Stages
Stages define the steps a deal goes through from first contact to close. They give your team a shared language for where opportunities stand.Default stages
Operate comes with a default set of stages that work for most teams:- Qualified — the opportunity has been validated
- Discovery — learning about the prospect’s needs
- Proposal — a proposal or pricing has been shared
- Negotiation — terms are being discussed
- Closed Won — the deal was won
- Closed Lost — the deal was lost
Moving deals between stages
- Drag and drop in the pipeline view
- Update the stage field on the deal detail page
- Deals can also advance automatically based on Next Steps completion
Customizing stages
You can customize stages to match your sales process:- Go to Settings > Pipeline
- Add, rename, reorder, or remove stages
- Set win probability percentages per stage for forecasting
Tips
- Keep it simple — 4 to 7 stages is ideal for most teams
- Each stage should represent a meaningful milestone, not just a time period
- Define clear exit criteria for each stage so your team knows when to advance a deal