What is Sales Pipeline?
Nexa Consultancy | Startup & Finance Glossary
A sales pipeline is a visual representation of the stages a prospect goes through from being a lead to becoming a customer. It provides a systematic way for sales teams to track and manage their opportunities.
For Startups: A well-defined sales pipeline is crucial for forecasting revenue and understanding the health of the sales process. It helps founders identify where deals are getting stuck and what resources are needed to move them forward.
For B2B/SaaS: A typical B2B sales pipeline includes stages like Prospecting, Qualification (MQL/SQL), Demo, Proposal, Negotiation, and Closed-Won/Lost. Each stage will have a probability of closing associated with it, which is used to create a weighted pipeline forecast.
Example: A CRM dashboard showing deals organized into different columns representing the sales stages is a visualization of a sales pipeline.