Why Sales Stage Design Matters for Deal Velocity
You can measure deal velocity brilliantly and diagnose where deals slow down – but if your sales stages are poorly designed, you will struggle to change anything.
Many organisations have stages that:
- Reflect internal admin steps rather than buyer progress.
- Are so vague that reps interpret them differently.
- Act as parking lots for deals that no-one wants to close out.
When you’re asking what role deal velocity plays in pipeline health, stage design is a big part of the answer. If stages do not reflect reality, your velocity metrics will be misleading – and your attempts to improve them will be misdirected.
This article takes Step 3 in our series and explores how to redesign your stages so they support healthy deal velocity, building on the main guide on what role does deal velocity play in pipeline health.
Start With the Buyer’s Journey, Not Your CRM
The best sales stage design starts with the buyer’s journey, not the fields available in your CRM.
Map, in plain language, the key moments a buyer goes through from first serious consideration to a decision. For example:
- Recognising and framing the problem.
- Exploring options and approaches.
- Aligning stakeholders around a preferred direction.
- Evaluating commercial terms and risks.
- Making and communicating a decision.
Then ask:
- Which of these moments are truly distinct in our context?
- Where do we see different behaviours or requirements by segment (for example, mid-market vs enterprise)?
Only once you are clear on these buyer moments should you define the stages that represent them.
Define the Purpose of Each Stage
Every stage should have a clear purpose – a reason it exists.
For each stage, write down in one or two sentences:
- What this stage represents in the buyer’s journey.
- What we are trying to achieve as a selling organisation.
For example:
- Discovery – “We and the buyer agree on the problem, context and impact, and we understand who is involved in the decision.”
- Solution shaping – “We collaborate with the buyer to shape an approach that fits their environment, constraints and priorities.”
- Commercial alignment – “We align on value, pricing and commercial structure and work through internal approvals on both sides.”
If you cannot explain why a stage exists, it is a strong candidate to be merged or removed.
Set Observable Entry and Exit Criteria
Deal velocity is only meaningful if stage changes reflect real progress. That means defining observable entry and exit criteria for each stage.
For each stage, agree:
- Entry criteria – What must be true before a deal can enter this stage?
- Exit criteria – What must be true before it can move to the next stage?
Make criteria:
- Specific – linked to clear buyer actions or facts.
- Observable – you can point to evidence in notes, emails, meetings or documents.
- Shared – reps, managers and RevOps interpret them in the same way.
Examples:
- To enter Discovery:
- The account meets ICP criteria.
- At least one relevant stakeholder has agreed to a conversation about a defined topic.
- To exit Discovery and enter Solution shaping:
- There is a documented problem statement agreed with the buyer.
- Key stakeholders have been identified.
- There is at least tentative agreement that exploring solutions is worthwhile.
When stages are anchored in criteria like these, deal velocity reflects buyer movement, not just admin updates.
Align Stages With Your Qualification Model
In your broader revenue system, you will already have a qualification model – for example, around fit, pain, intent and value.
Your stages should reinforce this model.
For each stage, identify which parts of the qualification model you expect to be:
- Explored – initial conversations and hypotheses.
- Validated – confirmed with clear evidence from the buyer.
- Documented – captured in CRM and mutual action plans.
For example:
- In Discovery, you may expect to explore and start validating fit and pain.
- In Solution shaping, you deepen impact, value and stakeholder
- In Commercial alignment, you confirm intent, timing and economic rationale.
This alignment ensures that as deals move through stages, qualification quality improves, not just perceived momentum.
Avoid Overly Granular or Vague Stages
Both too many and too few stages can hurt deal velocity.
Too granular:
- Stages for every internal step (for example, “proposal drafted”, “proposal reviewed”, “proposal sent”).
- Creates noise and admin load without adding insight.
Too vague:
- Catch-all stages like “Evaluation” or “In Play” that cover months of very different buyer activity.
- Makes it hard to spot where deals truly stall.
Aim for a manageable number of stages (often 5–8 from qualification to close) that are:
- Easy to explain.
- Distinct in terms of buyer behaviour.
- Useful for coaching and forecasting.
If a stage is rarely used, routinely skipped or always bloated, reconsider whether you need it.
Simplify Stage Names and Internal Language
Clear naming helps everyone interpret deal velocity the same way.
Consider:
- Using buyer-centric names where possible (for example, “Problem and fit agreed”, “Solution co-designed”, “Commercial terms under review”).
- Avoiding jargon or internal project names that new hires or cross-functional stakeholders won’t understand.
- Ensuring that the language used in CRM matches what leaders and teams use in reviews.
Consistency in language makes discussions about deal velocity and pipeline health more straightforward and less ambiguous.
Build Governance Around Stage Changes
To protect the integrity of your deal velocity data, you need light-touch governance around stage changes.
This does not mean excessive policing. It means:
- Coaching managers to challenge stage changes that don’t match criteria.
- Sampling deals regularly to check that evidence supports their current stage.
- Reviewing edge cases in team meetings to refine your criteria.
You can also:
- Require key fields or notes to be updated when moving into certain stages.
- Use simple approval flows for large or strategic deals when moving to late stages.
The goal is not bureaucracy; it is confidence that your stages reflect reality.
Use Stage-Level Metrics to Iterate Design
Stage design is not a one-off project. You should refine it over time using stage-level metrics such as:
- Median time spent in each stage.
- Conversion rates from one stage to the next.
- Percentage of deals that skip stages or move backwards.
When you see:
- Stages with persistent bloating or high drop-off.
- Frequent backwards movement into certain stages.
- Inconsistent use of stages across teams.
…take that as feedback that your current design or criteria may need adjusting.
Small, regular improvements are better than a single big redesign that then stays frozen for years.
Common Mistakes When Redesigning Stages
As you redesign sales stages for healthy deal velocity, avoid these missteps:
- Designing in isolation
Building stages in RevOps or leadership workshops without input from frontline sellers.
- Copying another company’s stages
What works for one sales motion may not fit your buyers or products.
- Focusing only on CRM configuration
Treating stage design as a tooling exercise rather than a reflection of the buyer journey.
- Ignoring enablement
Changing stages without updating playbooks, training and coaching so reps know how to work within the new structure.
- Keeping legacy stages “just in case”
Hanging on to old stages that no longer serve a purpose, which adds confusion.
Being deliberate about design – and involving people who use the stages every day – will help you avoid these traps.
How Step 3 Supports the Deal Velocity Series
Redesigning sales stages to support healthy deal velocity is a critical part of turning insight into action.
It allows you to:
- Make sure deal velocity is based on buyer reality, not admin habits.
- See clearly where deals genuinely slow down – and why.
- Coach teams against meaningful stages rather than arbitrary labels.
Use this article alongside the main guide on what role does deal velocity play in pipeline health to review your current stage design, simplify where needed and align your stages with how your buyers actually move.
From here, you can move into more targeted work on deal coaching, mutual action plans and using AI and analytics – confident that your stages give you a truthful view of deal velocity and pipeline health.