What is a pipeline stage in a private equity CRM?
Answer in brief
A pipeline stage is a named step in a firm's deal process, such as screening, diligence or LOI, with clear entry criteria so every deal sits in exactly one. Stages turn a list of companies into a process you can measure. Good stages are few, defined by events rather than feelings, and dated when a deal enters them.
What a pipeline stage means in practice
A stage answers one question: what has happened on this deal? "Excited" is not a stage. "Management meeting held" is. Event-based criteria let two people look at the same deal and agree where it sits.
A typical private equity pipeline has six to eight stages:
- Received: teaser or introduction logged.
- Screening: NDA signed or materials under review.
- First meeting: call or meeting with management held.
- IOI: indication of interest submitted.
- Diligence: data room access and work underway.
- LOI: letter of intent signed.
- Closed won or Passed, with a reason.
Illustration: A mid-market buyout team had a stage called "Interesting". Half the pipeline sat there for months. They replaced it with "First meeting held" and required a meeting date. The stage emptied within weeks as associates either logged the meeting or passed on the deal.
How a pipeline stage shows up in a CRM
In a CRM, the stage is a picklist on the deal record. The important detail is history: the system should store the date a deal entered each stage, not only the current stage. Without that, you cannot measure time in stage or conversion.
- Fields: stage, stage entry date, owner, next step, pass reason.
- Reports: pipeline by stage, conversion between stages, average days in stage, deals stuck past a threshold.
- Views: a board for the weekly pipeline meeting, filtered by owner or sector.
Stage updates are where CRMs often fall behind reality. Make one person responsible for each deal's stage, review stale deals at the start of every pipeline meeting, and move anything untouched for a set period to Passed or back to Screening with a note. Capture from email helps keep records current: Canteris, which publishes this reference, fills the CRM from Microsoft 365 email.
Questions & answers
How many pipeline stages should a private equity firm use?
Six to eight is common. Fewer than five hides useful detail. More than ten usually means some stages are not distinct events.
Should passed deals have their own stage?
Yes. A Passed stage with a required reason keeps the active pipeline clean and lets you learn from what the team turned down.
Do venture and buyout teams need different stages?
The steps differ, but a firm should still keep one stage list per strategy and avoid individual variations that break firm-wide reporting.
Sources for this entry
- CanterisSupports the description of Canteris filling the CRM from Microsoft 365 email.
Continue this reading path
- Pipeline management CRMA pipeline management CRM tracks each deal from sourced to closed with clear entry and exit criteria per stage, so reviews and reports stay accurate.
- Deal management softwareDeal management software runs the work inside each deal: tasks, documents, team roles, IC memos, diligence tracking, approvals and an audit trail.
- Letter of intentA letter of intent sets out a buyer's price, structure, conditions and exclusivity in a private equity deal. What an LOI covers and how a CRM tracks it.
- Data roomA data room is a secure online space where a seller shares confidential documents with buyers during diligence. How it relates to your CRM and pipeline.
- Deal flow (definition)Deal flow is the stream of opportunities a private equity firm sees, from first contact to a decision. What it means and how a CRM should record it.
Cite this entry
Private Equity CRM. “Pipeline stage.” Canteris Reference, published by Canteris. Updated . https://privateequitycrm.com/glossary/pipeline-stage/