What are the 8 Stages of the B2B Sales Pipeline?

Pipeline leaking? (And we don’t mean your apartment’s!)

Most B2B sales pipelines – including yours most likely – can be divided into 8 stages, each playing its own purpose in pushing customers from lead to demo and deal closure.

Knowing how your pipeline breaks down has 2 clear benefits: (1) at any single moment, you know where your leads and potential deals are at in your pipeline; (2) if there’s a spot where your pipeline is leaking, you can quickly identify the issue and patch it.

Here’s a closer look at the 8 key stages of the B2B sales pipeline.

What is the B2B sales pipeline?

When it comes to sales data management, you have two options. 

Option A: Treat your sales data like abstract art. Your sales reps are free to interpret and apply it as they need, using their experience and gut instinct to spot promising prospects or locate floundering deals.

Option B: Use special software like HubSpot and AiSDR to build your sales pipeline while also delegating lead data management and sales outreach to the software.

Both options have their pros and cons, but the latter’s more systematic approach makes it easier to enable transparency in sales, coordinate team members, and maintain high sales performance.

The typical stages of a B2B sales pipeline are:

1. Prospecting
2. Lead qualification
3. Needs assessment
4. Proposal creation
5. Negotiation
6. Closing
7. Implementation & onboarding
8. Follow-up & support

But the real advantage of a well-defined sales pipeline is that you’ll never have to scramble to recall the status of “high-stake leads from weeks ago” you suddenly remembered. With every stage clearly mapped out, you’ll know which lead is at which stage, and you can shift focus to high-potential deals or stop leads from going cold as needed.

Benefits of a structured sales pipeline

A systematic pipeline helps teams stay organized and know exactly where each lead is at in the sales process. 

Here’s a closer look at some of the other big benefits of structured pipelines.

Performance tracker

Your bank balance might reflect the end result, but it never captures the full picture of your B2B sales, including subtle things like:

• Conversion rates at each stage of the B2B software sales process
• Average deal size (plus how it varies by industry or product)
• Length of sales cycles for different types of customers

Once you sort your leads into pipeline stages and set up an easy process to move them along, you can define and analyze more specific metrics. Not just judge by overall revenue.

Sales forecaster

A glance at your sales pipeline can reveal how you’re performing and where you’re headed. As you track more sales over time, you should see patterns start to emerge.

Consequently, if you see the number of deals and their value at certain stages, you can estimate how much revenue you’re likely to generate within a week, a month, or even a quarter. (Although, quarterly projections will change in a fast growth environment).

Strategy adjuster

Sales pipelines may also shed light on stages where leads have a high rate of dropping out. 

For instance, if they ghost you after you send them a proposal, it could mean that your prices are too high for your ideal customer profile (ICP) or that you might not have communicated your product’s value (and ROI) before bringing up costs. Or maybe they didn’t sign up for a demo after you invited them to one.

Whatever the situation, you should give them a bit of time, then try to reconnect with them to explore why they went silent. Their answers may help you adjust your B2B software sales strategy, test new ideas, and potentially pivot your product feature decisions.

Sales automation enabler

Disorganized lead management. It’s a nightmare for all sales teams.

Just imagine… Your data is scattered across spreadsheets, LinkedIn chats, and sales reps’ minds. Would you know where to go or who to ask if you need answers about sales?

But what if you could not only build visibility into your sales processes, but make them run without you needing to watch them? 

81% of sales departments are either trying out or have fully embraced AI. That’s because a structured pipeline makes it easy to plug an AI sales assistant into your workflow and let it work magic with your B2B sales data (e.g. intent-based outreach, tailored follow-ups, two-way data sync with CRMs). 

But before this can happen, you need to define your sales pipeline.

8 Stages of the B2B sales pipeline

Some companies have pipelines consisting of anywhere between 7 and 10 steps, but most contain at least these 8 stages.

1. Prospecting

Prospecting is the starting point. At this stage, you identify potential customers who might benefit from your product or service and collect their contact details for further communication. 

Sales prospecting tools can automate much of this process, while AI for sales prospecting solutions often feature a built-in email writer that can craft messages based on specific frameworks. 

But first, you should determine your ICP—a detailed portrait of the companies most likely to become your top customers, guiding your search. 

ICP typically includes factors like company size, geographic location, industry, annual revenue, key decision makers, budget, and more.     

Now, the big question: Where do you find these ideal customers? 

There are two ways – outbound and inbound.

For outbound (also known as cold outreach), you can find leads in:

• Lead databases
• Purchased lead lists
• Networking events and conferences

For inbound, leads will come to you, often by way of:

• Word-of-mouth referrals 
• Company website contact forms
• Customer support inquiries
• E-book downloads
• Webinar sign-ups

Prospecting is just as crucial to ensure that leads match your business goals. After all, you’re investing valuable time and resources to qualify them and understand their needs.

For instance, a prospect with a budget lower than what’s outlined in your ICP might be eager to cooperate, but they may not be a good fit. It’s best to focus your efforts on prospects that are truly worth pursuing. 

By the end of this stage, you’ll have a long list of potential customers. However, it’s still a rough draft, as in B2B, the focus is always on quality over quantity. 

2. Lead qualification

You step into this B2B pipeline stage with a bunch of unqualified leads, and your job is to filter out the most promising ones—those most likely to convert. 

To better qualify leads, you often need additional information. Platforms like G2 Stack or similar B2B sales tools let you understand what technologies a company is currently using. This will give you a clue about how ready your leads are for your solution.

Many companies use a lead scoring system to optimize lead qualification. This approach assigns points to prospects based on various factors, such as who downloaded a whitepaper or who showed up to a webinar. Scoring systems will even give a greater score to a webinar attendee than someone who visited your website just one.

Also, you’ll need to set specific criteria for what makes a lead qualified. 

One option for qualifying leads is the BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) framework:

• Budget: Can they afford your product or service?
• Authority: Are you talking to the actual decision-maker?
• Need: Do they have a problem you can solve, or are they just shopping around?
• Timeline: Are they ready to discuss the details, or is it just a “maybe someday” situation?

If you can answer yes to all questions, the prospect can move to the next stage – needs assessment.

3. Needs assessment

Once you identified the most promising leads, it’s time to get them on board. The key here is knowing their needs and pain points. 

Preliminary research matters, but only direct communication with stakeholders will uncover what keeps them up at night. Start with broader questions about the prospect’s business goals and gradually zero in on specific challenges. 

Here’s how you can build communication with a lead:

1. Begin with open-ended questions about their business goals and vision.
2. Ask about their current challenges and pain points.
3. Investigate their decision-making process and criteria.
4. Explore their budget considerations and ROI expectations. 
5. Learn about technical requirements, integration needs, and which integrations are must-have and which can wait.

If your prospect is eager to answer your questions and share their pain points, it’s a strong signal they don’t mind continuing the conversation. With all the data collected, you can thoughtfully align their problems with your solution and present your product in a compelling way. 

4. Proposal creation

In the proposal stage, you engage with leads whose needs align perfectly with what your product can deliver. While you’re learning about the prospect, they’re equally interested in learning about you. 

Since your proposal will typically target several decision-makers, it must be comprehensive and address potential objections from every angle. 

Here’s what a strong proposal may include:

• Problem validation – Start by proving that you fully understand their situation.
• Proposed solution – Explain how your product or service fixes their problems. If possible, get them to a demo. After all, showing is always better than telling.
• Value proposition – Highlight the advantages of your solution over other options on the market.
• Implementation plan – Outline a step-by-step guide for deploying your product or service.
• Timeline – Give a realistic timeframe for how quickly they can expect improvements.
• Pricing – Provide a rundown of costs, with flexible options if possible.
• Return on investment – Show the expected financial gains/savings (or software ROI) from using your solution.
• Case studies – Share real examples of how your product helped similar businesses.
• Integration details – Explain how your solution will work with the prospect’s existing systems.

The most effective approach is to sell solutions, not features. 

If you sell project management software, don’t simply list features like task assignments or Gantt charts. Instead, show how these features solve real-world issues like meeting deadlines or reducing the stress of Monday mornings.

5. Negotiations

At this stage, your leads have reviewed your proposal and given the green light. You’re closer than ever to sealing the deal, but you still have a few details to iron out and objections to handle.  

Price negotiation is common here. Prospects may push for a better deal, and offering tiered pricing or discounts for additional users can help strike a balance. The goal is to find the price point that works for both sides.

Even when you think everything’s settled, be prepared for another objection. Yet, if they’ve come this far, they could just be looking for that last little nudge to commit.

6. Closing

The deal is almost in your hands, and while you’ve reached an important milestone, you’re also starting a new partnership. This is where both you and your clients commit to delivering on your promises.

At this stage, any previous verbal communication must be documented. It also involves conducting a final review, addressing any last-minute questions, and formalizing the agreement. Then, it’s time to sign, shake hands, and move forward. 

7. Implementation & onboarding

What started with hundreds of prospects has now narrowed down to a select group of high-quality customers. 

So why should you keep them in your B2B pipeline? The risk of churn, especially if they don’t like your product after trying it.

Perhaps the interface wasn’t as user-friendly as their team expected, or you overlooked some critical integration issues during the needs assessment. This stage is all about ensuring that your customers understand how to use your solution and confirming that it addresses their needs. 

8. Follow-up & support

When you browse software review sites, you’ll often see the cons section filled with concerns about customer service and support. 

If your customers constantly struggle while using your product or feel their needs are neglected, they may choose not to renew the contract. 

While every stage can make or break your B2B sales success, this one has double the impact – it affects both your current and future users. The feedback and results of your current customers and their success have the potential to shape and change your product to the point that future customers may be using a completely different version of your software.

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