Understanding sales stages

Stage labels are configurable, so your workspace may differ. A common WebPro service-sales process uses the following sequence.

Contacted

Initial communication has happened and the team is establishing the customer’s need and fit.

Qualified

There is enough evidence that the opportunity deserves active work. The requirement, fit, and next step are understood.

Growth Diagnostic

Use this when the opportunity is qualified and the team is reviewing the customer’s business, website, marketing, technical requirement, or growth problem before recommending a solution.

Discovery Call

The team and customer are exploring goals, scope, constraints, stakeholders, and success measures in enough detail to shape the work.

Proposal

A commercial or solution proposal is being prepared, has been sent, or is under active review. Keep proposal and expected decision information current when available.

Negotiation

The parties are resolving final scope, commercial terms, timing, or approval details before a decision.

Won or Lost

Won means business is secured. Lost means the opportunity closed without success and requires a Lost Reason.

Stages belong to Deals

Lead statuses and Deal stages solve different problems. Contacted and Qualified describe Lead qualification. Once a Deal exists, its Pipeline stage describes commercial progress. Avoid creating Pipeline stages that simply repeat every Lead status.

An example service-sales Pipeline

• Growth Diagnostic — review the customer’s business, website, marketing, technical requirement, or growth problem.
• Discovery Call — clarify goals, scope, stakeholders, constraints, and the next decision.
• Proposal — the recommendation and commercial proposal have been shared.
• Negotiation — scope, timing, or commercial terms are under active discussion.
• Won — the engagement is secured.
• Lost — the opportunity has ended without a sale.

This is an example configuration. Organization Admins can create and maintain the stages that accurately represent their workspace process.

Moving an opportunity

Open the Deal and use the permitted stage action. Sales Executives manage stages on Deals they own; Sales Managers and Organization Admins have broader tenant management authority. The server validates the current stage, target stage, ownership, and workspace relationship.

Pair every move with evidence and a next action. When a Deal enters Proposal, record the relevant proposal context and create the follow-up for the customer’s response. When it enters Negotiation, capture what remains unresolved rather than using the stage as a generic “almost done” label.

Designing useful stages

Keep stages distinct, observable, and ordered. Avoid stages based on vague confidence percentages or internal tasks that belong in Work Items. Deactivate or change configuration carefully because current and historical Deals may retain stage relationships.