Deal stage, explained
A deal stage names where a single opportunity stands in the sales process. Stages turn a vague sense that a deal looks good into something a whole team reads the same way. When a manager sees twenty deals in Negotiation, that should mean twenty buyers who have a price in hand and are discussing terms, not twenty conversations that felt warm.
The reliable way to define a stage is by exit criteria: the facts that must be true before a deal moves forward. For an interior design firm, stages might be Enquiry qualified (budget and site confirmed), Site visit done, Design shared, Quotation sent, Advance received and Won. For a manufacturer selling to distributors they might be Sample requested, Sample approved, Price agreed and PO received. Each stage should be something a person can check, not a feeling.
Keep the number of stages small, usually five to seven, and add a Lost outcome with a reason picked from a short list such as price, timing, chose a competitor or no response. Some teams also require certain details before a deal enters a stage, for example the quotation amount before Quotation sent. DigiPix Flow's pipeline supports stage rules like these, so the details a stage needs are asked for when a deal moves.