How to Build a Custom Sales Pipeline in Keap CRM to Track Your Deals

For any growing business, effectively tracking your sales opportunities is paramount to consistent revenue generation and strategic forecasting. A disorganized sales process leads to missed follow-ups, lost deals, and an inability to pinpoint bottlenecks. Keap CRM offers robust capabilities to build a custom sales pipeline that perfectly mirrors your unique sales cycle, ensuring no lead falls through the cracks and every opportunity is maximized. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to configure Keap to drive predictable growth.

Step 1: Map Your Current Sales Process

Before touching Keap, articulate your existing sales journey from initial contact to closed-won. Document every stage a prospect moves through—from inquiry, qualification, proposal, negotiation, to successful deal closure. Consider both the typical path and any alternative routes a deal might take. This foundational step is critical because your Keap pipeline should be a digital reflection of your real-world process, not a generic template. Identify key decision points, required actions at each stage, and the information you need to capture. A clear map prevents redundant steps and ensures your CRM supports, rather than dictates, your sales methodology.

Step 2: Access and Configure Keap’s Pipeline Builder

Log into your Keap CRM account and navigate to the “Sales” section, then select “Pipelines.” Here, you’ll find the Pipeline Builder, your command center for creating and customizing deal stages. Keap often provides a default pipeline, but for optimal tracking, creating a new, custom pipeline is recommended. Begin by naming your new pipeline clearly, reflecting its purpose (e.g., “New Business Sales Pipeline” or “Client Upsell Pipeline”). This dedicated builder allows you to drag and drop stages, rename them, and set up the critical parameters that will govern how deals progress. Pay attention to the order of your stages, as this will directly influence your sales team’s workflow.

Step 3: Define and Customize Your Pipeline Stages

Now, translate your mapped sales process into distinct stages within Keap. For each stage you identified in Step 1, create a corresponding stage in Keap’s Pipeline Builder. Give each stage a clear, descriptive name (e.g., “Discovery Call Scheduled,” “Needs Analysis Complete,” “Proposal Sent,” “Negotiation,” “Closed Won/Lost”). For each stage, you can also assign a probability of closing the deal, which aids in accurate forecasting. Consider adding a “Stalled” or “On Hold” stage for deals that require additional information or have temporary delays. The goal is to make each stage title instantly recognizable and actionable for your sales team, minimizing ambiguity and ensuring consistent data entry.

Step 4: Customize Deal Fields and Automation Triggers

Within Keap, “Deal Records” are where you store all relevant information about each opportunity. Customize these fields to capture data essential for your sales process, such as deal value, expected close date, product interest, or lead source. Beyond basic information, leverage Keap’s powerful automation capabilities. For each pipeline stage, consider what actions should automatically occur. For instance, when a deal moves to “Proposal Sent,” trigger an email notification to the sales manager, create a follow-up task for the salesperson, or update a contact tag. When a deal moves to “Closed Won,” initiate an onboarding sequence or celebratory internal notification. This proactive automation reduces manual effort and improves consistency.

Step 5: Implement Deal Creation and Management Workflows

Once your pipeline is built, establish clear workflows for creating and managing deals. Train your sales team on how to consistently create new deal records, assign them to the correct pipeline, and accurately move them through stages. Emphasize the importance of updating deal values and expected close dates regularly. Utilize Keap’s task management features to associate specific actions and deadlines with each deal. Encourage the use of Keap’s notes and activity logs to document all communication and progress, creating a comprehensive history for every opportunity. Consistent adoption of these workflows is crucial for the integrity of your sales data and the effectiveness of your pipeline.

Step 6: Monitor, Analyze, and Optimize Your Pipeline Performance

A custom sales pipeline in Keap is not a set-it-and-forget-it tool. Regularly monitor its performance using Keap’s built-in reporting and dashboard features. Analyze key metrics such as conversion rates between stages, average sales cycle length, deal velocity, and total pipeline value. Identify stages where deals frequently get stuck or drop off, which indicates potential process bottlenecks or training needs. Use these insights to iteratively refine your stages, automation rules, and sales strategies. Continuous optimization ensures your Keap pipeline remains a dynamic, effective tool that truly supports your sales team and drives your business objectives forward.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Keap CRM Implementation for HR & Recruiting: The Data Protection & Business Continuity Checklist