Sales funnel: how to build the stages properly
A funnel is not just columns. A well-built one answers a single question: where does the money get stuck? A badly built one just looks tidy.
The rule: a stage is a state of the CUSTOMER
The most common mistake is naming stages after the operator's work: "called", "emailed", "waiting". That shows nothing — "called" is an action, not a result.
| Bad | Good |
|---|---|
| Called | Contact established |
| Email sent | Proposal sent and opened |
| Waiting | Awaiting decision |
| In progress | Negotiation |
How many stages
Five to eight. Fewer and the funnel shows nothing; more and operators cannot tell where a lead belongs, so everything piles into one column.
Do not merge Lost and Frozen. Lost means *no*. Frozen means *not now* — and those are often the cheapest source of new deals later.
Four common mistakes
- An "in progress" column that everything falls into and nothing
measures.
- No loss reason. Without it you never learn why you lose.
- No time limit per stage, so a stalled lead is invisible.
- Stages never change. Review them once a quarter.
What to read from it
Read conversion, not counts. Find the stage with the sharpest drop — that is where the money goes. And watch time-in-stage: if most leads sit 3 days in "proposal sent" and some sit 30, those thirty-day ones are the forgotten ones.
In AsproCRM
Stages are configurable under Settings → Company. A new organisation starts with the eight standard stages above. Funnel analysis is in every plan, from 190 000 UZS.