Sales Pipeline
In short
The sales pipeline shows all of a company's open sales opportunities with their value and current stage, from qualified lead to closed deal.
Also known as: sales-pipeline, deal pipeline
The sales pipeline is the overview of all open sales opportunities (deals) with their value and the stage they are currently in. It's the main steering tool for sales and is usually shown in the CRM as a kanban board with one column per stage.
Typical stages
Each stage has a typical close probability that you can derive from your historical data.
Weighted pipeline value
Weighted pipeline value = Σ (deal value × close probability of the stage)
Example
An agency has 10 deals worth $5,000 each in the stage "proposal sent" (40% probability) and 4 deals worth $8,000 each in "negotiation" (70%).
Weighted pipeline value = $50,000 × 0.4 + $32,000 × 0.7 = $42,400
Sales pipeline and marketing
In lead generation, weeks or months often pass between the click and the sale. If you only wait for closed deals, you react too late. The pipeline is a leading indicator: if a campaign pushes lots of deals into late stages, it's probably profitable, even if the revenue hasn't been booked yet.
Through the HubSpot integration, LeadMetrics pulls in deal stages over time and attributes each deal to the campaign the lead came from. You can send won and lost deals to Meta, Google Ads, TikTok and LinkedIn via the Conversion API. Close is connected natively too, other systems via webhooks, Zapier or Make.
Common mistakes
- Stale deals: Deals that have been stuck in one stage for months inflate pipeline value.
- Vague stages: If "proposal sent" means something different to everyone, forecasts are useless.
- No source on the deal: Without a link to the campaign, you don't know which marketing is filling the pipeline.
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Related terms
All termsSales Funnel
A sales funnel describes the stages a prospect goes through from first contact to purchase, and how many people drop off at each stage along the way.
CRM · Customer Relationship Management
A CRM (customer relationship management) is a system for managing contacts, leads, deals and all communication with prospects and customers in one place.
SQL · Sales Qualified Lead
An SQL (sales qualified lead) is a lead that sales has vetted and classified as ready to buy – with a real need, budget and decision-making authority.
Offline Conversions · Reporting deals that happen off your website back to ad platforms
Offline conversions are conversions that don’t happen on your website – like a closed deal in your CRM – and are sent back to ad platforms like Meta.
Lead
A lead is a potential customer who has shown interest and shared their contact details with you, for example through a form, a funnel or a lead form.
Lead Generation
Lead generation is the process of making potential customers aware of your offer and capturing their contact details, for example through ads and funnels.