnel?

A pipeline tracks individual deals and the work needed to move each one forward. A funnel describes how a group of prospects narrows as people progress. Awareness and interest can help describe a funnel, but they are often too vague to decide a deal's next action.

When should a deal move to the next stage?

Move it when the stage's exit rule is met and the record shows the evidence. A sent proposal, an agreed evaluation result, or a completed purchasing review is clearer than a salesperson's confidence alone.