Sales Pipeline
The set of active opportunities organized by their stage in the sales process.
A sales pipeline shows opportunities currently being worked and the stages they have reached. In SaaS, stages might include qualified discovery, evaluation, commercial agreement, and procurement. Each stage should have observable entry and exit criteria so the pipeline describes buyer progress rather than salesperson optimism.
Example: A security SaaS has 20 qualified opportunities, eight technical evaluations, and three contracts in legal review. The team can see where help is needed and which decisions are outstanding. A deal moves to procurement only after the buyer confirms a purchasing process, not because the rep sent a quote.
Watch out: Pipeline value is not revenue, cash, or a reliable forecast by itself. Stale deals and unsupported close dates inflate apparent coverage. Track activity, age, next steps, and disqualification reasons. Distinguish a pipeline from a funnel: a pipeline manages individual opportunities, while a funnel aggregates how populations move through stages. Use both views to identify process bottlenecks without hiding the specifics of important deals.
Further reading: HubSpot: sales pipelines.
Related: sales cycle, win rate.