Let’s say you’re baking a cake without a recipe. The ingredients are there, but the outcome is uncertain without clear steps. That’s exactly how a sales team operates without a structured process—it’s messy and inefficient. A well-structured HubSpot Sales Pipeline fixes this by offering a clear view of where deals stand at any given time. Each deal progresses through specific stages, keeping the team in sync. Customizing the pipeline to fit your unique sales strategy improves performance, ensures focus, and leads to more closed deals and accurate forecasts.
In this blog, I’ll explain how to set up and customize your HubSpot Sales Pipeline to improve focus and close more deals.
Why Is It Important to Customize Your HubSpot Sales Pipeline?
A generic pipeline rarely fits every business’s needs. Your sales process is unique, and it deserves a pipeline that reflects that. The HubSpot Sales Pipeline lets you customize every sales pipeline stage to align with your specific strategy. Dealing with long B2B sales cycles or fast deal closures requires a pipeline that reflects your unique sales process. When your pipeline aligns with your team’s operations, they’ll know exactly what steps to take and when to ensure smoother progress and more effective deal management.
In a B2B environment with multiple decision-makers, creating specific stages in your pipeline for critical steps like gaining internal buy-in or completing procurement processes is essential. This approach keeps your team organized and focused, ensuring that nothing is overlooked during complex deals.
Set Up Your HubSpot Sales Pipeline in 5 Easy Steps
Getting started with the HubSpot Sales pipeline is straightforward, and once it’s set up, the customization possibilities are endless. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
1. Access Your HubSpot Account
Log in to your HubSpot account and go to Settings. Under the Objects tab, select Deals and then click on Pipelines.
2. Create a New Pipeline
In the Pipelines section, click Create Pipeline. Give your pipeline a meaningful name that reflects its purpose. This is especially useful if you manage multiple pipelines for different products or regions.
3. Define Your Sales Stages
HubSpot offers default stages, but adjusting these based on your specific process is vital. Typically, you’ll have stages like:
- Appointment Scheduled (20%)
Make the first contact and identify potential prospects for your offering.
- Qualified to Buy (40%)
Evaluate the lead to ensure it fits your target criteria and can move forward. - Presentation Schedule(60%)
Conduct a detailed conversation to understand the prospect’s needs and present solutions.
- Decision Maker Bought in (80%)
Deliver a formal proposal outlining the benefits and terms of the deal.
- Contract Sent(90%)
Negotiate terms, addressing details before the final agreement.
- Deal Secured(100%)
Close the deal, finalizing the agreement.
- Post-Purchase Follow-Up
Engage with the customer after the sale to ensure satisfaction and foster retention.
Customize these stages to match how deals progress in your company. For instance, if your sales cycle includes a demo stage, include that as a distinct step in the pipeline.
4. Set Probability for Each Stage
For each stage, assign a probability of closing a deal within the HubSpot Sales Pipeline. HubSpot automatically calculates your revenue forecasts based on these probabilities. This is critical for accurate forecasting, especially when reporting to stakeholders.
5. Save and Review
Once your stages are set, save your pipeline. Now, your team immediately starts using it to track deals, which is reflected in the HubSpot CRM.
Customize Deal Stages to Reflect Your Sales Journey
Every business follows a unique sales journey, and the HubSpot Sales Pipeline captures that process. Deal stages directly reflect how leads move through your sales cycle, aligning with your team’s workflow. By adjusting these stages, you create a personalized system that guides your sales team precisely, keeping everyone focused and on track to drive deals forward efficiently. Your pipeline fits smoothly with your business, keeping your team organized and proactive in managing deals. This structure helps your team stay focused, ensuring smooth progress through each stage of the sales process.
Add or Edit Deal Stages
Go to the Pipelines tab, select your pipeline, and add or edit deal stages to match your sales cycle. If your process includes product demos, include a “Demo Scheduled” stage to reflect that. Customizing stages this way gives your team a clear understanding of where each deal is and what actions to take next, helping to keep everyone aligned with the current progress.
Set Probabilities
Probabilities help measure the chances of closing each deal in your HubSpot Sales Pipeline. Assign a specific percentage for each stage, such as 50% for the “Negotiation” stage, reflecting your typical close rate. HubSpot calculates weighted forecasts based on these probabilities, offering a precise view of future revenue. This approach provides better forecasting accuracy, helping your team understand the pipeline’s performance and focus efforts where they matter most.
Automate Your Pipeline for Maximum Efficiency
Automation plays a vital role in maintaining an efficient sales operation. HubSpot offers tools that automate processes within the HubSpot Sales Pipeline, allowing deals to move through the pipeline without needing constant manual input. These features reduce repetitive tasks, allowing your team to focus on more strategic activities. With HubSpot’s automation capabilities, deal progression, follow-ups, and task assignments happen smoothly, ensuring your sales team remains productive and the pipeline stays organized. This streamlines the workflow, making the HubSpot Sales Pipeline more efficient and effective.
Setting Up Automation in HubSpot
Automate essential actions to streamline your HubSpot Sales Pipeline:
- Set criteria to move deals to the next stage automatically.
- Send emails when a deal reaches a stage like “Contract Sent.”
- Assign follow-up tasks for stagnant deals.
When a deal reaches the “Contract Sent” stage, automatically trigger a follow-up task for the sales rep within 3 days. This automation keeps the process moving forward and ensures all deals are noticed and remembered.
Customize Deal Properties and Collect Accurate Data
The success of your HubSpot Sales Pipeline depends on the data you collect at each stage. The pipeline allows you to customize the properties displayed in each deal stage, ensuring that your team captures all the relevant information needed to move the deal forward.
Defining Deal Properties
Within the pipeline settings, add specific fields to capture critical information, like:
- Deal Size
- Expected Close Date
- Decision Maker Identified
These fields ensure the team collects essential data for better decision-making. Set mandatory fields, such as requiring an “Expected Close Date” during the negotiation stage, to track timelines accurately and improve forecasting. By defining these properties, you improve the sales process, enabling the team to handle deals efficiently and assuring every step of the pipeline is well-documented.
Use HubSpot Reporting Tools to Supercharge Your Pipeline
HubSpot’s reporting tools deliver crucial insights into the health and performance of your HubSpot Sales Pipeline. Detailed reports identify stages that slow down deals and highlight those leading to success.
Core Metrics to Track:
- Pipeline Velocity: Measures how quickly deals progress through each stage.
- Stage Conversion Rates: Pinpoints where deals stall or fall through.
- Revenue Forecasting: Leverages pipeline data to project revenue and adjust strategies in real-time.
These insights empower data-driven decisions, improving pipeline efficiency and boosting revenue outcomes.
Manage Multiple Pipelines Effortlessly for Different Teams
Managing multiple pipelines in the HubSpot Sales Pipeline becomes critical when your business spans different regions, products, or services. Each pipeline is customized to fit specific departments or product lines’ unique needs. This approach allows every team to follow a process that aligns with their workflow, offering better organization and focus. By maintaining separate pipelines, businesses track performance more efficiently across diverse areas, keeping the sales process organized and helping each deal move smoothly within the relevant pipeline.
Setting Up Multiple Pipelines
In HubSpot, create and manage multiple pipelines directly from the Pipelines tab, assigning each pipeline its deal stages, probabilities, and automation settings. This feature is essential when handling diverse sales teams. For instance, a team managing renewals follows a different process than one focused on new business. By setting up separate pipelines, each team focuses on the stages and actions most relevant to their specific workflow, making the entire sales process more organized and efficient.
Follow Best Practices to Maintain a Healthy Pipeline
Maintaining a healthy pipeline requires regular attention. Consistently review sales data and update deal stages to reflect changes in your sales process. This ensures the pipeline aligns with current goals and accurately reflects deal status. Regular updates improve forecasting, decision-making, and overall operations, leading to more efficient deal management. By keeping the pipeline up to date, your team stays aligned with real-time information, empowering them to make better, data-driven decisions.
Regular Pipeline Reviews
Schedule regular reviews of your pipeline to confirm that deals are progressing as planned. Identify bottlenecks and adjust deal stages as needed. If deals consistently stall in the “Proposal Sent” stage, revisit your proposal process or timeline to improve flow. Regular evaluations keep the pipeline efficient and responsive to changes, helping your team proactively address issues and push deals forward.
Master Your HubSpot Sales Pipeline
Are you getting the most out of your HubSpot Sales Pipeline? When fully optimized, it becomes a powerful driver of growth and performance. Customizing it to match your exact sales process and automating repetitive tasks keeps your team focused on what truly matters—closing deals. Regularly reviewing and refining your pipeline ensures it stays aligned with your goals, giving you sharper insights and faster results. Treat your pipeline like the asset it is, and watch it unlock smarter strategies and measurable success.
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