10-Step Guide to Building Sales Stages in HubSpot

Crafting the right sales stages is more than just ticking boxes—it’s about mapping your customers’ real buying journey so your team can guide prospects smoothly from first hello to signed contract. In this 10-step guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to define, implement, and optimize your own HubSpot sales stages.

Along the way, you’ll learn how to translate buyer behaviors into clear pipeline stages, set up automations that keep deals moving, and establish the regular reviews that boost both forecast accuracy and close rates. Ready to build a pipeline that really works? Let’s dive in.

1. Map Your Buyer’s Journey in Detail

Before you touch HubSpot settings, interview your top reps and review closed-won deals to identify the exact milestones your buyers experience. Do they always request a demo after doing their own product research? Does budget approval come before or after vendor evaluations?

By capturing these conversational and decision milestones—rather than generic stages—you’ll ensure each pipeline step corresponds to real-life buyer actions, making it easier to forecast and coach.

2. Choose & Name Your Core Stages

While HubSpot defaults to six deal stages, you might find that your business needs fewer or more. Consider these guidelines:

• Five to Seven Stages: Keeps things simple but detailed enough for meaningful analytics.

• Action-Oriented Names: Use verbs like “Demo Booked” or “Contract Under Review” so it’s crystal clear what triggers each stage.

• Team Alignment: Validate your chosen names with sales, marketing, and leadership to ensure everyone speaks the same language.

3. Assign Probabilities & Timeframes

Quantifying your pipeline is what transforms it into a forecasting machine. For each stage:

1. Probability: Look at your historical data to calculate the percent chance a deal in that stage ultimately closes.

2. Average Days in Stage: Use HubSpot’s deal reporting to find how long deals actually linger.

By documenting both metrics, you’ll be able to project revenue at every step—and catch slow-moving deals before they go stale.

4. Customize HubSpot Deal Stages

In HubSpot, go to Settings → Objects → Deals → Pipelines, then:

1. Create or Clone your pipeline so you can experiment without disrupting live deals.

2. Rename & Reorder stages to match your journey map from Step 1.

3. Set Stage Probabilities based on your calculations in Step 3.

4. Add Required Properties (like “Demo Date” or “Budget Approved”) that must be filled in at each stage.

5. Define Clear Entry & Exit Criteria

Ambiguity kills momentum. For each stage, write down:

• Entry Criteria: The exact action or data point that moves a deal in. (e.g., “Discovery call completed” or “Proposal accepted.”)

• Exit Criteria: What constitutes progression or disqualification. (e.g., “No response after 10 touches = archive.”)

Document these in your team playbook and use HubSpot task reminders to enforce them.

6. Automate Sequences & Task Reminders

Leverage HubSpot Sequences to:

• Enroll Prospects Automatically: Trigger a drip of tailored follow-up emails when a deal hits a new stage.

• Schedule Tasks: Auto-create “Send contract” or “Follow up call” tasks for reps so no deal falls through the cracks.

With just a few clicks, you’ll reduce manual admin and keep deals moving at recommended cadences.

7. Train & Onboard Your Team Thoroughly

A great pipeline only works if everyone uses it correctly. Host a kickoff session that includes:

• A live demo of entering and updating deals.

• Role-playing exercises around moving deals through tricky stages.

• A hands-on workshop for customizing personal dashboards.

Follow up with video recordings and one-page cheat sheets so every rep has guidance at their fingertips.

8. Monitor Pipeline Health on Custom Dashboards

Build a HubSpot dashboard that shows:

• Deal Volume by Stage: To spot bottlenecks.

• Average Stage Duration: To identify slow zones.

• Conversion Rates: To see where deals slip through.

• Pipeline Velocity: So you know exactly how much revenue is in motion each day.

By reviewing these metrics weekly, you’ll catch downward trends early and take corrective action.

9. Conduct Regular Pipeline Reviews

Schedule a 30- to 60-minute meeting each week or month—depending on your cycle length—where you:

1. Quickly Audit New Deals: Ensure they’re in the right stage with complete data.

2. Discuss At-Risk Opportunities: Uncover objections, competitor intel, and next steps.

3. Update Action Plans: Assign owners for follow-up tasks and set target dates.

This discipline keeps every team member accountable and your forecasts rock-solid.

10. Refresh & Refine Continuously

Your pipeline is a living framework, not a set-and-forget checklist. At least once a quarter:

• Revisit stage names and criteria based on market or product changes.

• Adjust probabilities and timeframes using fresh data.

• Solicit feedback from reps on friction points or missing stages.

This commitment to continuous improvement ensures your pipeline evolves alongside your business.

Your Roadmap to Streamlined Sales Success

By following these ten steps—mapping real buyer behaviors, customizing HubSpot settings, automating key tasks, and enforcing disciplined reviews—you’ll build a sales pipeline that not only drives more accurate forecasts but also empowers your team to close deals faster. Start small, iterate often, and watch as your sales process transforms from guesswork into a well-oiled revenue engine.

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