Pipeline and stage design
We write what each stage means and what has to be true for a deal to leave it. Stages become tests a deal passes, not labels a rep picks.
B2B Appointment Setting
Revenue operations that make the pipeline tell the truth.
One set of numbers, one definition of a qualified deal, and a forecast your board can rely on.
Revenue operations (RevOps) is the system behind your sales numbers. It sets how a deal enters the pipeline, how it moves, and how it gets counted.
We design that system, build it inside the CRM you already use, and hand it over with every rule written down. You keep the definitions, the dashboards, and the admin access.
Fit
Where this work pays off
This is for companies with more than one person selling and a CRM already in use.
The value comes from shared definitions, so there has to be more than one person to share them with. Four things tend to be true when the work is worth doing.
Two or more people own deals, so the rules have to be shared.
A CRM is already in place, even if half of it sits empty.
Someone reports a pipeline number to a board or an investor.
Marketing passes leads to sales, so the handoff has a cost.
It pays off less when one founder still closes every deal. At that size a shared sheet is usually enough, and we will say so on the call.
We also do not sell this as a rescue for a team that needs more meetings. If the pipeline is thin rather than confused, outreach is the better place to spend the budget.
The situation
The numbers stopped agreeing
Few teams call this a RevOps problem. They call it a reporting problem, a CRM problem, or a sales problem.
Two versions of the truth
Sales reports one pipeline figure. Finance reports another. Both are pulled from the same week, from the same system.
A stage nobody can define
Deals sit in a middle stage for months. Ask three people what moves a deal out of it and you get three answers.
The forecast is a feeling
The number comes from asking each rep how confident they feel. The miss gets explained after the quarter closes.
Leads go cold in the queue
A form fills in on Tuesday. Someone calls on Friday, if it was clear whose job that was.
All four have the same root. The rules that govern the pipeline live in people's heads instead of in writing.
Scope of work
What the work covers
Six areas. Most revenue operations work needs all six, because fixing one in isolation rarely holds.
Qualification and routing
One written definition of a qualified lead, agreed by sales and marketing together. Then routing rules that give every lead a named owner the day it arrives.
CRM structure
We set the objects, fields and required entries your reporting depends on. Fields that feed no report get archived, so the record stays short enough to fill in.
Reporting and dashboards
One dashboard set that sales, marketing and finance read the same way. Every figure traces back to a field a person can open and check.
Forecasting
A forecast built on stage rules and deal age rather than optimism. Reps commit against written criteria, and the model shows the gap to target.
Handoffs and tooling
Marketing to sales, sales to delivery, and renewal back to sales. We map who owns the record at each point and which tool holds it.
Send us last month's pipeline report and we will tell you which questions it cannot answer.
Book a Strategy Call →The process
How the work runs
A build runs about eight weeks from audit to handover. The order matters more than the length.
Week 1 to 2
Audit
We pull your pipeline history, field usage and current reports. You get a written list of what is broken and what each item is costing you.
Week 2 to 3
Definitions
Stage exit criteria, qualified lead rules and forecast categories, written down and agreed. Nothing gets built until sales and marketing sign the same page.
Week 4 to 6
Build
We configure the CRM, the routing and the dashboards inside your own instance. Old fields and reports get archived rather than deleted.
Week 7
Rollout
One short training session per team, run by the people who will use it daily. Every rule sits in a document they can open later.
Ongoing
Operating review
A monthly session on the numbers, the aging deals and the rules that need changing. Optional, and priced separately from the build.
A stage is a test, not a label. Once each test is written down, the forecast category follows from the record rather than from a conversation.
Deliverables
What you receive
Documents and configuration you own outright, with nothing held in our accounts.
- A definitions document covering stages, qualified leads and forecast categories.
- Your CRM configured to those definitions, with required fields and stage gates in place.
- Routing rules for every lead source, with named owners and a fallback for each.
- A dashboard set for sales, marketing and the board, all reading from the same fields.
- A forecast model you can edit, with the rule for each category written inside it.
- Agendas for the weekly pipeline review and the monthly forecast call.
- Admin documentation and a recorded handover for whoever inherits the system.
None of it sits behind our login. If you stop working with us, the system keeps running and your team keeps the manual.
Examples of past work are available on request, so get in touch and we will send work relevant to your market.
The Assured Outreach Model
The KPIs are agreed before the work starts
RevOps work is easy to sell and hard to hold to account. This is how we make it accountable.
Before anything gets built, we agree in writing what the system has to do. That covers the KPIs, the definitions sitting behind them, and the date we will read them on.
OUTRIVA & PARTNERS
Assured Outreach Model / Standard Terms
If the agreed KPIs are not met, the work continues at no additional service charge.
- iKPIs, target audience and qualification criteria are agreed in writing before any work begins.
- iiReporting runs against those written definitions only. We do not restate the measure after the fact.
- iiiIf the KPIs are not met by the end of the agreed period, we keep working at no additional service charge.
The model covers what we control, which is the system, the definitions and the reporting. It does not cover a target set on numbers your team declines to enter.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from CRM maintenance?
CRM maintenance keeps the data clean in a system that already works. Revenue operations decides how that system should work in the first place. Most teams need both, in that order.
Do we have to change our CRM?
No. We build inside the tool you already pay for, whichever one it is. If the tool is the real problem, we will say so and give you the reasons in writing.
How long before we can trust the reporting?
Definitions are agreed in the first three weeks, and the arguments about the numbers usually stop there. Dashboards follow the build. Trend lines need a full quarter of clean entry behind them.
What do you need from our team?
A few hours from whoever owns sales, marketing and the CRM. Most of that sits in the definitions stage, where the calls cannot be delegated to us. After rollout it drops to a monthly review.
Our reps ignore process. Will any of this stick?
Rules stick when they are short, written down, and checked in one weekly meeting. We build that review with you and sit in the first few. If a rule keeps getting skipped, it is usually the wrong rule.
The next step
Start with the numbers you already have
Bring one pipeline report and one forecast. Half an hour is usually enough to find where they disagree, and to say whether this work is worth doing.