Pipeline

A pipeline is the set of stages a lead moves through, from first contact to won or lost. For a service company the stages should sound like the work: new lead, visit set, estimate sent, scheduled, done. Stages named after a software demo ("SQL," "opportunity") do not help an owner decide who to call at 7am.

Each stage needs an exit. A lead sits in "estimate sent" only until the follow-up date. Then it moves, or it gets a new date. A stage with no date is a junk drawer. The pipeline's job is to show the handful of people who need a human today, not to impress anyone with a chart.

Keep the count of stages small. Five is plenty for a crew that sells one kind of job. Adding a stage for every mood ("thinking," "warm," "very warm") is how the board stops being updated. If you would not say the stage name out loud to a tech, rename it. The words should match the job site.

Lost is a stage, and it should be used. A quote the customer declined is not still open because you dislike closing the card. Mark it lost, note why in a few words, and stop texting them. The open pipeline is then a list you trust. Quote-to-close is just won divided by the estimates you actually sent, which you can only see if lost and won are both real.

Puffly's free CRM includes a pipeline and tasks. The stages can match the trade. What matters is the next task on each open deal. Open the board in the morning. If you cannot tell who to call, the stages are decoration and the work is still in your head.