HubSpot Deal Stages: How to Set Them Up for Sales Success

How do HubSpot Deal Stages Help Streamline Sales?

Your HubSpot Deal Stages are an important part of your HubSpot Sales Hub.

First, they help you standardize your sales process. When every sales team member knows exactly where each prospect is in the process, providing the right kind of contact and the right information at the right time is much easier.

Beyond that, HubSpot Deal Stages can also help provide important data about the health of your pipeline. See at a glance where the most prospects are falling out of the sales process. By contrast, you can also see the most successful portions of our sales pipeline, helping you identify key best practices that prospects love to see.

How to Set Up & Modify Your HubSpot Deal Stages

Deal stages are an essential component of your HubSpot Sales Hub. But if you don't have them set up to support your sales team, you're losing valuable information. Your sales team is also likely losing valuable time trying to remember where every prospect is, rather than focusing on selling.

Let's take a close, step-by-step look at how you can set up and modify Deal Stages in your HubSpot Sales Hub.

How to Edit Your Deal Stages

From here, you can edit and add deal stages however you like.

1. To change deal stage name click the stage name field, and type your desired name.

2. To move a deal stage in the pipeline, click on the left side of the stage property, and drag it to change order.

3. To delete a deal stage hover over the stage, and click the delete button that appears.

4. To change a deal's win probability click the dropdown associated with the deal stage in question, and choose the appropriate value.

5. To create a new deal stage click the add a deal stage button at the bottom left of the chart of properties.

How Do I Know What HubSpot Deal Stages to Use?

Editing and modifying existing deal stages is one thing, but setting up your team's entire sales pipeline and deal stages from scratch is another entirely. Depending on how your sales team currently works, deciding what HubSpot Deal Stages to use could be easier said than done. Luckily, we've got a few tricks to help you out.

The first is that every HubSpot Sales Pipeline comes with 7 pre-set deal stages.
HubSpot's Default Deal Stages:

• Appointment scheduled (20%)
• Qualified to buy (40%)
• Presentation scheduled (60%)
• Decision-maker bought-in (80%)
• Contract sent (90%)
• Closed won (100% Won)
• Closed lost (0% Lost)

This should give anyone a good place to start.

My team has never used a standardized pipeline. How can I get them to use this HubSpot Sales Pipeline?

Getting any sales team to use HubSpot every day is no easy feat. If your team is new to using a sales pipeline at all, it might be helpful to just start with the default settings for a few weeks. After that, get the whole team together to see what stages are true for your sales team's process, and which aren't relevant. They may even find that there are additional steps in your sales process that HubSpot's default doesn't account for.

After you've discussed what's missing, and what's unnecessary, you can modify your sales pipeline to better reflect how your sales team has seen success in their process.

Are there any good HubSpot Deal Stage or Pipeline Templates to follow?

Every business is different, and every sales team is different. Many prefer to have their own custom deal stages that correspond specifically to their unique process, which is why HubSpot has made their deal stage tool so customizable.

But if your team is looking for somewhere to start that's a little more relevant to you over what HubSpot has to offer, check out some of these deal stages we've found successful for other clients.

Example HubSpot Deal Stages by Industry

Manufacturing Deal Stage Example

• New Opportunity (10%)
• Lead Qualified (30%)
• Needs Assessment (40%)
• Product Specs, Initial Quote (50%)
• Decision-Maker Brought in (60%)
• Final Quote Ready & Sign (80%)
• Closed Won (100%)
• Closed Lost (0%)

Construction Deal Stage Example

• New Opportunity (10%)
• Qualified to Buy (20%)
• Site Appointment Scheduled (40%)
• Design/Architecture Proposal (60%)
• Construction Design Approved & Final Build Estimate (70%)
• Construction Contract Signed (90%)
• Closed Lost (0%)
• Job Complete (100%)

Small Business Deal Stage Example

• New Opportunity (10%)
• Connect Meeting (30%)
• Bring in Decision-Maker (50%)
• Outline Goals & Scope (70%)
• Quote Ready & Sign (90%)
• Closed Won (100%)
• Closed Lost (0%)

While all of these HubSpot Deal Stages could work for any company, it's good to remember these are just examples. The beauty of HubSpot's sales tools is that they're completely customizable! Meant to support your sales team in their efforts to sell better, and faster, it's up to your team to develop a sales pipeline that best represents your process.

Who can help me set up my HubSpot Deal Stages?

Still not entirely sure exactly what HubSpot is and what it can do? Or just don't have the time to do all of this setup by yourself? 

Those are two of the most common complaints marketing and sales managers have when starting out with HubSpot. Luckily, HubSpot's Solutions Partner program makes it easy for you to find expert help for onboarding and implementation (and that includes setting up your deal stages!)

If you're looking for HubSpot services or support, the Evenbound team is a Diamond HubSpot Solutions Partner full of certified and accredited experts. Our HubSpot Certified Trainers are here to help your team make the most out of your HubSpot investment. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation to go over your questions, get in touch with our team today!