CRM Pipeline Stages: Define Exit Criteria Before Adding More Columns

A stage dictionary you can adapt

• New request: an enquiry exists; leave when an owner assesses the service and missing context.
• Assessment: the team is establishing fit and scope; leave when enough information exists for a proposed next step.
• Proposal: a specific offer is being prepared or reviewed; distinguish those tasks if the team genuinely needs separate visibility.
• Customer decision: an identifiable proposal is with the appropriate decision maker; leave on evidence of acceptance, decline or a properly recorded deferral.
• Won: the business’s accepted-decision condition is evidenced; delivery prerequisites remain separately visible.
• Closed: no current sale is being pursued, with the known reason or an honest unknown.

These proposed labels are a worksheet, not built-in Client Craft stages.

Write the transition rule

For each stage copy: entry evidence | exit evidence | owner | next action | blocked condition. “Customer decision” might require a proposal reference, sent date and decision contact. “Feels promising” is not exit evidence.

Keep activities separate from stages. A call may happen in assessment and during a proposal discussion; making “Called” a universal stage can hide the actual commercial position.

A fictional opportunity that should not advance

A team has emailed an estimate and booked a call. It marks the deal “Won” because the customer sounded enthusiastic. The actual evidence shows a proposal under discussion, not acceptance.

Keep it at the appropriate decision stage, record the call’s purpose and identify who can approve. If accepted later, retain that evidence. Do not treat project creation as proof that the sale was accepted.

Review friction before adding stages

Ask the team to classify the same three real or synthetic records independently. Disagreement reveals unclear definitions. Fix those rules before creating more columns.

Look for records without a next action and stages used as parking places. A visual pipeline is useful only when its categories help people decide what to do; more stages do not establish better forecasting.