Creating a sales pipeline is essential for any business, and HubSpot has a lot of great tools to help you do it. In this blog post, we'll show you how to create a sales pipeline using HubSpot and explain some of the benefits of doing so. Stay tuned - we'll be sharing more tips on using HubSpot to grow your business in the near future.

Let's get to it!

What are deal pipelines and stages in HubSpot?

Imagine a pipeline where an individual step represents each stage. You can see how far the prospect has gotten in your sales process and what they are doing at any given time, which offers valuable insight into their journey with you!

Each step can change depending on what you are trying to do. Every sales process is different for every business. 

However, these are the typical deal stages of a sales pipeline:

  • Prospecting
  • Lead Qualification or Qualified Lead 
  • Meeting or Call 
  • Proposal 
  • Negotiation 
  • Opportunity Won 
  • Post Purchase

Here is a brief description of each.

Prospecting

Through advertising, public relations, and other promotional activities, potential customers discover your business. Your marketing message is often targeted to potential buyers who tend to fit the profile of your existing customer base and ideal customer. 

Lead Qualification or Qualified Lead 

 Provide your prospects with an e-book, whitepaper, webinar, or another form of lead magnet to determine if they are interested in learning more about your products and services. Once they take the offer, you can provide them with more value to continue the sales process. 

Meeting or Call 

Scheduling a meeting or call with potential buyers is the next step. At this point, you should determine if there is a compelling business case for the lead to receive a proposal. 

Proposal 

 In the proposal deal stage, have your sales team describe how your company can help meet the potential customer's needs. Provide proof that the engagement costs will be offset by the prices you propose. As you prepare your proposal, remember to state your competitive advantages to set you apart from other vendors your customer may meet.

Negotiation 

In this deal stage, expand or reduce the scope of work, adjust pricing, and manage expectations to achieve a mutually beneficial partnership. 

Opportunity Won

You close the deal and move forward to provide the value the customer invested in. 

Post Purchase

Once the sale is closed, your sales team should provide exceptional customer service during the onboarding process and regularly monitor the account's progress. You can upsell existing customers on premium solutions when the opportunity arises and cross-sell existing customers on new services. 

The point of each stage is so that the sales team can know exactly how to interact with each lead in the HubSpot CRM. If your reps see where each lead is in the sales cycle, you can determine with accuracy how many people you need to engage with to hit your revenue numbers. 

How To Create A HubSpot Pipeline

Now that you know about sales pipelines and deal stages, it's time to create your first HubSpot sales pipeline.

But before you create your first pipeline, you must first follow this steps 5-step formula outlined by Databox. 

Step 1: Identify your target audience

Step 2: Map out your sales funnel

Step 3: Calculate how many deals you need to meet your sales goals

Step 4: Move-qualified leads through your sales funnel

Step 5: Win the deal

By focusing on steps one to three, you will offer value to the right leads. If not, you may experience a disconnect when it comes time to close the deal. 

We filmed a video on this setup process below for those who are more visual. 

Once you better understand who you want to target, you can follow the following steps below. 

Note: You'll need to have the HubSpot sales hub package along with this article. 

If you have the HubSpot Sales Hub, click on 'Sales' and then 'Deals.' 

In this area, HubSpot will give you a templated pipeline. With this template, you'll see different deal stages like:

  • New Purchase 
  • Follow Up Needed 
  • Holding/Nurturing 
  • Set Made
  • Bad Fit
  • Closed Won
  • Closed Lost

However, you can change these deal stages at any time. Alternatively, you can create a new pipeline from scratch if the templated HubSpot pipeline does not match your company goals. 

You can have multiple deal pipelines with HubSpot. You are not limited to only one pipeline; many companies use multiple pipelines for different initiatives sales leaders may have. 

To create a new pipeline, click on the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner. That will bring you to the HubSpot settings.

In the left-hand menu, click on 'Deals' under Data Management. 

Then from there, you'll see three tabs. 

'Setup'. 'Pipelines'. 'Record Customization'. 

Click on 'Pipelines.' 

Then from the 'Select a pipeline:' dropdown, select 'Create pipeline.'

After you click 'Create pipeline,' give your new pipeline a name, then click on 'Create.' 

Once you click 'Create,' you'll see HubSpot gives you default deal stages. You can change the deals or delete them. 

You can also change the win probability percentage for each step. 

Your reps can use the win probability when moving prospects from one stage to another. When it comes time to close the deal, the more touchpoints your reps have with prospects, the more likely they will convert. The win probability feature helps determine the odds of closing a potential prospect. 

Now that you created your new pipeline, you can view it by going back to the 'Sales' tab and clicking on 'Deal's. 

Then from the first dropdown next to the 'Deal' text, you'll be able to select the new pipeline from the dropdown. 

How to add deals to the HubSpot pipeline? 

There are two ways to add prospects to a pipeline stage; manually or automated. 

To add a prospect to your pipeline manually, click on 'Create Deal' in the new pipeline. 

From there, you can add the deal name, the deal stage, the amount of the deal, the close date, owner deal type, and so on. 

This is neat for quickly adding a prospect on the go. However, it's not the best way to add a deal to a pipeline since it requires time on your part. 

How to automate sales pipeline in HubSpot

You can automate deals in one or two ways by going to the deal settings, clicking on the tab that says 'Automate,' and creating a workflow for each specific deal stage. 

Once you click on 'Create workflow,' you'll be able to add different actions for whenever a prospect reaches that part of the pipeline. 

For example, if someone were to enter the 'Follow up needed' stage, we can send a text message, send an email, set a property value, or assign the deal to an owner. 

The second way to automate the sales pipeline is by clicking on the 'Automation' tab in the menu and clicking 'Workflows.' 

You can do something similar in this area by clicking the orange 'Create Workflow' button in the top right-hand corner. 

When you click the button, you'll be able to create a new workflow from scratch.

What are popular HubSpot pipeline features?

Many features make HubSpot pipelines notorious. However, we think these are the most popular. Here is a brief explanation of how your marketing or sales team may use each feature. 

SMS

One of the easiest ways to follow up with customers is through SMS. HubSpot has tons of different SMS platforms that connect with the CMS, so you can proactively reach out to prospects through workflows and automation. 

Lead Scoring 

From the first page viewed to the most recent closed deal, all your customer context is collected in HubSpot. Take advantage of all that context to reach out to the right people at the right time with lead scoring.

Customizing Sales Stages 

You can customize HubSpot CRM sales stages based on how prospects progress through the sales funnel. An integral part of managing your sales pipeline with HubSpot CRM is understanding what needs to be accomplished for a customer to move to the next stage. HubSpot makes it easy, giving you complete control of the deal stages. 

Deals Won By Pipeline 

HubSpot shows you all the data you need so you can continue focusing on growing your business. The Deals won by pipeline feature allows you to see which pipeline gave you the highest ROI so you can double down. 

Automated Emails 

By automating workflows and automations, the sales and marketing teams can follow up on leads and prospects alike. HubSpot makes it easy to link your automated emails with your sales pipelines to get a comprehensive picture of your sales cycle.

How Do You know what HubSpot deal stages to use?

Depending on the company's type of sales methodology, the number of sales stages and names will differ across verticals.

To understand which deal stages you will need for your business, you must map out your sales process with your sales team. 

Refer back to core steps needed to close prospects.

Step 1: Identify your target audience

Step 2: Map out your sales funnel

Step 3: Calculate how many deals you need to meet your sales goals

Step 4: Move-qualified leads through your sales funnel

Step 5: Win the deal

 If you're able to complete steps one to three, you'll be able to turn prospects into leads and leads into customers. 

Sales Pipeline Analytics: Leveraging HubSpot’s Reporting Tools for Better Decision-Making

After setting up a customized sales pipeline, the next crucial step is using analytics to monitor and refine the process. HubSpot’s reporting features offer real-time insights that allow sales teams to make informed decisions. Here’s how you can leverage these tools to improve your pipeline performance.

  1. Tracking Pipeline Velocity
    Pipeline velocity measures how quickly deals move through the stages of your sales. By tracking this metric, you can identify bottlenecks and adjust your strategy accordingly. HubSpot’s dashboards provide easy-to-read reports that break down the average time deals spend in each stage. For example, if deals are lingering too long in the "Proposal Sent" stage, you may need to review your follow-up process or improve negotiation tactics.

    Tip    :     Run regular reports on pipeline velocity and analyze them monthly to see how different stages of your pipeline are performing.
  1. Identifying Conversion Rates Between Deal Stages
    Knowing how many deals progress from one stage to the next is vital for sales forecasting and resource allocation. HubSpot lets you create custom reports that track conversion rates between stages. If you notice a significant drop-off from "Negotiation" to "Closed Won," it could signal that more training is needed for your team in negotiation skills.

    Tip    :     Use these insights to prioritize stages with low conversion rates and design specific strategies to address them, whether it’s offering better support materials or adjusting deal-closing tactics.
  1. Deal Forecasting Accuracy
    HubSpot’s deal forecasting tools give sales leaders a comprehensive view of expected revenue based on the current state of the pipeline. This allows for more accurate financial planning and goal setting. By regularly analyzing your sales forecast in HubSpot, you can adjust strategies to meet revenue targets, helping your team stay on track.

    Tip    :     Adjust your sales tactics if your forecast shows potential shortfalls, such as offering limited-time promotions to push deals through the pipeline faster.
  1. Customizable Dashboard for Sales Insights
    HubSpot offers customizable dashboards that let you track key performance indicators (KPIs) for your sales pipeline, including won and lost deals, average deal value, and more. With customizable reporting, you can focus on metrics that matter most to your organization, tailoring your approach for continuous improvement.

    Tip    :     Share these dashboards with your team to keep everyone aligned on performance and areas for improvement.
  1. Optimizing Pipeline Performance with Data-Driven Decisions
    HubSpot’s advanced reporting features also allow you to compare different sales pipelines or track performance over time. For businesses with multiple product lines or regional teams, this can offer critical insights into where adjustments are needed. Whether it’s a specific team underperforming or a new product pipeline facing challenges, using HubSpot's comparison reports helps you identify trends and take action.

HubSpot’s analytics tools can help your sales team become more strategic, agile, and data-driven. Regularly reviewing pipeline performance through these insights allows you to continuously optimize each stage, leading to more efficient sales processes and higher close rates.

FAQ

What is HubSpot’s Sales Automation, and how does it benefit businesses?

HubSpot’s sales automation helps businesses streamline their sales processes by automating tasks like email follow-ups, task reminders, and pipeline management. It saves time, increases productivity, and reduces the risk of human error, allowing sales teams to focus on higher-value activities like building relationships and closing deals.

Can HubSpot’s automation be customized to fit my sales process?

Yes! HubSpot’s automation tools are fully customizable. You can set specific triggers and actions based on your unique sales process. For example, you can automatically send follow-up emails after a prospect books a meeting or update deal stages based on certain activities. This flexibility ensures that the automation aligns with your workflows.

What is a deal pipeline in HubSpot, and why is it important for sales teams?

A deal pipeline in HubSpot visually represents your sales process, outlining the stages that deals go through from initial contact to closing. It allows sales teams to track the progress of individual deals, prioritize opportunities, and forecast revenue based on the number of deals at each stage. Deal pipelines are crucial for managing workflows and ensuring that no potential sale is overlooked.

How can I customize my sales pipeline in HubSpot?

‍HubSpot allows full customization of your sales pipeline to match your specific business processes. You can add, remove, or rename deal stages, set unique criteria for moving deals between stages, and create automation triggers to keep deals progressing smoothly. Customization ensures that your pipeline aligns with how your team works and reflects the unique buying journey of your customers.

What’s the difference between a sales pipeline and a sales funnel?

‍A sales pipeline tracks the internal progress of deals within your organization—what stage they are at, and how close they are to being won or lost. A sales funnel, on the other hand, represents the entire customer journey, from the first interaction to conversion. The pipeline focuses on the sales team's actions, while the funnel includes marketing and customer engagement activities.

Can I integrate third-party tools with HubSpot’s deal pipeline?

Yes, HubSpot supports integrations with a wide range of third-party tools such as CRMs, invoicing systems, marketing platforms, and project management software. These integrations allow you to sync deal data across platforms, enabling smoother workflows and more comprehensive sales tracking.