B2B sales pipeline stages: Examples and best practices

At Belkins, we’ve managed hundreds of B2B sales pipelines for our medium- and enterprise-sized clients. Some common pipeline issues we’ve seen are:

• Insufficient quality leads. No buyer persona, no ideal customer profile (ICP), “lazy” lead validation, buying lead lists, and the absence of lead qualification can make the early stages of the pipeline ineffective, leading to a negative effect on the close rate. 
• Lead ghosting. Leads might get stuck in various pipeline stages and decide to ghost. For instance, while CFOs could stall deals because of costs, CTOs could do the same if a tech solution isn’t right. Ghosting reduces close rates. 
• Poor tracking. The unwillingness of sales to use a CRM means leads fall through the cracks, forecasts become inaccurate, and the pipeline stages are in shambles.

In this article, you’ll learn how to overcome these challenges by drawing on our experience and insights from industry leaders. We’ll also explain what happens in each stage of the B2B sales pipeline so you can build an efficient and winning pipeline.

What are the sales pipeline stages?

Sales pipeline stages are the sequential steps a potential customer takes in a company’s sales process, from initial lead to closed sale. Defining each stage ensures sales teams follow a unified process rather than individualized approaches. It also helps identify bottlenecks, forecast revenue, and do optimizations that improve lead close rate. 

Typical stages of a B2B sales pipeline

Each company’s pipeline stages may vary, as many customize their pipelines to fit their sales strategy, industry, and target market. However, most pipelines follow the progression outlined below:

• Lead generation/prospecting. Potential customers (i.e. leads) enter the pipeline through outbound or inbound lead generation tactics. 
• Lead qualification. Here, sales teams assess whether leads align with the company’s ICP and have genuine interest and capacity to purchase. 

This often includes a discovery call to confirm interest, understand needs, and evaluate fit. Qualified leads move to the next stage, while the sales team removes unqualified ones or nurtures them for future opportunities.

• Demo. Businesses that sell products typically include demos to show their product in action. Using insights from the discovery call, they show how their solution meets the prospect’s needs, addresses pain points, and stands out from competitors. This makes the demo a crucial stage for building buy-in and moving qualified leads closer to a decision.
• Proposal. Following the success of previous stages, the sales rep presents a proposal that reinforces the unique value of their solution and why a prospect should choose them over a competitor. The proposal also includes pricing information.
• Negotiation and commitment. This stage addresses questions or objections following the proposal review with other key stakeholders.
• Closing. At this stage, the sale is won or lost. If the prospect accepts the proposal, they sign the contract, and the sales team marks the deal as closed-won. If not, they mark the deal as closed-lost but may retain it in the pipeline for future reengagement. After closing, the sales team hands off the client to customer success or account management for smooth onboarding, ongoing support, and potential upsell or cross-sell opportunities.

Before delving into each stage of our B2B sales pipeline, let’s consider the difference between a B2B sales pipeline and a sales funnel.

Sales pipeline vs. sales funnel

Though distinct, people sometimes use sales pipeline and sales funnel interchangeably. 

A sales funnel visualizes the buyer’s journey from the prospect’s perspective by highlighting the stages a customer goes through — from awareness to purchase.

However, the sales pipeline examines the buyer’s journey from the seller’s perspective. In other words, it highlights the steps for moving buyers from initial contact to closed sale.

An inside scoop of Belkins B2B sales pipeline stages

To provide a real-life B2B sales pipeline example, I interviewed Julia Sorokovikova, head of sales operations at Belkins. According to Julia, Belkins has 11 stages in its B2B sales pipeline.

Appointment scheduled

Appointments are booked by the Business Development Representative (BDR) team or automatically through the website. The deal remains here until the prospect meets with the sales executive. During this time, BDRs or inbound sales coordinators confirm meeting details and further qualify the prospect. 

After the initial discovery call, the deal moves to the next stage.

Was on disco

“Disco” is short for “discovery call.” The “was on disco” means we’ve had the discovery call, and there’s no reason to disqualify the lead. The deal moves to the next stage when prospects complete an ICP or DD (due diligence) form. We’ll explain the significance of these forms in the next step.

Here’s an example of a message the sales executive (SE) might send to the prospect: “Hey, are you still considering our services? If so, please fill out this form so we can analyze your needs and offer a specific package.” Once the prospect completes the form, the deal is automatically assigned to a Belkins researcher for ICP/DD analysis.

ICP/DD analysis

Our ICP form gathers basic information about the prospect’s target industry and job titles. We then analyze their responses to create a simple Excel sheet that includes the prospect’s total addressable market (TAM) and a few sample leads (around 20).

For DD analysis, we go further, evaluating their “digital presence, digital footprint, employee count, and whether they can work with the leads we’ll provide,” as Julia explains. We summarize our findings in a 10-slide presentation with actionable suggestions and next steps.

Completing the ICP/DD analysis helps us determine the most viable package and gives prospects an early look at the value we bring. While ICP analysis is standard for any qualified prospect, we typically reserve DD analysis for more mature or enterprise-sized companies due to its complexity and time requirements. 

ICP/DD trial

We make our offer at this stage. Once the analysis from the previous stages is complete, the researcher moves the deal to the ICP/DD trial stage, and the assigned SE gets a notification saying, “Hey, your analysis is complete. Proceed with the client.” The SE then arranges a follow-up call to present the findings and propose a service package.

“If everything goes smoothly, they proceed to the further stages, like the contract sent,” Julia explains. The ICP/DD trial stage is critical for solidifying the offer and raising our chances of closing the deal. 

Highly qualified

This stage is reserved for prospects we’re excited and extremely optimistic about. As Julia explains, “Highly qualified is a stage for exceptional prospects. If we have a prospect we want to keep a close eye on, we can move them to highly qualified, regardless of what stage they’re in within the overall pipeline.” 

These prospects may not have progressed through earlier stages, such as “was on disco” or “ICP/DD analysis.” Adding the deal to this stage reminds the team to track these promising leads and engage with them periodically.

Contract sent

Once the prospect is ready to proceed, we discuss specific details of the partnership, such as MSA (master services agreement), NDA (nondisclosure agreement), and technical requirements. We then prepare and send a contract for signing. 

Verbal commitments aren’t enough. The deal hasn’t truly closed until the prospect signs a contract and makes payment. After the prospect has signed the contract, the sales executive requests the finance team to issue an invoice, and the deal moves to the next stage.

Awaiting payment

This stage is for monitoring payment progress. The deal stays here until payment is received. 

Closed won

This stage marks a successful close — time to pop the champagne! Automations notify everyone in the company about the new client, and the sales team hands off the account to the account manager.

Need time

Deals in this stage are leads who express interest but need to delay for reasons such as budget constraints.

For instance, if we engage with a client in Q4 of 2024 and they say, “I cannot work with you right now, but contact me in Q1 2025. I may have another budget for another quarter,” we move them to this stage. Without a CRM, it becomes extremely difficult to track all leads who need more time. Beyond tracking, our team at Belkins uses HubSpot to help our sales team nurture the leads and set a timeline for future engagement.

No-show recovery

If a prospect misses a scheduled appointment, the sales team marks the deal as a no-show and automatically assigns it to a BDR. The BDR team then works to reengage the prospect and arrange a new meeting.

Closed lost

Deals move to this stage when it’s clear Belkins can’t proceed with the client. For instance, the prospect may have chosen a competitor or have an unfeasible total addressable market. Where the lead is unlikely to return, we mark the deal as “closed lost” and add a note stating why we lost the deal.

Occasionally, we encounter prospects who express an interest in connecting far into the future. As Julia explains, a prospect might say, “I cannot work with Belkins right now, but let's revisit this conversation in 2026.” That’s 2 years, which is too long! In these situations, we also mark the deal as “closed lost” but include a task to contact them at the end of 2025.

Best practices for optimizing B2B sales pipeline stages

Your goal is to increase the quality and quantity of deals in each pipeline stage. The tips below show how to do this to help you maximize revenue and optimize each stage for maximum conversions.

Lead generation/prospecting

If you find it difficult to build a solid lead database, you’re not alone — HubSpot’s 2024 Sales Trend Report reveals that finding quality leads is among the top 3 challenges for sales teams. The tips below will help you scale this hurdle. 

• Create your ICP. Creating your ICP is sales and marketing 101, yet many teams overlook it. The consequence? Wasted resources on low-quality leads. As Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, advises, “Focus on the smallest possible cohesive subset of your market … with users that desperately need (and can afford) what you’re doing.” 

Analyzing your best closed-won deals (i.e. large deals with the shortest sales cycles) is one way to do this. Consider their:

• Demographics — industry, employee count, and location
• Firmographics — growth rate, revenue, tech stack
• Psychographics — pain points, values, and challenges
• Buyer persona — the decision-makers you engaged

By targeting leads most likely to value your offering, you can boost conversion rates and maximize your resources. 

• Embrace omnichannel outreach. Omnichannel outreach aims to create a sense of omnipresence by engaging prospects across multiple aligned channels, including email, LinkedIn, PPC, and phone calls. We’ve implemented this approach for our clients at Belkins, and it consistently delivers the best results. Here are 3 reasons to consider an omnichannel strategy:
  • Closing deals requires multiple touches across channels. According to Dreamdata, closing deals requires 62 touches across 3 or more channels. We experienced this by noticing a drop in our cold email lead-to-appointment conversion rate from 2.7% in 2023 to just 0.8% post-recession. Sopro’s 2024 State of Outbound report also reports a 22.2% drop in lead rates for email-only campaigns since 2022.
  • B2B sales cycles are more complex. B2B purchases typically involve high executive scrutiny and require up to 6–10 decision-makers. With the average buyer journey lasting 192 days (some beyond a year) according to Dreamdata, omnichannel outreach becomes key to maintaining engagement and nurturing buyers throughout this lengthy process.
  • Buyers are increasingly self-reliant. HubSpot data reveals B2B customers rely on self-service tools now more than ever. In fact, only 5% of the average B2B customer’s journey involves direct interaction with sales. Consequently, you risk losing many deals if you focus solely on capturing prospects ready to buy.
• Automate lead qualification and appointment scheduling for inbound leads. Tools like Chili Piper’s Concierge let you automate lead qualification and appointment scheduling for inbound leads. When a website visitor wants to book a demo right away, the Concierge assesses the leads based on your predefined qualification criteria. 

It can qualify based on data in your web form and standard or custom fields in your CRM, ensuring your reps’ calendars are filled with high-quality meetings. According to Belkins’ cofounder, Michael Maximoff, this tactic helped boost our inbound lead-to-appointment conversion rates by 50%.

• Reduce reliance on inbound. Many sales leaders blame marketing for their lean pipeline. This is a “recipe for attrition and missed sales targets,” as Jason Bay notes. Even HubSpot, the pioneer of inbound sales, has consistently employed outbound strategies for lead generation. Its cofounder, Dharmesh Shah, says, “HubSpot has been doing outbound marketing ever since HubSpot has been around.” 

The fact is many buyers welcome personalized outbound outreaches. Their distaste for outbound stems from the generic nature of most outbound efforts. With the average cold email response rate at 5.1% in 2024, experts stress the need for personalization so reps can up the rate to at least the 2023 figure of 7%.

📚 Related post: B2B lead generation strategy & best tactics for 2024 

Lead qualification

Your goal here is to prioritize leads based on interest level, uncover their pain, and filter out poor-fit leads. In addition to lead scoring, conducting discovery calls, and using sales qualification frameworks like BANT and SPIN, the following tips will help your lead qualification process.

• Align BDRs with revenue. Unlike account executives (AEs), many BDRs and SDRs (sales development representatives) focus on filling their calendars instead of setting revenue-driving meetings, as Jack Reilly, principal revenue enablement manager at ZoomInfo, points out.
  For example, BDRs and SDRs often set (and reset) appointments with prospects because they are easy to reach without verifying their decision-making authority. The fix? Train your sales team to adopt an AE mindset, qualify appointments, and multithread once it’s clear they aren’t speaking with a decision-maker.
• Use the “go back in time” technique when doing inbound discovery. Inbound and outbound discovery processes require different approaches. Unlike outbound prospects, inbound prospects are often eager to discuss solutions and see product demos but less inclined to discuss pain points right away.
  This presents a challenge: how can you uncover a prospect’s pain when they are focused on seeing a product? Enter “go back in time,” an inbound discovery technique popularized by Chris Orlob, the sales expert who helped grow Gong from $200K to $200M+ ARR and a $7.2B valuation.
• Meet them where they stand. Start the conversation by asking what motivated them to reach out.
• Ask about their desired state. After discussing potential solutions, inquire about their goals with a question like “What do you hope to achieve with this?”
• Go back in time. Ask about the issue that initially prompted their search for solutions to reveal underlying pain. For instance, you might say, “Can I go back in time with you for a second? It sounds like you and your colleagues defined the problem you’re trying to solve, which led you to explore solutions. Mind sharing the original problem that put you on this path?”
• Consider account-based marketing (ABM). As Andrew Davies, CMO at Paddle, notes, “Account-based marketing is just good marketing.” The key difference between ABM and what we traditionally refer to as marketing is the increased focus on targeting specific high-value accounts (companies) rather than casting a wide net.

That way, you can personalize outreach for each target account and significantly enhance your conversion chances. This approach helped Mutiny grow its pipeline significantly by raising the percentage of pipeline contributed by outbound efforts from 15% to 45%.

Meeting/demo

Excellent demos drive decision-making by showing that your solution effectively addresses your prospect’s pain points. The better your demo, the higher your chances of closing the deal. Below are 3 tips for conducting successful demos:

• Lead with the most relevant feature/solution: Don’t save the “big reveal” for later. Grab the prospect’s attention early by showcasing features that solve the prospect’s biggest pain point. Use insights from your discovery call to present solutions to each pain point, from the most significant to the least.
• Don’t overshare: Resist the urge to show every feature. As Chris recommends, focus only on the capabilities that directly solve the prospect’s issues. Leave them feeling “This exactly meets our needs. It addresses all our pain points.” No more, no less. Oversharing can confuse prospects or raise unnecessary objections. 
• Avoid generic social proof: A Gong study showed that social proof lowers close rates by 22%. Why? Most reps misuse social proof — they name-drop big-name clients, assuming it builds credibility. Big logos may not resonate with all clients. What truly connects with prospects are case studies showing how you’ve addressed similar pain points for customers like them. 

Proposal

You send a compelling proposal to secure a positive response. Here are 2 tips to improve your chances:

• Don’t stop following up: Persistent follow-up pays off. Brian Hicks, VP of sales at Belkins, follows up on every conversation until the prospect tells him they’re no longer uninterested. He once closed a deal 19 months after the initial conversation. When he asked the prospect why he reached out to him, the prospect said this:
  “I thought of you when this topic came up during our internal meeting.” Why? “You are the only person I spoke with who continued to stay in touch with me.”
• Add value in every follow-up: Avoid generic check-ins like “Hope you are well. Any updates regarding my last email?” Instead, offer something useful with each message. Think about what’s new or useful for the prospect. Share it. 

We recommend sticking to customer stories so you don’t sidetrack prospects from your real goal — getting a response to your proposal. 

📚 Related post: Sales Follow-Up Strategies That Close 50% More Deals 

Negotiation/commitment

The goal is to reach a win-win outcome. But understand that your lead isn’t being a jerk if they drive a hard bargain. They’re just doing their job of maximizing the budget. It’s your job to defend your price. Here are 2 tips for successful negotiations:

• Avoid premature negotiation: “The worst mistake you can make when negotiating B2B deals is negotiating price too early,” says Chris. Don’t begin negotiating the price until it’s the final issue. If you negotiate early, you’ll likely encounter additional decision-makers who also want to negotiate.
  If the customer brings up the price, ask, “If we agreed on the price now, what other steps would still need to happen from your end before we proceed?” If there are more steps, address those first and save the price for last.
• Uncover the reason for price resistance: When prospects push for a price reduction, try to discover by asking, “What's prompting this pricing change request?” As Chris recommends,  price resistance at this stage comes down to 1 of 3 reasons:
  • You’re not fully convinced of the value.
  • You’re facing logistical issues that prevent payment.
  • You’re simply trying to be prudent with company resources and seeking the best price possible.

Which of these 3 applies to you?

These questions help pinpoint the root of their hesitation and guide your response.

Closing

You’ve reached the finish line, and now it’s time to secure that “closed-won” deal. The 2 tips below will help you finalize the sale:

• Address lingering objections: Objections that arise late in the deal often indicate unresolved issues that existed all along. To paraphrase Nick Cegelski, founder of 30 Minutes to President’s Club, just because an objection isn’t voiced doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
  Proactively fish out objections throughout the sales process and raise objections you suspect prospects might have. By addressing concerns early, you build trust, making it easier to close the deal.
• Teach your AEs to prioritize opportunities: AEs should routinely prioritize late-stage deals in their daily workflow. Remember, time kills deals. So if, for example, you’ve had any deals where you’ve gotten verbal commitment, don’t sleep on them. Ensure AEs follow up promptly until the prospect signs the dotted line.

📚 Related post: How to close deals: guide for sales reps