Sales Pipeline
The ordered set of stages a prospect moves through from lead to client.
A sales pipeline is the documented sequence of stages a prospect moves through from first engagement to onboarded client, with defined entry criteria, expected conversion rates, and typical dwell time at each stage.
For a UK financial adviser firm, a representative pipeline runs: Inbound lead (form-fill, referral, call) to Marketing-qualified lead (meets basic qualification: age, asset band, niche fit) to Booked discovery call to Held discovery call (prospect actually attended) to Fact-find completed to Suitability report issued to Client agreement signed to Onboarded client.
Typical conversion rates for a well-run adviser pipeline: inbound to MQL 55 to 75 per cent, MQL to booked call 30 to 50 per cent, booked to held 65 to 80 per cent, held to fact-find 60 to 75 per cent, fact-find to client 55 to 75 per cent. Compounded, a paid-media-sourced prospect has a 4 to 12 per cent chance of becoming an onboarded client.
Dwell times matter as much as conversion rates. The longer a prospect sits at a stage, the lower the probability of converting. A pipeline with a median booked-to-held dwell time of 14 days loses 25 to 40 per cent more prospects than one with a 48-hour median, because life events intervene.
Pipeline hygiene rules: no more than two open stages per prospect, a maximum dwell time per stage with automated re-engagement triggers, and a quarterly dead-prospect cleanse. A firm that does not cleanse its pipeline ends up with vanity numbers, inaccurate forecasting and compliance exposure from stale data it no longer has a lawful basis to hold.
See also: MQL, SQL, discovery call, conversion rate, CRM.