# Define sales stages with clear exit criteria

Opportunity stage definitions with buyer-verified exit criteria, required CRM fields, and probabilities your whole team applies the same way.

- Topic: Projects & Operations
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Sales, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/define-sales-stages-with-clear-exit-criteria

## Prompt

```text
Help me define (or redefine) our opportunity stages.

**What we sell and typical cycle:** [PRODUCT, deal size, cycle length, buyers involved]
**Current stages:** [paste our stage names and definitions, or "none yet"]
**Problems we see:** [e.g. reps advance deals too early, stages mean different things to different reps, forecast inaccurate]
**Sales motions:** [e.g. new business, expansion, renewal, partner-sourced]
**CRM:** [e.g. Salesforce, HubSpot, other]

Design 5-7 stages. For each stage give:
- Name and one-sentence purpose.
- Exit criteria written as buyer actions or verified facts, not rep activities (e.g. "economic buyer confirmed budget range in a meeting", not "sent proposal").
- Required CRM fields to move forward.
- Typical artifacts (e.g. mutual action plan, business case).
- Suggested default probability, with a note to calibrate against our historical stage-to-close rates.
- Common misuse to watch for.

Also include:
- How to handle closed-lost reasons (a short, mutually exclusive picklist).
- Whether expansion or renewal needs different stages.
- A rollout plan: training, CRM changes, how to re-stage existing open deals, and how managers enforce it in pipeline reviews.
- A one-page reference card reps can keep open.

Return it as a table plus the supporting sections.
```

## What to fill in

- PRODUCT, deal size, cycle length, buyers involved
- paste our stage names and definitions, or "none yet"
- e.g. new business, expansion, renewal, partner-sourced
- e.g. Salesforce, HubSpot, other

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.