Most sales teams often struggle to optimize their sales pipelines because they implement the CRM first and try to force-fit their own processes to it. Ideally, they should map out their specific processes and configure the CRM to align with them.
If your business uses HubSpot CRM for sales, you’re likely committing similar mistakes or failing to use HubSpot’s potential to its fullest. Understanding HubSpot’s deal stages and customizing them to your processes are essential to improving your sales performance.
In this blog, we’ll discuss what HubSpot deal stages are, why they are important, how to set them up, and tips to avoid the most common mistakes.
What are deal stages in HubSpot and why do they matter?
In HubSpot, deal stages represent all the key steps that a lead goes through in their sales journey. To the HubSpot users, these stages appear as steps in their sales pipeline review. HubSpot visualizes the deal stages as “swim lanes” that are organized under stages such as New, Talking, Meeting, Proposal, and Closed Win.
In general, sales teams that rely on structured deal stages can see up to a 28% increase in closing rates. But there are other specific benefits of using HubSpot deal stages to manage your sales pipeline.
HubSpot pipeline stages act like a roadmap to help your sales team track their progress with an account, prioritize their sales activities, or focus on opportunities that need immediate attention.
Deal stages also offer you improved visibility into the sales pipeline. One look at the dashboard and you can tell who the lead is, the revenue potential they present, where exactly they are in the pipeline, and so on.
HubSpot streamlines your deal insights management so that you can track your revenue progress, control your sales forecasting, and improve your deal close rates.
Step-by-step guide to setting up HubSpot deal stages
If you’re new to HubSpot CRM, one of the first things you should prioritize is to set up the deal stages. Here are 5 easy steps to set up HubSpot deal stages in the HubSpot CRM:
Step 1: Log in to your Hubspot account
Click on the ‘Settings’ in the navigation bar.
Step 2: Set an objective
In the menu panel on the left, go to ‘Objects’ and click ‘Deals’.
Step 3: Select a pipeline
Next, click on the ‘Pipelines’ tab and select ‘Create pipeline.’ Here, you can enter the pipeline name and click Create once you’re ready.
NOTE: If you want to edit your pipeline in the future, you can click on ‘Settings’ > ’Objects’ > ’Deals’ > ’Pipelines’. Select the pipeline you wish to edit and click on the ‘Actions’ tab to rename, reorder, or delete a pipeline.
Step 4: Add deal stages
Scroll to the bottom of the dashboard and click on ‘+ Add a deal stage’. Here, you can name all the deal stages in your sales process, select the deal probability of each stage (in percentage), or reorder them to your preference.
Step 5: Edit properties
When you hover over a deal stage, you’ll see the ‘Edit properties’ button on the right. Click on it to choose the properties that you’ll need to fill when moving a deal to the respective stage.
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And that’s about it! You have successfully created deal stages in HubSpot. If you want a more detailed, granular understanding of how to set up, edit, or manage your HubSpot sales pipeline stages, visit the HubSpot Knowledge Base.
Best practices for customizing deal stages in HubSpot
If you aren’t setting it up properly, your team can lose valuable time trying to remember where every prospect is, rather than focusing on selling.
We have already touched upon the need to tailor your deal stages to match your actual sales processes and keep them structured. However, here are some standard approaches that can get you closer to your sales goals — if you apply them properly.
HubSpot has a set of best practices that it suggests its users follow, shortened as C.L.O.S.E. acronym:
- Concise
- Linear
- Objective
- Supported
- Engaged
Let’s look at how you can apply the C.L.O.S.E. framework to optimize your deal pipelines in HubSpot.
Common mistakes to avoid when managing deal stages
If you’re using HubSpot CRM for the first time, or aren’t seeing expected results, you might be making one or more of these common mistakes.
1. Creating too many deal stages
We briefly talked about this in the earlier section — don’t turn every small sales task into a deal stage. Creating too many deal stages in the pipeline can overload your CRM and lead to inconsistent reporting. For instance, it’s redundant to create stages such as “Researching” or “Awaiting Approval” because they don’t really map to a meaningful outcome and indicate busy work. This is true even if your actual sales process requires you to follow these steps.
Instead, create deal stages that focus on key milestones and label them meaningfully. This can help you focus on progressing with a deal instead of updating CRM data about every small move you make.
2. Assigning inaccurate deal probabilities
When assigning deal probabilities in HubSpot (Step #4), make sure you align them with historical data or any other information available about the deal stage.
The reason for this is simple. If you overestimate, underestimate, or just guess the likelihood of closing a deal in the pipeline, you’ll skew your revenue projections. Worse, it can lead your team to make poor decisions or spend your valuable resources on the wrong things.
3. Not updating CRM data
Not moving a deal stage to the next logical stage defies the purpose of using a deal management tool — and often leads to confusion. How will HubSpot, for instance, forecast revenue or offer actionable insights if deals are stuck in the same stage?
Neglecting to update deals as they progress through the pipeline also muddies your CRM reporting. If you want to get a clear and accurate view of your sales pipeline, always update your deal stages to reflect their correct status.
How to optimize your sales pipeline using deal stages
HubSpot has built-in features that you can leverage to optimize your sales pipeline and improve your sales process:
1. Leverage automation
Set up reminders for actions like sending follow-up emails or updating your notes to CRM so that you can automate them at each deal stage. Over time, this reduces manual work and keeps things on track.
2. Refine deal stages for better outcomes
HubSpot deals pipeline stages that aren't set in stone. You can keep refining them for better results, such as shorter sales cycles or higher deal conversions. The first stage is to create HubSpot deal stages that mirror your sales process. Next, look for gaps or overlaps between stages and identify areas that you can simplify.
If a deal stage doesn’t have clear metrics, get rid of them. If you have too many stages, merge similar ones together.
3. Use reporting and analytics
You can only improve what you can measure. Use HubSpot’s reporting and analytics capabilities to track deal progress and monitor key metrics that matter to you. Identify where deals are stalling, which stages tend to take the least time, and document missed opportunities.
Pro-tip: You can leverage MeetRecord’s deal tracking capabilities to ensure clean data, maintain data hygiene, and avoid manual errors. MeetRecord’s integration with HubSpot ensures that you can automate deal tracking, sync sales calls directly to the corresponding deal stage, and keep your CRM up-to-date with real-time data.
Turn your deal stages into a predictable sales processes
Mastering your HubSpot sales funnel stages can make all the difference in closing more deals and hitting your targets.
On top of implementing the set-up, regularly review your pipeline, avoid the most common mistakes, and apply the best practices we shared in this blog.
Have you set up your deal stages for sales success? If you want to drive better outcomes and optimize your existing deal management process, consider using MeetRecord. Book a demo today to see what MeetRecord can do to level up your revenue potential.
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