A sales pipeline shows at a glance which opportunities are open, what stage they are at and what they are expected to be worth. If you want to build a sales pipeline, you need less technology than clarity: which stages are there, how do we recognise the transition, and what do we do with opportunities that stand still? This guide takes you through the decisions, calculates the weighted pipeline value in an example and shows how to notice stalled opportunities early.
What a pipeline is
A pipeline is the sequence of stages that a sales opportunity (a deal) passes through: from the first qualified enquiry to the close or the loss. Every deal has a company or person, a value, an expected closing date and a responsible person. Unlike the list of contacts, the pipeline shows only what is moving.
The point of view matters: the stages describe where the customer stands on the road to a decision, not what your team is doing at the moment. “Prepare quote” is a task; “Quote is with the customer” is a stage.
Define the stages
For most SMEs, four to six open stages are enough. More stages tempt people to keep shuffling deals back and forth without anything being clarified. A proven pattern, as an example:
| Stage | Criterion for entry |
|---|---|
| New | Enquiry is qualified, a conversation is pending |
| Contacted | First conversation held, need is known |
| Quote | Quote is with the customer |
| Negotiation | Customer has responded, price or scope are being discussed |
In addition there are the two closing stages “Won” and “Lost”. Write one sentence for each stage describing when a deal has reached it. Then you will not argue about whether a deal is “already” in the quote phase.
Two practical tips, not rules: every open deal needs a next step with a date, otherwise it is only a wish. And a deal moves forward only when the customer has done something (replied, agreed an appointment, requested a quote), not as soon as you have done something.
Probability and weighted value
Each stage receives a closing probability in per cent. It is not calculated but estimated from your experience and checked against actual closings after a few months. The weighted value of a deal is its value times the probability of its stage. The weighted pipeline value is the sum over all open deals; it is also a figure for cash flow planning. It is not a promise but an early warning instrument: if it falls from month to month, the pipeline is filling too slowly.
If a single deal clearly deviates from its stage (for example because the customer has announced a signature), adjust the probability of that deal instead of artificially pushing it into a higher stage.
Loss reasons and origin
Two small lists make your pipeline capable of learning:
- Loss reasons: whoever closes a deal as lost picks a reason from a short list, for example price, competitor, timing, no budget, no reply. After a quarter you can see whether you fail on price or on response time.
- Origin: where did the opportunity come from (referral, website, trade fair, existing customer)? This shows which channels bring orders and not just enquiries.
Keep both lists short. A dozen reasons will no longer be chosen carefully.
Avoid stalled deals
Many deals fail not because of a no but because of silence: nobody followed up. Two simple rules help:
- Next activity: no opportunity without a planned next step. Whoever completes an activity plans the next one at once.
- Time in stage: set for each stage how long a deal may stay at most. New enquiries should not lie in “New” for more than a week, and quotes should trigger a follow-up after half of their validity. How to proceed without pressing is explained in the guide to following up quotes.
Law: little legislation, two points of contact
Building the pipeline is a matter of organisation; the law prescribes no stages. There are nevertheless two points of contact.
The “Quote” stage is legally significant. Anyone who makes a quote with an acceptance deadline remains bound by the offer until it expires and is released if the acceptance has not reached them before expiry (Art. 3 CO). Without a deadline to an absent person, for example by email, the offeror remains bound until they can expect the reply, if it was sent properly and in good time (Art. 5, para. 1 CO). The time in the “Quote” stage should therefore match the validity date. More on this in the guide Write a quote.
Notes in the deal are personal data. What you record about a person must be accurate; inaccurate or incomplete data must be corrected, deleted or destroyed by appropriate measures, and data that is no longer needed is destroyed or anonymised (Art. 6, paras. 4 and 5 DSG). Data subjects can request information, as a rule within 30 days (Art. 25, paras. 1 and 7 DSG); the personal data processed is communicated as such (Art. 25, para. 2 lit. b DSG). Write, therefore, in such a way that you could show the note to the person: factual, without labels such as “tiresome”.
Practical example: Muster Haustechnik AG
Muster Haustechnik AG (fictitious) runs four open stages with these example values. The percentages are freely chosen:
| Stage | Probability | Deals | Total (CHF) | Weighted (CHF) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | 10% | 3 | 45’000 | 4’500 |
| Contacted | 20% | 4 | 120’000 | 24’000 |
| Quote | 40% | 5 | 210’000 | 84’000 |
| Negotiation | 70% | 2 | 96’000 | 67’200 |
| Total | 14 | 471’000 | 179’700 |
Calculation: 45’000 × 0.10 = 4’500; 120’000 × 0.20 = 24’000; 210’000 × 0.40 = 84’000; 96’000 × 0.70 = 67’200. The totals give 471’000 open and 179’700 weighted. In the “Quote” stage, a time in stage of 15 days is set, half of the validity of 30 days. Two of the five quotes have been there for 24 and 27 days and have been flagged for more than a week. The sales manager calls both customers: one quote is reissued after a price adjustment, the other is closed as lost with the reason “timing” and noted again for spring. That is how the warning becomes a decision.
Checklist
- Four to six open stages, each with one sentence on the entry criterion
- Probability set for each stage and reviewed after a quarter
- Short list of loss reasons and origins
- Obligation to set a next step with a date for every open deal
- Time in stage set for each stage, quote matched to validity
- Responsible person known for each deal
- Notes factual and accurate (Art. 6 DSG)
- Weekly look at overdue and stalled deals
How KMU | base helps
In Sales | base you see the pipeline as a board with one column per stage.
1. The board. In the Sales menu, open Deals; the Pipeline view shows, for each stage, the number, total and weighted value, separated by currency and accurate to the centime (“Pipeline board”, “Totals per currency to the centime”). You drag deals between the stages and close them by dragging them onto the target fields “Won” or “Lost”; for “Lost” the reason is mandatory (“Won/lost with mandatory loss reason”). Without a mouse, there is a stage selection on every card. With “+” in a column, you record a deal directly in that stage (“Quick entry per stage”).
2. Set up. Under Sales settings, in the Pipeline and lists tab, you map your sales process. Sales starts with the usual stages (New, Contacted, Quote, Negotiation). For each stage you set name, type (open, won, lost), probability and the time in stage after which a warning appears; you also maintain the lists of loss reasons and sources (“Set up pipelines, stages, loss reasons, sources”). You create new pipelines as inactive first, add the stages and then activate them; every active pipeline needs at least one active open, won and lost stage. Inactive stages and their history are kept. These settings are reserved for the Sales administration.
3. Probability per deal. In the deal you adjust the probability; pipeline value and forecast use it, otherwise the value of the stage applies (“Probability per deal”).
4. Traffic light and warning. Each card shows the responsible person and the next activity with a date: green if one is planned, yellow if none is planned, red if it is overdue. If a deal stays longer than the set number of days in a stage, the card is flagged (“Traffic light and warning for stalled deals”). With the setting “Next activity required”, Sales asks for the next step straight after you complete the last activity (“Plan next activity at once”). Without the setting, the step is only suggested.
On the limits: the traffic light checks whether a step is planned, not whether the customer has responded. With a large number of deals, the board shows only the first cards; totals and column values apply to all of them, and the list shows every deal. How to get from the sales opportunity to the quote is shown in the Sales | base guide.
If you would like to try it yourself, take a look at the Demo or open a test account. You will find the current terms under Pricing; if you have questions, we will help you via the contact page.
Sources
- Code of Obligations (CO, OR, SR 220), Art. 3, paras. 1–2 and Art. 5, para. 1, as at 1 October 2026: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 27.10.2026.
- Federal Act on Data Protection (DSG, SR 235.1), Art. 6, paras. 4–5 and Art. 25, paras. 1, 2 lit. b and 7, as at 7 July 2025: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 27.10.2026.
This guide does not replace legal or tax advice. Information as at 27.10.2026.