The complete, ordered set of deal stages a sales team uses to track opportunities from creation to close — the structural sequence deals move through, as distinct from "pipeline" used loosely to mean total open deal value (see Category 1).
Why it matters
Different sales motions (self-serve versus enterprise, for instance) often require genuinely different stage sequences, which is why many businesses run multiple deal pipelines rather than forcing every opportunity type through one identical process.
In a sentence
"We run a separate, shorter deal pipeline for self-serve upgrades than for our enterprise sales process, since the two motions don't move through the same steps."
Related terms
- Often confused with: Pipeline, the metric (Category 1 continuation, above — that usage refers to total dollar value of open opportunities; "deal pipeline" here refers to the structural stage sequence itself).
- Synonyms: Sales process, pipeline stages.