Opportunity Stages
The defined progression steps a deal moves through from creation to close. Good stages have clear entry criteria, verifiable milestones, and exit requirements. Bad stages are just vibes — reps move deals based on gut feel instead of buyer actions.
Opportunity stages are either your sales process made visible or complete fiction. There's no in-between.
Bad stages: "Early," "Mid," "Late," "Closing" — what do these even mean? Every rep interprets them differently. Your pipeline is an illusion.
Good stages: "Discovery Complete" (decision-makers identified, pain quantified, timeline confirmed), "Technical Validation" (POC criteria defined and met), "Business Case Approved" (economic buyer sign-off on ROI). Verifiable buyer actions, not rep opinions.
The RevOps angle: if you can't look at a deal in Stage 3 and know exactly what buyer actions have been confirmed, your stages are broken and your forecast is a guess.
Define ItOther Definitions
“Opportunity stages represent the steps in your sales process that an opportunity moves through. Each stage should have clear entry and exit criteria, often tied to probability percentages for forecasting.”
“Pipeline stages are the steps that represent your sales process. They should align with buyer behavior — awareness, consideration, decision — and have measurable milestones.”
“Opportunity qualification stages should validate Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Implications of Pain, Champion, and Competition at each progression.”
Opportunity stages define deal progression through the sales process. Salesforce emphasizes entry/exit criteria and forecasting alignment. HubSpot connects stages to buyer behavior. MEDDPICC provides a framework for what each stage should verify.
Effective stage architecture: (1) 5-7 stages maximum — more creates confusion; (2) Verifiable criteria — buyer actions, not rep opinions; (3) Probability alignment — realistic close rates per stage; (4) Methodology integration — stage requirements map to qualification framework (BANT, MEDDIC, etc.).
Stage health indicates process health — if deals jump stages, skip backwards, or cluster in middle stages, the process is broken.
MistakesCommon Mistakes
Stages based on sales activities instead of buyer actions
No defined exit criteria — reps advance on gut feel
Too many stages creating pipeline chaos
Stage probabilities not calibrated to actual close rates
Allowing deals to skip stages without documentation
Knowing the definition won't fix the leak.
We find where your revenue engine is broken and show you exactly how to fix it. 6 weeks. Fixed scope.
Experience across
