Sales pipeline kanban: how to set up a deal board that shows where deals get stuck

A kanban board is a set of columns, left to right, with a card for each piece of work. For a sales pipeline, each column is a stage and each card is a deal. When a deal moves forward, you drag its card one column to the right.

The point is what you can see at a glance. A column stuffed with cards is where deals get stuck, and an empty one means next month will be thin. A card that hasn't moved in three weeks is probably dead.

You can do it on a whiteboard with sticky notes, in a spreadsheet, in a board tool or in a CRM. The habits matter more than the tool.

This post is about the board itself. For the wider job of running a pipeline, like how much you need and how to forecast from it, see how to manage a sales pipeline.

Most boards go wrong in the columns. They're named after what the seller did ("called", "sent info") rather than what the buyer agreed to. Then cards drift right because you were busy, even when the buyer hasn't moved at all.

Give each column an exit rule: what must be true before a card moves on. A simple set for a small team:

Five or six columns is plenty. Each extra column is another place for cards to sit.

Write the exit rules at the top of each column. When someone asks "can I move this one?", the answer is on the board.

A card should tell you, in five seconds, whether the deal is alive. Keep it to:

• The buyer: company and person.
• Value: your best honest estimate.
• Next step: what happens next, and the date.
• Last contact: when you last spoke to them.
• Owner: whose deal it is, if more than one person uses the board.

The next step and its date matter most. A card with no dated next step is a card you'll forget. On the weekly review, it's the first thing you check.

Keep the history, notes and messages somewhere the card links to. A card that holds everything is a card nobody reads.

Kanban teams in other jobs cap how many cards can sit in a column. It works for sales too, with a twist.

Leave new leads uncapped. What needs a cap is the columns where your time goes, like meetings to prepare and proposals to write, because eight half-written proposals means none of them goes out this week.

Set a limit on the columns that need your work:

• Proposal to write: no more than three at once per person.
• Deciding: if this column has more than you can follow up properly, stop adding and chase.

When a column hits its limit, finish something before you start something new. It feels slow. In practice, deals move faster, because each one gets your attention instead of a slice of it.

Once a week, look at the whole board for 20 minutes. Friday afternoon or Monday morning both work. On a team, do it together.

1. Start at the right. Look at the cards closest to closing first, because they're worth the most this month. Does each have a dated next step?
2. Check every card's last contact date. Anything over two weeks with no reply gets a follow-up today or goes to the dead pile.
3. Look for pile-ups. Which column has the most cards? That's where your process leaks.
4. Look for gaps. An empty column in the middle means a thin month ahead. Book more first meetings now.
5. Move cards only on the exit rules. If a card can't pass its rule, it stays where it is.

Pipeline coverage is a useful check here: how much open pipeline you have against the target, and whether it's enough for your win rate.

Every board fills up with cards that aren't moving. They make the pipeline look bigger than it is, and they hide the deals that need you.

Use a rule: any card with no reply after three follow-ups over about two weeks goes to Lost, with a reason. "No reply", "chose someone else", "no budget this year" and "timing" are enough.

Then do two things with the Lost column:

• Once a month, read the reasons. If half say "price", that's a finding.
• Once a quarter, look at the "timing" ones again. Some of them are ready now. The sales follow-up process covers how to reopen cold leads.

Moving a card to Lost is just an honest count of what's really on the board, and you can always bring it back.

If you'd rather start in a spreadsheet, the sales pipeline template has each deal's stage, value, next step and last contact, and shows which deals went quiet.

1. Write five or six columns, each with an exit rule based on what the buyer agreed to.
2. Put every open deal on the board as a card with a next step and a date.
3. Move any card without a date to Lost, or give it one today.
4. Set a limit on the column that needs the most of your time.
5. Book 20 minutes every Friday for the review.