All posts
CRM

Pipedrive Pipeline: How To Improve Your Sales Process

Fernando Figueiredo
March 6, 2025
•
7
 min read
Contents

When it comes to managing sales effectively, few tools are as useful as Pipedrive's pipeline view. Their sales process management system has a very visual and neat interface that helps thousands of businesses track deals, analyze performance, and increase revenue. But what makes Pipedrive's pipeline functionality so effective, and how can you maximize its potential to improve your sales results?

We'll explore what you need to know about Pipedrive pipeline management—from setting up your first pipeline to leveraging advanced metrics for sales optimization. We'll also show you how to integrate scheduling tools like Zeeg to enhance your pipeline efficiency and ensure no prospect is missed.

Try Zeeg now

What is Pipedrive's pipeline view?

Pipedrive's pipeline view is the core feature of this sales-focused CRM and what the whole is based on. It provides a visual representation of your sales process, allowing you to track deals as they move through different stages from initial contact to closed sale.

The pipeline view in Pipedrive displays deals based on their current stage in your sales process. Each column represents a stage, and each card within those columns represents an individual deal. This visual identity gives you an at-a-glance understanding of where each opportunity stands and what needs to happen next.

Unlike traditional CRM systems that might bury deals in lists or complex databases, Pipedrive's pipeline puts your sales process front and center, making it intuitive to prioritize activities and manage opportunities efficiently.

Benefits of working with Pipedrive's pipeline

The visuals. First and foremost, Pippedrive’s pipeline has immediate visual clarity, giving you a great overview of all deals and their current status at a glance. This visibility is coupled with a strong activity focus, as the system emphasizes the specific next actions required to move each deal forward in your sales process. The intuitive interface makes deal tracking straightforward, allowing you to easily monitor progress and quickly identify opportunities that have stalled or need attention.

Customizaton. Additionally, Pipedrive's extensive customization options, like its custom ifelds, enable you to tailor the pipeline precisely to your specific sales process, making sure it reflects your business requirements rather than forcing you into a generic framework. Perhaps most valuable from a strategic perspective is the platform's forecasting capability, which enables data-driven predictions about future sales performance based on your pipeline's current state and historical patterns.

Without effective pipeline management in Pipedrive, sales teams can struggle with disorganization, missed opportunities, and unpredictable results. That makes planning difficult, and worse - besides not knowing where you’re headed, you might not be headed anywhere. That’s why you should have things clear on a visual pipeline like Pipedrive’s. 

But let's examine how to avoid these pitfalls by properly setting up and utilizing your Pipedrive pipeline to its full potential.

👉 Read more:

How to set up your Pipedrive pipeline

Before you can benefit from your Pipedrive's pipeline, you need to configure it in a way that it reflects your sales process. The structure should make it easy to visualize your cycles, track prospect journeys, and access important performance data. Simple, right? Let’s see how to do it in detail.

Creating a new pipeline in Pipedrive

Pipedrive allows you to create multiple pipelines for different sales processes or product lines. Here's how to create a new pipeline:

  1. From inside your Pipedrive dashboard, navigate to the Pipeline section from the left sidebar menu
  2. On the top right, click on the Pipeline dropdown menu to view options
  3. Select + New pipeline
  4. Configure your new pipeline, starting with the name at the top
  5. Add and arrange stages to match your sales process
  6. Click on Save Changes when finished

With multiple pipelines, you can manage different sales processes separately—for example, one pipeline for new business and another for upselling to existing customers.

Customizing your pipeline stages

The most effective Pipedrive pipelines reflect your actual sales process. When defining your stages, consider these best practices:

  • Use the past indefinite tense: For example, "Meeting Agreed" instead of just "Meeting"
  • Create stages that correspond to prospects’ buying process: What has to happen for them to buy from you?
  • Keep it simple but comprehensive: Include all key milestones without making it overly complex

To customize stages in Pipedrive:

  1. Go to the pipeline view and click the pencil icon to the right of the pipeline name
  2. Edit stage attributes like name, probability, and rotting days
  3. Add a new stage using the "+" button between existing stages
  4. Delete unnecessary stages by clicking "Delete Stage" at the bottom of the stage card

Pipedrive is, after all, a pretty ok tool whe it comes to customzing, so you should take advantag of that. Even besides stage names, yo can also tweak Pipedrive custom fields and tailor what information you track for each deal.

Setting up rotting deals in Pipedrive

One of Pipedrive's features is the ability to identify "rotting" deals—opportunities that have been in a stage for too long without activity. This feature helps prevent deals from stagnating in your pipeline. To configure deal rotting, follow the steps:

  1. Go to the pipeline view and click the pencil icon next to the pipeline name
  2. For each stage, you'll see a "Rotting" field where you can specify the number of days
  3. Enter the number of days after which a deal in that stage should be considered "rotting"
  4. Save your changes

Once configured, deals that remain in a stage longer than the specified time without activity will be flagged as "rotting," making it easy to identify opportunities that need attention.

How to view and filter your Pipedrive pipeline

‍

Filtering by owner

The pipeline view displays deals owned by specific users. To filter for deals owned by a particular team member:

  1. Click on the filter button (labeled "Everyone" by default)
  2. Select a specific user to view only their deals
  3. Use this feature for individual performance reviews or to focus on your own pipeline

Using pipeline view options

Pipedrive offers several ways to customize how you view your pipeline:

  • Deal rotting: Toggle this option to highlight deals that have been inactive for too long
  • View by: Switch between viewing deals by title, value, or other parameters
  • Column width: Adjust the width of pipeline stage columns for better visibility
  • Deal cards: Customize what information appears on deal cards in your pipeline

These options help you focus on the information most relevant to your current priorities.

Pipeline statistics

At the bottom of each pipeline stage, Pipedrive displays valuable statistics including:

  • Number of deals in the stage
  • Total value of deals in the stage
  • Conversion rate from this stage to the next

These at-a-glance metrics help you quickly assess the health of your pipeline and identify potential bottlenecks.

How to manage deals in your Pipedrive pipeline

Once your pipeline is set up, the real work begins—effectively managing deals as they progress through your sales process.

Adding new deals to your Pipedrive pipeline

To add a new deal to your pipeline:

  1. Click the + Add button in the top right corner of the pipeline view
  2. Select Deal from the dropdown menu
  3. Enter the deal details including title, value, and organization
  4. Select the appropriate pipeline and stage
  5. Click Save to add the deal to your pipeline

* You can also use Pipedrive's bulk import feature to add multiple deals simultaneously.
** And in addition to manual entry, you can capture leads automatically using Pipedrive web forms embedded on your website, creating new deals instantly when prospects submit their information.

Moving deals between stages

There are several ways to move deals between stages in your pipeline:

  • Drag and drop: Simply click and drag a deal card from one stage to another
  • Deal details: Open a deal and change the stage from the deal details view
  • Automation: Set up workflow automations on Pipedrive to move deals automatically based on activities or other triggers

Moving deals accurately and promptly ensures your pipeline reflects the current state of your sales process.

Understanding deal cards in Pipedrive

Deal cards in the pipeline view provide key information at a glance. By default, they show:

  • Deal title
  • Organization name
  • Deal value
  • Expected close date
  • Deal age
  • Assigned activities

You can customize what appears on deal cards to focus on the information most relevant to your sales process.

Using deal rotting to identify stalled opportunities

The deal rotting feature in Pipedrive helps you identify opportunities that need attention. Deals turn increasingly darker shades of yellow and red the longer they remain in a stage without activity.

This visual indicator makes it easy to spot deals that might be stalling, allowing you to:

  • Prioritize follow-up activities
  • Reassess deal viability
  • Move deals backward if necessary
  • Archive or delete deals that are no longer viable

Regular attention to rotting deals keeps your pipeline clean and focused on winnable opportunities.

How to track activities in your Pipedrive pipeline

Adding activities to deals

Activities in Pipedrive represent the tasks that need to be completed to move deals forward. To add an activity:

  1. Click on a deal in your pipeline
  2. Select the Activities tab
  3. Click + Add activity
  4. Choose the activity type (call, meeting, etc.)
  5. Set a due date and time
  6. Add details and click Save

Each activity is linked to a specific deal, making it easy to see what needs to be done next for each opportunity.

Activity types in Pipedrive

Pipedrive comes with standard activity types like calls, meetings, and tasks, but you can customize these to match any other types your business might have. 

For instance, you might want to might track: 

  • Initial outreach calls when first connecting with prospects
  • Discovery meetings for understanding client needs
  • Proposal presentations for showcasing your solutions 
  • Contract negotiations during the closing phase
  • Follow-up communications throughout the customer journey

Activity view and calendar integration

Pipedrive offers an activity view that shows all scheduled activities across your pipeline. This view can be filtered by:

  • Activity type
  • Date range
  • Deal owner
  • Activity status (completed or pending)

The activity calendar also integrates with external calendars like Google Calendar and Outlook, ensuring all your appointments are synchronized.

How to analyze Pipedrive pipeline’s performance

One of Pipedrive's greatest strengths is its ability to provide meaningful insights into your sales performance through pipeline analytics.

Key Pipedrive pipeline metrics

Pipedrive automatically tracks several critical metrics that help you understand your pipeline performance:

  • Number of deals: How many opportunities are in your pipeline at each stage
  • Value of deals: The total potential revenue in your pipeline
  • Conversion rates: The percentage of deals that move from one stage to the next
  • Average deal age: How long deals typically spend in each stage
  • Win/loss ratio: The percentage of deals that result in won versus lost outcomes

These metrics serve as benchmarks for monitoring current results and predicting future sales trends.

Using Pipedrive's Insights feature

Pipedrive's Insights feature provides more detailed analytics and custom reports. Key Insights reports include:

  • Pipeline conversion: Tracks how deals move through your pipeline stages
  • Sales performance: Analyzes individual and team results
  • Sales cycle: Measures how long deals take to close
  • Sales forecast: Predicts future revenue based on pipeline data

These reports can be customized to focus on specific time periods, deal owners, or other parameters relevant to your business.

Creating custom reports in Pipedrive

For more specialized analysis, Pipedrive allows you to create custom reports:

  1. Go to the Insights section
  2. Click + Add report
  3. Select a report type (bar chart, table, etc.)
  4. Choose the data fields and metrics to include
  5. Apply any necessary filters
  6. Save and name your report

Custom reports can help you answer specific questions about your sales performance and identify areas for improvement.

How to optimize a Pipedrive pipeline

With accurate data in place, you can focus on optimizing your pipeline to improve sales outcomes.

1. Identify and address bottlenecks

Pipedrive's visualization makes it easy to spot bottlenecks—stages where deals tend to pile up or stall. Common bottlenecks include:

  • Too many early-stage deals: This may indicate insufficient qualification or lead quality issues
  • Low conversion at a particular stage: This might reveal a problem with your sales process at that stage
  • Long average time in a stage: This could suggest process inefficiencies or training needs

Once identified, you can address bottlenecks by:

  • Refining your qualification criteria
  • Providing targeted sales training
  • Optimizing your sales process
  • Developing better sales materials

Pipedrive's visualization makes it easy to spot bottlenecks—stages where deals tend to pile up or stall. Common bottlenecks include too many early-stage deals, which may indicate insufficient qualification or lead quality issues; low conversion at a particular stage, which might reveal a problem with part of your sales cycle; and long average time in a stage, which could suggest process inefficiencies or training needs. 

Once identified, you can address these issues by refining your qualification criteria, providing targeted sales training, or developing better sales materials.

2. Improve conversion rates between stages

You can see conversion rates as well between each pipeline stage, which helps to identify where deals are falling out of your pipeline. 

To improve those conversion rates, you can try analyzing deals that successfully moved through the problematic stage, and compare them with deals that stalled or were lost. Yo can also identify the differences in approach or circumstances, then develop and test new strategies for that specific stage. Monitor results and refine as needed. Even small improvements in stage conversion rates can significantly impact overall sales performance.

3. Conduct effective reviews of Pipedrive’s pipeline

Regular pipeline reviews will help you achieve more consistent performance. And on Pipedrive, these reviews have that same visual nature of the pipeline and the available data.

For manager-salesperson reviews:

  1. Filter the pipeline to show only the salesperson's deals
  2. Sort by deal age or value to prioritize discussion
  3. Review rotting deals to address stalled opportunities
  4. Discuss conversion rates at problematic stages
  5. Set specific activity goals for the coming period

For team reviews:

  1. Use the unfiltered pipeline to show all deals
  2. Highlight overall metrics and trends
  3. Discuss common challenges and share success strategies
  4. Identify team-wide improvement opportunities
  5. Celebrate wins and progress

Regular, data-driven reviews ensure continuous improvement in your sales process.

Forecasting with your Pipedrive pipeline

Accurate pipeline forecasts in Pipedrive have the power to inform key business decisions across multiple areas. 

They guide resource allocation decisions, helping you determine whether to hire additional sales staff based on projected workload and revenue; they can inform marketing investments by identifying optimal timing for ramping up lead generation efforts; they help planning your business’s finances with essential visibility for cash flow management, allowing you to prepare for upcoming revenue fluctuations rather than being surprised by them; or they can help with strategic growth initiatives by letting you time expansion plans and align them with projected revenue increases. 

Weighted pipeline forecasting in Pipedrive

Pipedrive allows you to assign probability percentages to each stage in your pipeline, enabling weighted forecasting that provides more realistic revenue projections. Basically, the system multiplies each deal value by its stage probability, then sums these weighted values. 

That calculation generates an expected revenue figure based on historical conversion rates rather than raw pipeline totals. 

For example: if you have a $10,000 deal in a stage with 50% probability, the pipeline will tell you that that deal contributes $5,000 to your weighted forecast rather than the full amount, giving you a more accurate picture of likely outcomes. That’s actually 

Forecast accuracy factors in Pipedrive

  • Stage probability settings: How accurately your probabilities reflect actual conversion rates
  • Expected close dates: How reliably your team sets and updates these dates
  • Deal values: How accurately deal values are estimated and updated
  • Pipeline hygiene: How diligently stalled or lost deals are moved or removed

Pipedrive pipeline: Integrating with other tools

Yes, the Pipedrive's native functionality is already pretty good. But integrations with other tools can help you manage your pipeline.

Essential Pipedrive integrations

Pipedrive integrations have great potential to extend the platform's capabilties, with many options available through its marketplace. Here's some popular examples:

  • Email platforms: Gmail, Outlook, and others for email sync and tracking
  • Communication tools: Slack, Teams, and similar platforms for team collaboration
  • Marketing automation: Tools like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign are a good way to go about marketing automation on Pipedrive
  • Document management: DocuSign, PandaDoc, and similar services for proposals and contracts
  • Financial software: QuickBooks, Xero, and other accounting tools for billing and revenue tracking

These integrations help create a seamless workflow across your business tools.

Using Pipedrive's API for custom integrations

For more specialized needs, Pipedrive offers an API that allows for custom integrations. This enables you to:

  • Connect Pipedrive with proprietary or niche software
  • Build custom applications that leverage Pipedrive data
  • Create specialized automations between Pipedrive and other systems
  • Develop unique reports or dashboards pulling from Pipedrive

If your business has unique requirements, the API provides flexibility to address them.

Integrating scheduling tools with Pipedrive

Meeting scheduling is a critical part of many sales processes, and tools like Zeeg can integrate with Pipedrive to really improve this aspect of your pipeline management:

  1. Eliminate scheduling friction: Allow prospects to book meetings directly through the calendar tool your company already uses, reducing back-and-forth emails
  2. Update deal stages: Automatically move deals to the next stage when meetings are booked or completed
  3. Create activities: Generate Pipedrive activities based on scheduled meetings
  4. Reduce no-shows: Send automated reminders for upcoming meetings
  5. Capture meeting notes: Record conversation details directly in Pipedrive

These integrations help maintain pipeline momentum by making it easier to schedule and document important customer interactions.

Try Zeeg now

Other Pipedrive pipeline techniques

Once you've mastered the basics, these advanced techniques can help you get even more from your Pipedrive pipeline.

Using multiple pipelines effectively

Pipedrive allows you to create multiple pipelines for different sales processes. Consider using separate pipelines for:

  • Different product lines or service offerings
  • New business versus existing customer expansion
  • Geographic regions or market segments
  • Simple versus complex sales processes

When using multiple pipelines, ensure consistent naming conventions and define clear criteria for which pipeline to use for each opportunity.

Pipeline automation in Pipedrive

Pipedrive's workflow automation helps streamline repetitive tasks:

  1. Go to Settings > Workflow automation
  2. Create new automations based on triggers and actions
  3. Common automations include:
    • Moving deals to the next stage when specific activities are completed
    • Assigning follow-up tasks when deals reach certain stages
    • Sending internal notifications when high-value deals progress
    • Creating activities based on deal stage changes

Well-designed automations ensure consistency in your process while reducing manual work.

Team management with Pipedrive pipelines

For sales managers, Pipedrive's pipeline view provides powerful team management capabilities:

  • Performance tracking: Compare individual conversion rates and velocities
  • Workload balancing: See how many active deals each team member is managing
  • Coaching opportunities: Identify specific stages where individuals struggle
  • Resource allocation: Assign new leads based on capacity and performance
  • Goal tracking: Monitor progress toward individual and team targets

These capabilities help managers develop their team while ensuring optimal results.

Common mistakes when managing a Pipedrive pipeline

Even with Pipedrive's intuitive interface, sales teams can fall into these common pitfalls:

1. Creating too many or too few pipeline stages

Too many stages make your pipeline cluttered and complex, while too few stages provide insufficient visibility into your sales process. Aim for 5-7 stages that represent meaningful milestones in your sales journey.

2. Neglecting pipeline hygiene

Failing to update deal information, move stalled deals, or remove lost opportunities distorts your pipeline view and forecasts. Implement regular cleaning processes to maintain accuracy.

3. Inconsistent stage definitions

When team members interpret pipeline stages differently, data becomes unreliable. Create clear definitions and examples for each stage, and ensure everyone follows them consistently.

4. Focusing solely on late-stage deals

While closing deals is important, neglecting early-stage pipeline development leads to future gaps in your pipeline. Balance attention across all stages of your process.

5. Manual data entry overload

Requiring excessive manual data entry leads to poor adoption and incomplete information. Use Pipedrive's automation features and integrations to minimize manual work.

By avoiding these mistakes and implementing the practices outlined in this guide, you can develop a Pipedrive pipeline that drives consistent results.

Conclusion

Pipedrive's pipeline view offers a powerful way to visualize, manage, and optimize your sales process. By creating a well-structured pipeline, maintaining it diligently, and regularly analyzing your performance data, you can increase close rates, shorten sales cycles, and grow your revenue predictably.

Remember these key takeaways:

  • Design your Pipedrive pipeline to reflect your actual sales process
  • Use pipeline metrics to monitor performance and identify improvement opportunities
  • Regularly clean your pipeline of stagnant deals using the rotting feature
  • Conduct consistent pipeline reviews to ensure team alignment and continuous improvement
  • Leverage integrations to improve Pipedrive's native capabilities

With these principles in place—and the right supporting tools—you'll be well-equipped to master Pipedrive pipeline management and drive your business forward.

And while this guide focuses on maximizing your results with Pipedrive, it's worth noting that Pipedrive alternatives exist on the market, though few offer the same visual pipeline-centric approach to sales management.

Also, if you want to ramp up your sales process by generating more leads, consider how scheduling tools like Zeeg can help with your meeting workflows, making your Pipedrive pipeline moving smoothly. By combining effective pipeline management with efficient scheduling, you can create a sales machine that consistently delivers results. Prospects easily book meetings like demo calls, and you can follow these things on your Pipedrive pipeline.

Try Zeeg now