Guide · Sales and booking
Sales pipeline stages, set up: entry rules, probabilities and time limits
In short
Setting up pipeline stages takes an afternoon: write the few steps your deals really go through, give each one a rule for when a deal enters it, a probability you’ll check against what you close, and a number of days after which a deal sitting there needs a look. Then decide the reasons you’ll record when a deal is won or lost, and review the stages after a quarter.
Reviewed 9 November 2026. Terms used: Sales pipeline stages, Lead scoring.
Seven steps to a pipeline your team trusts
Read “What are sales pipeline stages?” in the glossary for the idea; this is the setting up.
Write down how deals really go
Take your last ten won deals and list what happened in each, in order: first enquiry, site visit, quotation, negotiation. The steps most of them share are your stages. Keep between four and seven.
Give each stage an entry rule
A deal enters a stage when something checkable has happened, not when someone feels good about it. “Quotation sent” is a rule; “very interested” isn’t.
Set a probability per stage, then check it
Start with your best guess of how many deals at each stage end up won, and set it as the stage’s probability. After a quarter, compare it with what you actually closed and change it.
Give each stage a time limit
Decide how many days a deal can sit in a stage before someone should look at it: a short limit for negotiation, a longer one for a site visit that depends on the customer. A stale deal is a question, not a failure.
Decide your won and lost reasons
Make a short list for each, such as price, lead time and chose another supplier, and ask for one every time a deal closes. After a quarter, the lost reasons say more than the won ones.
Use a second pipeline when the work differs
Large fit-outs and one-off home orders don’t move through the same steps. Give each its own pipeline rather than stretching one set of stages over both.
Review after a quarter
Merge stages that always move together, drop one nobody uses, and adjust the probabilities and time limits to what happened.
One pipeline, written out
An example for a furniture company’s project sales. The probabilities and days are examples to change, not targets.
New enquiry
10% · 14 daysEnters when: a named contact asks about a project with a site.
Time limit: two weeks to arrange a visit.
Site visit
25% · 10 daysEnters when: the visit is booked or done.
Quotation sent
50% · 10 daysEnters when: a priced quotation has gone to the decision maker.
Negotiation
75% · 7 daysEnters when: the customer has replied with changes or a counter-offer.
Won / Lost
100% / 0%Enters when: an order or a signed quotation, or a no, with a reason from your list.
How it works in Axonave
Your stages, probabilities and time limits on a kanban board.
In Axonave each pipeline has its own stages, set in Settings → Deals: a name, a colour, a probability from 0 to 100, whether the stage is open, won or lost, and a rotting time in days. A deal left in a stage past it is flagged on its card with its days in the stage. A new pipeline starts from seven default stages to rename or remove, and your win and loss reasons are your own lists. On the board, drag a deal to its next stage; each column shows its total and the page shows the weighted forecast. Deals sit on the same record as the customer’s chats, tickets and meetings.
- Several pipelines, such as projects and home orders
- Leads converted into a deal on the pipeline you pick
- Deal analytics and Reports → Sales
The deals board in our demo workspace: B2B fit-out deals in their stages, each column with its probability and total, and the weighted forecast above. The amounts are the demo’s, in ringgit.
Common questions
How is this different from the glossary entry?
The glossary explains what stages and a weighted forecast are. This guide is the setting up: entry rules, probabilities, time limits and reasons.
What does a deal “rotting” mean in Axonave?
It has stayed in a stage longer than that stage’s rotting time, so its card is flagged with its days in the stage. Set 0 to switch it off for a stage.
Can we import deals we already have?
Yes. Import deals from a CSV file, with a preview before anything is saved.
See it working with your own customers.
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