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Below, we walk through the specific stages of a sales pipeline and how they help move a prospect closer to a sale.

inspecting a sales pipeline and graph of data.
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What are the stages of a sales pipeline?
The stages of a pipeline may vary slightly based on industry or sector, but they generally follow the same order: prospecting, lead qualification,Opens in a new window sales call or meeting, proposal, negotiation and commitment, contract signing, and post-purchase. Each of these stages helps you identify next best steps based on where prospects are on the road to a sale.

1. Prospecting
Sales prospecting Opens in a new windowrefers to the process of finding potential new customers. There’s outbound prospecting, which involves cold outreach to folks who match your buyer persona, and there’s inbound prospecting, which involves outreach to individuals and businesses who have already expressed interest in your product or company by signing america phone number list up for an event, a newsletter, product information, or a demo.

2. Lead qualification
Not all potential customers are likely to close. Before you pitch your product, you need to make sure it’s a good fit for the prospects you’ve identified. This is where lead qualification comes in. First, set a baseline of criteria for qualification, like leads who are in a specific geographic location or industry. Many CRMs will let you set these and do automatic lead scoring so you don’t have to review leads manually. Follow up on leads who meet preset criteria with a lead qualification call, where you gather important information like their needs, budget, timeline, and who has the power to make purchasing decisions. The leads who best align with your product and are most likely to buy become qualified leads, or prospects. By focusing on qualified leads, you optimize your efforts and increase the likelihood of closing deals with the right prospects.

3. Sales call, demo, or meeting
At this stage, you’ve strategically filtered out leads that are not ready to buy, and are zeroing in on those that are. This is when you start to go in for a sale. Schedule a demo or meeting to discuss product solutions to customer pain points. Make sure everyone involved understands the goal of this meeting; having an agenda prepared ahead of time will help keep everything on track. Keep in mind: This is an opportunity to build a business case demonstrating how your product will help your prospect achieve their goals.