13 Best Sales Pipeline Templates to Streamline Your Sales Process

An effective sales pipeline is crucial for managing leads, forecasting revenue, and streamlining the sales process. The right sales pipeline template can provide structure, ensure no opportunities are missed, and help sales teams work collaboratively towards closing deals.

In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about sales pipeline templates:

What is a sales pipeline and why is it important?
Steps to create an effective sales pipeline
How pre-built templates can boost sales
Overview of 13 best pipeline templates

What is a Sales Pipeline and Why is it Important?

A sales pipeline tracks leads from initial contact to closed deal. It visualizes the journey prospects go through, outlining key actions at each stage.

An effective pipeline provides many benefits:

Revenue forecasting: Tracking deal values and probabilities allows you to predict income. This aids budgeting and resource planning.
Identifying gaps: Seeing an overview of all leads lets you pinpoint blockages or weaknesses impacting conversion rates.
Performance tracking: Monitoring individual and team contributions assists in managing and motivating sales staff.
Optimized processes: Understanding exactly what happens at each step allows you to improve efficiency.
Enhanced customer relationships: Structured follow-ups and communications prevent opportunities being missed and builds engagement.

In summary, a solid sales pipeline is vital for growth. It brings sales processes, teams and tools together to capitalize on every lead.

How to Create an Effective Sales Pipeline

Constructing a results-driven pipeline takes planning and continued optimization. Follow these key steps:

1. Map Your Sales Process

Outline exactly what happens from initial contact to closed deal. Common stages include:

Lead generation
Lead qualification
Initial consultation
Proposal
Negotiation
Closed sale

Clearly define actions, stakeholders and tools at each phase.

2. Set Progression Criteria

Determine what needs to happen for leads to advance through the pipeline. This may include:

Scoring leads based on profile fit
Nurturing actions taken e.g. content downloads
Booking consultations
Gaining proposal acceptance

Create standards so leads only progress when ready.

3. Implement Tracking

Put metrics and owner accountability against pipeline stages and individual deals. Tracking keeps things moving and allows forecasting.

4. Continually Optimize

Regularly review reports to identify enhancements. Are some stages overloaded? Do proposals convert poorly? Pipeline analysis guides improvement.

5. Choose Supporting Tools

CRM, marketing automation and sales enablement tools to facilitate pipeline tasks. Integrations between platforms also aid efficiency.

Constructing an end-to-end pipeline takes work but pays dividends through slicker sales processes.

How Pre-Built Sales Pipeline Templates Can Increase Sales

While building your own pipeline has advantages, pre-made templates have benefits too:

Proven models – Tried and tested pipeline structures and stages.

Process efficiency – Codified best practices that enhance sales team coordination.

Time savings – No need to build from scratch or figure out complex setup steps.

Tracking features – Preconfigured reports and dashboards surface key insights.

Encourages consistency – Embedded standard steps, fields and actions unite sales teams.

In short, templates let you leverage industry expertise to quickly implement an effective system tailored to your business. Let‘s examine some top options.

13 Best Sales Pipeline Template Tools

1. Atlassian

Atlassian‘s Jira helps sales teams manage the entire deal process within a flexible Kanban-style board. Key features include:

Customizable deal stages and sales workflows
Multiple views like boards, calendars and Gantt charts
Timeline tracking at global and individual deal levels
Notes, file attachments and activity logging
Permissions, automation rules and advanced search

If your team loves visual boards and process flexibility, Jira is a great pick.

2. Bitrix24

Bitrix24 makes it simple to map then manage pipeline deals across teams, attaching files, logging calls and tracking progress. Benefits include:

Set up custom pipelines for different products or customer types
Auto-assign deals based on criteria like geography or lead source
Custom fields and deal scoring to capture key data
Dashboards, reports and notifications highlight bottlenecks
Deep integrations with telephony, email and calendar

Bitrix24 excels at deal-centric sales management backed by CRM power.

3. HubSpot

HubSpot‘s flexible CRM manages pipelines through its sales hub. Notable features cover:

Drag and drop deal stage management
Custom field creation to capture vital intel
Contact and company record syncing
Scheduled and ad-hoc pipeline reports
Email and calendar integration plus sales templates
Sequences and playbooks to automate deals

For small business CRM users, HubSpot offers an easy on-ramp to pipeline management.

4. monday.com

monday.com‘s pipeline template tracks lead capture right through to revenue forecasting on an easy to configure board. Benefits include:

Dashboard tracking of deal status, assignees and value
Lead and contact database to track interactions
Link email and other apps to centralize communications
Automate repetitive admin tasks
Mobile apps keep field teams updated

monday.com allows complete pipeline visibility and management through its board interface.

5. Smartsheet

Smartsheet‘s template structures pipeline around key milestones from leads to closure. It captures essential data like contact details, lead source, projected value and win probability. Users praise features like:

Formula driven win probability ratings
Color-coded project timelines and Gantt views
Automatic notifications on ownership changes
Custom fields for product details, region etc
Full mobile compatibility

For spreadsheet lovers, Smartsheet offers a familiar pipeline planning environment.

6. ClickUp

ClickUp‘s pipeline consolidates communications, documents and tasks into punchy pipeline boards. Benefits include:

Central organized dashboard of all deal interactions
Calendar view of critical dates and activities
File storage for fast access to quotes, briefs etc
Dependencies show how delays risk downstream stages
Click apps extend functionality to 1,400+ tools

If seamless visibility into deals is key, ClickUp is a top choice.

7. Spreadsheet.com

For Excel devotees, Spreadsheet.com‘s sales pipeline template offers a familiar environment. It centralizes account, contact and deal details alongside key metrics like confidence and projected value. Benefits include:

Relationships between account, contact and deal data
Summary dashboard highlighting bottlenecks
Formula driven win probability and revenue forecast
Date tracking for quick overview of urgent deals
Easy exporting of views into other systems

Spreadsheet.com suits users wanting air-tight pipeline data without migrating off Excel.

8. Airtable

Airtable‘s flexible database platform allows full pipeline customization around deals. Notably it offers:

Pipeline and card views of deal progression
Custom fields for estimated value, source etc
Deals linked to Account and Contacts tables
Calendar, map and Gantt chart summaries
Automations to trigger actions

For non-technical users, Airtable enables intuitive pipeline building and management.

9. Salesmate

Salesmate‘s free template structures the conventional funnel while allowing stage tweaking. Benefits include:

Customization of sales process stages
Structured data capture for contacts and accounts
Pipeline performance dashboard
Win probability ratings to refine forecasting
Easy export capability

Salesmate offers a sound foundation for early stage pipeline experimentation.

10. Salesflare

Salesflare‘s Excel-based funnel template helps track deal metrics and sales team progress. Features cover:

Pipeline stages analysis dashboard
Sales rep performance tracking
CRM data integration capability
Automated win probability calculation
Lead status indicators and alerts

For insights into pipeline efficiency, Salesflare‘s template provides key foundations.

11. Asana

Asana‘s pipeline builder simplifies deal tracking across customizable stages on their project boards. Benefits include:

Central organized deal boards to coordinate teams
Custom fields to capture critical data
Calendar view aligns deal deadlines
Segment views highlight bottlenecks
Rules and notifications keep things moving

If your teams already use Asana, this template plugs into existing workflows.

12. Todoist

Todoist‘s pipeline template applies task management features to sales deal progress. Useful elements include:

Stages as sequential Todoist projects
Labels track deal attributes like size or source
Task assignments match deals to owners
Activity log captures deal interactions
Notifications prompt action

For simple yet structured deal tracking, Todoist is a handy option.

13. Pipefy

Pipefy‘s pipeline manages complex funnels with visual boards, customizable fields and insights. Capabilities span:

Dashboard for real-time pipeline analysis
Customizable deal stages and fields
Integrations with CRMs, email and docs
Segmentation to analyze niche pipelines
Graphical reports and funnel performance

For advanced pipeline needs, Pipefy delivers with boards plus analytics.

Key Takeaways

An organized sales pipeline is crucial for capitalizing on all revenue opportunities and forecasting accurately. While building homegrown funnels has advantages, pre-made templates enable quick implementation and proven structures.

Carefully evaluate requirements around tracking, integrations, data and user environments when selecting templates. Continually refine your pipeline using built-in or third party analytics.

With the right sales pipeline setup, your revenue operations will shift up multiple gears. Let consolidated visibility and efficiency improvements rapidly impact your bottom line.