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Pipelines & Stages

What Is a Pipeline?โ€‹

A pipeline is a visual map of your sales process. It is made up of stages โ€” the steps a lead moves through from first contact to closed deal (or lost).

Think of it like a board game. Each square on the board is a stage. Your leads are the game pieces. You move them from square to square as you make progress with each person.

Why do you need one?

Without a pipeline, all your leads sit in one big pile and it is impossible to see at a glance which ones need attention, which are almost closed, and which are stuck. A pipeline solves that. In five seconds you can see exactly how many leads are in each stage of your process.

Creating a Pipelineโ€‹

  1. Go to Leads > Pipelines in the left sidebar.
  2. Click New Pipeline.
  3. Fill in:
    • Name โ€” what this pipeline is called, e.g. "Sales", "New Client Onboarding", "Partnerships".
    • Description โ€” optional. A short note about what this pipeline is for.
    • Default Pipeline โ€” toggle this on if you want new leads to automatically land in this pipeline. Only one pipeline can be the default at a time.
  4. Add your Stages using the stages repeater:
    • Click Add Stage to add a new stage.
    • Give each stage a Name (e.g. "New Enquiry", "Proposal Sent", "Negotiation", "Closed Won").
    • Pick a Color for the stage. This color appears on the Kanban board so you can tell stages apart at a glance.
    • Toggle Win Stage on for your final positive stage (e.g. "Closed Won"). This marks leads in this stage as won.
    • Toggle Loss Stage on for your final negative stage (e.g. "Closed Lost"). This marks leads in this stage as lost.
    • Drag the stages up and down to reorder them.
  5. Click Create.

Your pipeline is ready. Leads can now be assigned to it.

The Default Pipelineโ€‹

One pipeline can be marked as the Default Pipeline. When a new lead arrives (from any source connection, form, or import) and no specific pipeline is configured for that source, the lead is placed into the default pipeline automatically.

To change which pipeline is the default:

  1. Go to Leads > Pipelines.
  2. Click the edit (pencil) icon on the pipeline you want to make the default.
  3. Toggle Default Pipeline on.
  4. Click Save.

The old default pipeline loses its default status automatically โ€” only one pipeline can be the default.

Moving Leads Between Stagesโ€‹

There are two ways to move a lead to a different stage.

Option 1 โ€” Kanban Board (drag and drop): Go to Pipeline > Kanban Board in the sidebar. You will see all your stages as columns with lead cards inside them. Drag a lead card from one column and drop it into a different column. The lead's stage is updated instantly.

Option 2 โ€” Edit the lead: Open the lead detail view, click Edit, change the Stage dropdown to the new stage, and click Save.

Every time a lead moves to a new stage, the system records the date and time it entered that stage (stage_entered_at). This lets the pipeline funnel report calculate how long leads spend in each stage.

Kanban Board View vs List Viewโ€‹

LeadHub gives you two ways to look at your leads in a pipeline.

Kanban Board Go to Pipeline > Kanban Board in the sidebar. Your stages appear as columns side by side. Each lead is a card showing the lead's name, source, score, tags, and assigned team member. This is the best view when you want to visualize where everything stands and drag leads between stages.

You can switch between pipelines at the top of the Kanban board using the pipeline selector.

List View Go to Leads > All Leads and use the Stage filter to filter by a specific stage. This is the best view when you need to search, sort, or do bulk actions on leads in a stage.

Multiple Pipelinesโ€‹

You can create as many pipelines as your business needs. Each pipeline is completely separate with its own stages and its own set of leads. Common examples:

  • Sales Pipeline โ€” for tracking new business from enquiry to closed deal.
  • Support Pipeline โ€” for tracking customer support requests.
  • Partnerships Pipeline โ€” for tracking partnership or referral conversations.
  • Onboarding Pipeline โ€” for new customers being onboarded.

A lead can only be in one pipeline at a time. To move a lead from one pipeline to another, edit the lead and change both the Pipeline and Stage fields.

Pipeline Reports and Funnel Visualizationโ€‹

Go to Reports > Pipeline Funnel in the sidebar to see a funnel chart showing how many leads are in each stage of a pipeline, and how many have moved through versus dropped off.

The funnel report helps you answer questions like:

  • Where are leads getting stuck?
  • What is my overall conversion rate?
  • How many leads made it to the proposal stage last month?

The dashboard also has a Pipeline Distribution widget that shows a quick breakdown of lead counts by stage. See the Reports documentation for details on all available reports.

Editing and Deleting Stagesโ€‹

To edit a stage (rename it, change its color, or toggle win/loss):

  1. Go to Leads > Pipelines.
  2. Click the edit (pencil) icon on the pipeline that contains the stage.
  3. In the Stages section, find the stage you want to change and edit its fields directly.
  4. Click Save.

To delete a stage:

  1. Open the pipeline in edit mode.
  2. Click the delete (trash) icon on the stage row inside the stages repeater.
  3. Click Save.

Important: Deleting a stage does not delete the leads inside it. Those leads will have their stage set to blank. You should move them to a different stage first.

To delete an entire pipeline:

  1. Go to Leads > Pipelines.
  2. Click the trash icon on the pipeline row.
  3. Confirm.

Deleting a pipeline is a soft delete. The leads inside it are not deleted โ€” they remain in your system, but their pipeline association is cleared.

Best Practicesโ€‹

Keep your stages simple. Most businesses do well with 4โ€“6 stages. Too many stages means leads pile up and the board becomes hard to read.

Name stages after actions, not states. Instead of "Interested", use "Follow-up Call Scheduled". This makes it clear what needs to happen next.

Use the Win Stage and Loss Stage toggles. This lets reports accurately track your conversion rate.

Set a default pipeline. If you only have one pipeline, set it as the default so every inbound lead lands in it automatically without any extra configuration.

Use multiple pipelines for different processes, not different products. If you sell two products, one pipeline with good tags is usually simpler than two pipelines. Save multiple pipelines for fundamentally different workflows (Sales vs Support).