July 24, 2025
If your pipeline’s full of dusty, dead-end deals, it’s not a pipeline — it’s a graveyard. And that graveyard is killing your forecasting, slowing down your sales team, and making your CRM harder to trust.
Cleaning it up doesn’t take a total overhaul. Just a few simple habits and systems can turn that bloated mess into a pipeline that actually reflects what’s going on — and helps you close more deals, faster.
Here’s how to spot stale deals and fix the real issues behind them.
1. Tighten up your deal stages
When deal stages are vague or bloated, your pipeline becomes a guessing game. Fix it by making every stage count.
Map stages to real buying behavior
Don’t create a deal just because someone filled out a form or answered your cold email. Wait until there’s a real conversation happening.
If the buyer hasn’t shown intent, they don’t belong in the pipeline yet.
Use clear, action-based names
"Proposal Sent" is better than "Late Stage." One tells you what happened. The other doesn't.
Ditch vague labels like "Working" or "In Progress." Make it obvious what’s going on.
Set rules for each stage
Decide what has to happen before a deal moves forward. For example, you don’t enter “Negotiation” unless pricing’s been discussed. You can help ensure this information is known by requiring properties in the Deal pipeline.
Keep the stage list short
Most solid pipelines work with 6–8 stages. More than that and things get messy fast.
Review your setup quarterly
Your sales process isn’t static. Revisit the stage names and logic every few months. Ask your team what’s working and what’s slowing them down.
Read more about HubSpot deal stages.
2. Put time limits on deals
If deals are sitting in your pipeline for weeks without movement, they’re probably dead weight. Time-based rules help clean that up.
Set time limits per stage
For instance, you can set a rule that no deal should sit in “Proposal Sent” for more than 14 days without a response. You don’t need to enforce it with an iron fist — but it should raise a flag. This can take the form of a Deal tag, notification, and/or placement on a report.
Track “time in stage”
Track time in stage using reports from the Sales Analytics area or create your own using the “Date Entered Stage” property. Once you’ve got the data, it’s easier to spot the ones that need attention.
Use workflows to catch stuck deals
Build automations that send reminders or create tasks when a deal goes quiet — to the Sales rep, their manager, or both.
Build reports to spot patterns
- Show all deals with no activity in the last 10 days.
- Track average time spent in each stage.
- Share these with the team so everyone’s on the same page.
3. Run regular pipeline reviews
If you’re not reviewing your pipeline regularly, you’re flying blind. These reviews keep things clean, current, and moving.
Meet weekly or bi-weekly
Short, focused meetings beat long, aimless ones. Look at what’s new, what’s stuck, and what needs to be closed or followed up.
Have a simple agenda for pipeline review
- What’s moving forward?
- What’s stalled or gone cold?
- What’s at risk and why?
- Any deals we should just close out?
Look for patterns, not just deal updates
- Are deals always stalling at the same stage?
- Is one rep hoarding old deals?
- Are we seeing delays after handoffs or proposals?
Assign actions, not just opinions
Every deal discussed should end with: Keep it moving, re-engage, or close it out. Make sure those follow-ups actually happen before the next review. If reps are feeling uncertain about closing out a Deal, introduce Closed Lost Reasons in a dropdown format. This makes it easy to select why the Deal was closed for later follow up and/or nurturing.
Keep it honest and helpful
This isn’t a blame game. It’s about building a more accurate, easier-to-close pipeline. Give reps space to flag what's working — or not working — about the current process.
Ready to clean up your pipeline?
A messy pipeline full of stale deals doesn’t just slow things down — it skews your reporting, hurts forecasting, and wastes your team’s time. With the right deal stage setup, time-based rules, and regular reviews, you can turn your HubSpot pipeline into a reliable source of truth.
Need help cleaning up your HubSpot portal or optimizing your deal pipeline? We specialize in helping teams like yours get more value — and revenue — out of HubSpot. Let’s fix what’s slowing you down.
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