What is a sales pipeline?
A sales pipeline is the set of open deals a team is working, arranged by the stage each one has reached, from first conversation to signed contract.
Its value only means something once each stage carries a measured conversion rate: $500,000 of pipeline is a very different number if 10% or 40% of deals at that stage usually close.
Typical sales pipeline stages
Stage names vary, but most B2B pipelines follow the same arc. Each stage needs an exit criterion someone could check, not a feeling.
- Qualified: there is a real need, a budget and someone who can decide.
- Discovery: you understand the problem well enough to propose a fix.
- Proposal: pricing and scope are in front of the buyer.
- Negotiation: terms, legal review and procurement.
- Closed won or closed lost.
Sales pipeline vs sales funnel
The two are often used interchangeably, but they look at different things. A funnel counts people moving from awareness to purchase and shows where volume drops off. A pipeline tracks deals, their value and their stage, and it is what you forecast from.
How to build a sales pipeline
Start from your last 20 to 50 closed deals rather than a template. Write down the steps they actually went through, merge the ones that always happen together, and give each stage an exit criterion. Then record the date every deal enters each stage: that history is what later gives you conversion rates and stage norms.
Sales pipeline metrics that matter
- Stage conversion rate: of the deals that reached a stage, how many closed.
- Time in stage: how long deals usually sit at each step, and which ones are overdue.
- Weighted pipeline: deal value multiplied by win probability.
- Sales velocity: how quickly value moves through to closed won.
Last reviewed 2026-11-01.