Short answer
Sales funnel stages are the steps buyers pass through from first hearing of you to signing. In B2B they're typically awareness, interest (a lead), consideration (marketing qualified), sales qualified, opportunity, proposal and closed won. Each stage has a conversion rate to the next, and multiplying the rates gives your overall rate from lead to customer. Working them backward from a revenue target tells you how many prospects each stage needs.
- The funnel describes the buyer's progress; the sales process describes what the seller does.
- Overall conversion is the product of the stage rates: 30% × 30% × 50% × 60% × 40% is 1.08%.
- A five-point gain lifts customers most at the stage with the lowest rate.
- Measure each stage on the same cohort of leads, or long cycles will distort the rates.
- From sales qualified onward, count accounts as well as people.
On this page
This page is for marketers, sales leaders and RevOps analysts who want a clear set of funnel stages, entry criteria for each, and the arithmetic that turns them into a plan. It's about the buyer's progress through the funnel. For the seller's side, the steps reps follow, see the stages of the sales process.
What the sales funnel is
A sales funnel is a model of how many potential buyers reach each stage on the way to becoming customers, and how many drop out between stages. It's wide at the top, where many people become aware of you, and narrow at the bottom, where a few sign.
The funnel counts flow: how many leads entered this quarter, how many moved on, how many were lost. The sales pipeline is a different view of the later stages: the value of the open deals being worked today.
The B2B sales funnel stages
| Stage | Where the buyer is | Enters the stage when | Usually owned by | Marketing label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Awareness | Knows you exist | Reached by content, an ad, an event or outreach | Marketing | Top of funnel (TOFU) |
| 2. Interest (lead) | Has engaged | Gives contact details or replies, and fits your profile | Marketing or SDR | TOFU |
| 3. Consideration (MQL) | Researching solutions | Meets your scoring threshold for fit and engagement | Marketing | Middle of funnel (MOFU) |
| 4. Sales qualified (SQL) | Has confirmed a need with a seller | A seller confirms the problem, a person involved in buying and a reason to act | SDR or AE | MOFU to bottom (BOFU) |
| 5. Opportunity | Evaluating options | Discovery is done and a deal is created with a value | Account executive | BOFU |
| 6. Proposal | Deciding | A proposal has reached the decision maker | Account executive | BOFU |
| 7. Closed won | Customer | The contract is signed | Account executive |
After closed won, many teams add retention and expansion stages, so revenue from existing customers sits in the same model. The number of stages matters less than writing down an entry criterion for each, based on something the buyer did. The MQL vs SQL entry explains how to set the criteria for stages 3 and 4.
Marketing funnel stages
Marketing teams often use a simpler three-part version of the same funnel:
| Marketing stage | Matches sales stages | Typical content and actions |
|---|---|---|
| Top of funnel (TOFU) | Awareness, interest | Articles, social posts, ads, events, first outreach |
| Middle of funnel (MOFU) | Consideration, early sales qualified | Guides, webinars, case studies, comparisons |
| Bottom of funnel (BOFU) | Opportunity, proposal | Demos, trials, pricing, references, proposals |
The older AIDA model (attention, interest, desire, action) describes the same narrowing in advertising terms. Whatever labels you use, marketing and sales should share one set of stage definitions so their numbers add up.
The conversion maths
Stage conversion rate = buyers who reach the next stage ÷ buyers who entered this stage
Overall conversion rate = the stage rates multiplied together
Worked example
Illustrative example. The company and rates are invented to show the arithmetic.
Harbor Water Technologies (harborwater.example) makes water treatment equipment for industrial plants. Its average new deal is $80,000. Last year's cohort of leads moved through the funnel like this:
| Stage | Conversion to the next stage | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Leads | 30% become MQLs | 3,000 |
| MQLs | 30% become SQLs | 900 |
| SQLs | 50% become opportunities | 270 |
| Opportunities | 60% reach proposal | 135 |
| Proposals | 40% are won | 81 |
| Customers | 32.4 |
Overall: 0.30 × 0.30 × 0.50 × 0.60 × 0.40 = 1.08%, about one customer for every 93 leads. Revenue: 32.4 × $80,000 = about $2.6M.
Planning backward. To win 40 customers next year at the same rates, Harbor needs 40 ÷ 0.0108 = about 3,700 leads, or 23% more than this year. If that many fitting leads don't exist, the plan has to come from better conversion instead.
Where a gain is worth most. Here's what a five-point improvement at each stage does:
| Change | New rate | Relative lift | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 32.4 | ||
| Lead to MQL, 30% to 35% | 35% | +16.7% | 37.8 |
| MQL to SQL, 30% to 35% | 35% | +16.7% | 37.8 |
| SQL to opportunity, 50% to 55% | 55% | +10.0% | 35.6 |
| Opportunity to proposal, 60% to 65% | 65% | +8.3% | 35.1 |
| Proposal to won, 40% to 45% | 45% | +12.5% | 36.4 |
The same five points are worth twice as much at a 30% stage as at a 60% one, because the relative lift is bigger where the rate is lower. Harbor's weakest stages are early: deciding which leads deserve sales' attention. Better fit at the top of the funnel usually moves those rates more than better closing at the bottom. Bebop finds companies that match a plain-language description of your best customers and explains why each one fits, so more of the leads entering the funnel are worth working.
Count accounts, not only people
B2B purchases are made by groups. Forrester's survey of nearly 18,000 business buyers found that, on average, 13 internal stakeholders and nine external participants influence a purchase. Five downloads from one company aren't five leads in any useful sense. Count people at the top of the funnel if you like, but from sales qualified onward count accounts, or one busy company will inflate every rate above it.
Measure it honestly
- Follow a cohort. Divide the SQLs that came from January's MQLs by January's MQLs. Dividing this month's SQLs by this month's MQLs mixes cohorts, and with a long cycle it can even show more than 100%.
- Track time in each stage as well as conversion. A stage that converts well but takes three months is still a bottleneck.
- Don't let deals skip stages. In Ebsta's 2024 benchmark report, built from 4.2 million opportunities at 530 companies, 29% of opportunities skipped a stage, and those that did were 46% less likely to close.
- Keep the definitions fixed. Changing what counts as an MQL halfway through a year makes the rates meaningless.
Common mistakes
- Treating the funnel and the sales process as the same thing. One tracks the buyer, the other the seller's steps.
- Reporting only volume. A bigger top of funnel with worse conversion can produce fewer customers.
- Benchmarking against someone else's rates. Definitions differ too much. Compare with your own previous cohorts.
- Ignoring lost reasons. Every stage should record why buyers dropped out.
Next step: map what your reps do at each stage with the stages of the sales process.
Sources
- The State Of Business Buying: Risk-Averse Buyers Demand Proof, Not Promises, Forrester, 21 January 2026
- B2B Sales Benchmark Report 2024, Ebsta, February 2024
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Last updated .
Questions people ask
What are the stages of a sales funnel?
A common B2B sales funnel has seven stages: awareness, interest (a lead), consideration (marketing qualified lead), sales qualified lead, opportunity, proposal and closed won. Many teams add retention and expansion after the sale. Simpler models use four or five stages. What matters most is a written entry criterion for each stage, based on something the buyer did, so marketing and sales count the same way.
What are the marketing funnel stages?
Marketing usually splits the funnel into three parts: top of funnel (TOFU), where buyers become aware of you; middle of funnel (MOFU), where they research and compare solutions; and bottom of funnel (BOFU), where they evaluate vendors and decide. These map onto the sales funnel: awareness and interest at the top, consideration in the middle, opportunity and proposal at the bottom.
How do you calculate sales funnel conversion rates?
For each stage, divide the number of buyers who reached the next stage by the number who entered the stage, using the same cohort of leads. Multiply the stage rates to get the overall rate. For example, 30% × 30% × 50% × 60% × 40% gives 1.08%, about one customer per 93 leads. Divide a customer target by the overall rate to find the leads you need.
What is the difference between a sales funnel and a sales pipeline?
A sales funnel shows how many buyers move from one stage to the next, from awareness to closed won, and the conversion rate between each stage. A sales pipeline shows the open deals your team is working right now, by stage and value. The funnel answers how efficiently buyers convert; the pipeline answers what's likely to close and whether there's enough of it.
Which funnel stage should I improve first?
Usually the stage with the lowest conversion rate, because the same gain in percentage points gives a bigger relative lift there. Raising a 30% stage by five points lifts customers by about 17%; raising a 60% stage by five points lifts them by about 8%. Check time in stage too: a stage where buyers wait for months can matter more than its conversion rate suggests.