Sales pipeline
The list of deals currently in progress, sorted by stage and value, showing how much is at stake right now and where each opportunity is stuck.
Also known as: sales pipeline · commercial pipeline · deal pipeline · what is a sales pipeline · business pipeline
Try CRPRO free for 7 daysA sales pipeline is the list of deals that are open right now, sorted by the stages of the sales process. The word comes from plumbing: what matters is how much came in, how much is midway through, and where there is a clog.
Pipeline and funnel are not the same thing
Day to day the two terms blend together, and that is fine. Where the distinction matters:
- Funnel is the concept — the proportion left over from one stage to the next.
- Pipeline is the object — the list of real deals, with a name, a value, and a stage, that changes every week.
The funnel gets analyzed at the end of the month. The pipeline gets looked at on Monday morning.
What has to exist for it to be a pipeline
Four pieces of information per deal, and none of them are optional:
- Who — the contact or company on the other side.
- How much — the estimated value. A deal with no value does not add up, and a pipeline that does not add up is a to-do list.
- What stage — with an objective entry criterion.
- Since when it has been there — the date that flags the forgotten deal.
The owner is the fifth piece, as soon as more than one person is selling.
How to set up the columns
The rule is to describe what the customer has already done, not what the company still intends to do. "Waiting for a reply" describes internal anxiety; "proposal sent" describes a fact anyone can verify.
Four to six columns cover almost every operation that sells over WhatsApp. Each one needs to answer two questions: what makes a deal enter there, and what makes it leave.
What the pipeline answers — and what it does not
It answers: how much is open per stage, how many deals are stuck, which transition loses the most, and how much time each stage consumes.
It does not answer, on its own, how much will close in the month. A forecast requires, besides the value, an expected close date and a probability per deal — a different discipline, with different upkeep. A full pipeline and a reliable forecast are different things, and confusing the two generates a promise the month cannot back up.
On CRPRO
Every new contact enters the funnel as a deal automatically, with nobody registering anything — it is the database's own behavior, valid even on the entry-level plan. From there, the board totals the value in currency per stage, each card shows how many days it has been sitting where it is, and the history keeps track of who moved the deal and when.
Frequently asked questions
What is a sales pipeline?
It is the list of deals that are open at the moment, organized by the stage they are in, with an estimated value on each one. It is used to know how much is at stake and where each opportunity is stuck.
What is the difference between a pipeline and a sales funnel?
The funnel is the concept — the proportion left over from one stage to the next. The pipeline is the concrete list of deals occupying those stages today. In practice the words are used as synonyms, and that rarely causes trouble.
How many stages should a pipeline have?
Four to six covers most operations. The test is not the number: each stage needs an objective entry and exit criterion. If the team argues about which column a deal is in, there is either an extra stage or a missing definition.
How do I calculate the pipeline value?
By adding up the estimated value of deals that have not yet been won or lost, ideally stage by stage. The isolated total misleads: the same amount sitting at first contact and at proposal sent describes opposite situations.
Can a sales pipeline predict the month's revenue?
Not on its own. A forecast depends on an expected close date and a probability on each deal, fields that require constant upkeep. Without them, the pipeline shows what exists right now, not what is coming in.
Related pages
Related glossary terms
Sales pipeline
A representation of the stages a contact moves through from first contact to purchase, used to measure where deals stall and to project revenue.
Sales CRM
A system that centralizes contacts, history and open deals so the sales team does not depend on memory or loose spreadsheets.
Kanban
A visual flow-management method in which work is represented by cards in stage columns, with an explicit limit on simultaneous items.
Open pipeline value
The sum of the value of deals that have not yet been won or lost, read by stage to show how much is actually at stake.
Sales cycle
The time between the first contact and the outcome of a deal — won or lost — used to size cash flow and calibrate how much a follow-up should insist.
Conversion milestone
A classification that tells what a funnel stage means — qualification, proposal, won, or lost — so metrics know what to count.