Most sales pipelines are broken. And the worst part is, nobody on your team is running it the same way.

Get Steve's Inbound Email: https://steveolsongroup.com/email/

Work with Steve 1 on 1: https://steveolsongroup.com/contact-steve/

In this episode, I break down the exact 6-stage sales pipeline we install for consulting clients across professional services — mortgage, real estate, finance, coaching, advertising sales, and more. This is the paint-by-numbers framework that simplifies your entire sales process, gets new reps profitable faster, and gives you the reporting you need to scale predictably.

What we cover:

• Why a complicated pipeline is costing you more than just lost deals
• The 6 stages every service business sales pipeline needs
• How to handle ghosted appointments without losing the lead
• When to move a deal to lost vs. back to nurture
• The onboarding phase most businesses skip and why it matters
• How HubSpot sales playbooks automate the whole thing

If your pipeline has 17 stages and every rep interprets it differently, this one's for you.

Timestamps:

00:00 Why most sales pipelines are broken

01:15 How a complicated pipeline increases turnover and commission costs

03:58 The paint-by-numbers pipeline framework overview

04:10 Stage 1: New Inquiry

04:18 Stage 2: In Follow Up

04:33 Stage 3: Nurture

04:39 Stage 4: Appointment Set

04:49 Stage 5: Decision

04:59 Stage 6: Onboarding and Active Client

27:29 How to handle no-shows and ghosted appointments

28:56 The Active Client and Delivery phase

29:49 Lost vs. Canceled deals

30:48 Why HubSpot is the CRM we recommend

31:00 How HubSpot sales playbooks power the whole pipeline

33:02 When to build separate pipelines 34:31 Recap and next steps