The short version
- Six stages are enough: find, first call, proposal agreed, proposal sent, decision, won and started.
- Each stage has an exit rule: something the buyer has said or done that you can point to. A deal only moves when the rule is met.
- On a team of three, each deal has one owner from first call to signed, and one person owns the list of companies to call.
- Most deals stall because the next step was never agreed. End every call with a date for the next one.
- Review every open deal for 30 minutes on Monday, and write the whole process on one page a new hire can follow.
The six stages of a B2B sale, and what has to happen to move on
A stage is only useful if everyone on the team would put the same deal in it. So each one ends with an exit rule, something the buyer said or did that you can point to.
| Stage | What you do | Exit rule: move on when |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Find | Pick companies that fit and find the person who'd buy | You've booked a first call with that person |
| 2. First call | Learn what they need, who decides and by when | They've agreed a problem worth solving and a next meeting |
| 3. Proposal agreed | Go through what the proposal will say, before you write it | They've agreed the scope, rough price and who signs |
| 4. Proposal sent | Send it, and walk them through it on a call | They've said who else has to see it and by when |
| 5. Decision | Answer questions from whoever else decides | They've said yes or no |
| 6. Won and started | Sign, hand over, start the work | Work has started and they know who to call |
Write these rules down, and use the same words in whatever you track deals in. The guide to sales pipeline management goes deeper on stages a deal has to earn.
Run the first call so the deal has a next step
The first call sets up everything after it. You're there to find out four things, and to leave with a date:
- What's the problem, in their words, and what's it costing them?
- Who else has a say, and who signs?
- When do they need it fixed, and why then?
- What have they tried already?
Before you hang up, agree the next step and put it in both calendars: "Can we take 30 minutes on Thursday to go through what a proposal would include? I'll send the invite now." A first call that ends with "send me something" hasn't moved.
The sales discovery questions have more questions for the first call, grouped by what each one tells you.
Send the proposal only after the buyer agrees what's in it
The proposal that comes back signed is the one the buyer has already agreed to, piece by piece. So stage 3 is a call where you go through the scope, the price range and the start date out loud, fix what they push back on, and only then write it up.
It saves two kinds of waste: proposals written for buyers who were never going to buy, and proposals that surprise the buyer with a price they'd never have agreed to. If they won't give you 30 minutes to agree the outline, they won't give the proposal much more.
Who does what on a team of three
A made-up example: a small company selling IT support to offices, with three people selling.
- Farah, the founder, owns the list of companies to call and the Monday review. She also takes the largest deals herself.
- Daniel and Mei each own their deals from first call to signed. Nobody else chases a deal they don't own.
- Whoever wins a deal hands it over to the person doing the work, with notes, in a 15-minute call the buyer joins.
Write down who covers when someone's on leave, and who decides on a discount. On a small team, a stalled deal is often one where two people each thought the other had it.
How to shorten your B2B sales cycle when deals stall after the first meeting
Deals stall in the same few places. Find the one that's stuck and do the one thing that moves it.
| Where it's stuck | Usually because | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| After the first call | No next step was agreed | Call, don't email, and ask for 20 minutes to scope the proposal |
| Proposal sent, no reply | The person you met isn't the one who signs | Ask who else needs to see it, and offer to walk them through it |
| Decision, dragging on | Nothing makes this month better than next | Ask what happens if nothing changes by their deadline |
| Weeks of silence | They've gone with someone else, or parked it | Ask straight out whether it's a no or a not now, and close it either way |
A deal that hasn't moved in a month, with no date agreed, isn't in your pipeline. Mark it lost or not now, with the reason, so the list only shows deals that are alive.
The weekly numbers that tell you the process is working
Four counts tell a small team whether the process is running: first calls held, proposals agreed, proposals sent and deals won. Work back from the month's target to see what the week needs.
A made-up example for the IT support team: last quarter, 1 in 2 first calls led to a proposal, and 1 in 3 proposals was won.
| This month | Number |
|---|---|
| New clients the month needs | 4 |
| Proposals needed, at 1 won in 3 | 12 |
| First calls needed, at 1 proposal in 2 | 24 |
| First calls a week, over four weeks | 6 |
| First calls a week for each of the three | 2 |
Two first calls a week each is a number everyone on the team can check on Wednesday, and when it comes up short, the first place to look is the list of companies you're calling. The sales plan template turns this into a one-page plan with the year's number at the top.
Review every open deal in 30 minutes on Monday
Once a week, the three of you go through the list together. Keep it to 30 minutes by only asking three things about each deal:
- Is it in the right stage, by the exit rules?
- What's the next step, and what's the date?
- If it hasn't moved since last Monday, why not, and what will move it this week?
Then look at the four counts from last week against the plan. If a deal needs a longer talk, book it as a separate call with the deal's owner so the other two can get back to selling.
Write the process on one page
Everything above fits on one page: the six stages with their exit rules, who owns what, the first-call questions, the chase rules and the Monday review. Put it where the team works, and give it to every new hire on day one.
Then change it when it's wrong. If deals keep stalling at the same stage, the exit rule before it is probably too easy. Fix the rule on the page, and tell the team what changed.
For your biggest customers, the account plan template keeps the people, the open deals and the next step for each one on a single page.
B2B sales process mistakes that cost a small team deals
- Stages named after what the seller did ("demo done") instead of what the buyer did.
- Writing a proposal before the buyer has agreed what's in it.
- Deals with no owner, or two.
- Calls that end without a date for the next one.
- Keeping dead deals on the list because it makes the month look better.
- A process that only exists in the founder's head.
See every deal, its stage and its next step, without asking the team
This guide is free. ActivityTracker is the app we make, it's paid, and this is what it does for a small sales team.
- A pipeline with stages that match how you sell, as a board or a list, with each buyer's notes and history on their record
- Type "call Tan Logistics Thursday 10am" and it's a dated follow-up, reminded 30 minutes before
- Ready-made views show people with no next step and people you haven't spoken to in 30 days
- The team logs calls and meetings in one tap, can add proposals as their own activity, and the week's numbers add up as they go