5 Steps to Perfect Your HubSpot Deal Stages

Why Optimize your HubSpot Deal Stages?

Optimizing your HubSpot deal stages is not just a nice-to-have; it's a necessity for any business looking to streamline its sales process and enhance overall efficiency.

Deal stages represent the stages or steps in your sales pipeline that signify to your sales team that an opportunity is moving toward closing. Your sales pipeline begins where your marketing funnel ends.

Deal stage optimization involves refining each phase of your sales pipeline to reflect your buyers' real journey, rather than just your internal sales checklist.

In HubSpot, a deal stage represents a step in your sales pipeline that reflects where a potential deal is in the sales process. Each stage typically corresponds to a specific action or milestone (e.g., "Contacted", "Qualified", "Demo Scheduled", "Proposal Sent", "Closed Won", or "Closed Lost").

These stages help your sales team:

• Track progress and forecast revenue

• Understand what actions are needed next

• Standardize the sales process

HubSpot allows customization of deal stages within each pipeline to match your sales process.

When deal stages are clearly defined and optimized, you gain a multitude of benefits.  In contrast, a poorly defined pipeline can lead to unqualified deals advancing too soon, inflated pipelines, and wasted time chasing low-priority leads while high-potential deals slip through the cracks.

1. Auditing and Simplifying Your Sales Pipeline

The first step in optimizing your HubSpot deal stages is to audit and simplify your sales pipeline. This process involves a thorough review of your current deal stages to identify any redundancies or clutter that might be causing confusion or inefficiencies.

• Map out your existing sales pipeline and examine each stage's purpose, entry, and exit criteria.
• Are there stages that no longer serve a purpose? Are there stages that can be combined?
• Simplifying your pipeline will make it easier for your sales team to follow and for you to manage.

For example, if you notice that deals often get stuck in a particular stage, it might be a sign that the criteria for moving to the next stage are too stringent or unclear. By simplifying and clarifying these criteria, you can help ensure that deals flow more smoothly through the pipeline.

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2. Defining Clear Entry and Exit Criteria

Once you have a simplified pipeline, the next step is to define clear entry and exit criteria for each deal stage. This means setting specific, actionable requirements that need to be met for a deal to move from one stage to the next.

Having well-defined criteria helps eliminate guesswork and ensures that all team members are on the same page.  

To manage how users can create and move records through a pipeline, Super Admins can set rules for their deal, ticket, leads, and custom object pipelines.

For instance, an entry criterion for a "Qualified Lead" stage could be that the lead has completed a specific action, such as filling out a form or attending a webinar. Exit criteria might be that the lead has had a meaningful conversation with a sales rep.

Deal Stage examples. Source: HubSpot Blog.

Clear criteria also help in maintaining the integrity of your sales data. When everyone follows the same rules, your sales reports and forecasts become more accurate, giving you a better understanding of your sales pipeline’s health.

3. Aligning Deal Stages with the Buyer’s Journey

Your deal stages should align closely with your buyers' journey. This means understanding how your buyers think and act at each stage of the sales process and tailoring your pipeline to match these behaviors.

For example:

• Early-stage buyers might be in the research phase, looking for information and resources.
• Mid-stage buyers might be comparing options and seeking more detailed product information
• Late-stage buyers are likely ready to make a purchase decision and need reassurance and final details.

Example of a pipeline and its deal stages.

By aligning your deal stages with these buyer behaviors, you make it easier for your sales team to provide relevant and timely information, thereby increasing the likelihood of a successful conversion. This alignment also helps in creating a more personalized experience for your buyers, which can significantly enhance their journey and satisfaction.

4. Automating Actions for Consistency

Automation is a powerful tool in deal stage optimization. By automating routine tasks and actions, you can ensure consistency and save valuable time for your sales team.

For example, you can set up automated email sequences that are triggered when a deal moves to a new stage. These emails can provide buyers with relevant information and next steps, keeping them engaged and moving forward in the sales process.

An example of an automated follow-up email sent right before a form submission.

Additionally, automated tasks can be assigned to sales reps at each stage, ensuring that no important actions are missed. For instance, when a deal enters the "Proposal Sent" stage, an automated task can remind the sales rep to follow up after a certain number of days.

Example of a workflow to create and assign tasks when a new deal is created

Automation not only improves efficiency but also helps in maintaining a high level of consistency across your sales process, making it easier to manage and optimize over time.

5. Training Your Team for Sustained Success

Finally, optimizing your HubSpot deal stages is not a one-time task. It requires ongoing training and support for your sales team to ensure sustained success.

Conduct regular training sessions to familiarize your team with the new deal stages, criteria, and automated actions.

Provide them with:

• Examples
• Templates 

To help them understand how to apply these changes in their daily activities.

Regularly reviewing and refining your deal stages based on feedback and performance metrics is also crucial. Encourage your team to share their experiences and insights, and use this information to make continuous improvements to your sales pipeline.

By investing in training and maintaining an open line of communication with your team, you can ensure that your optimized deal stages continue to drive efficiency and effectiveness in your sales process.

By following these five steps—auditing and simplifying your pipeline, defining clear entry and exit criteria, aligning with the buyer’s journey, automating actions, and training your team—you can perfect your HubSpot deal stages and significantly enhance your sales efficiency.