Most gym pipelines have too many stages and not enough triggers. A pipeline isn't a graveyard for old leads — it's a forcing function for the next action. Six stages, clear triggers, ruthless cleanup. That's it.
1. New Lead
Lead captured. Auto-text fired. SLA: five minutes to first human contact. If a lead sits here over 24 hours, it's lost — close it, learn from it, move on.
2. Tour Booked
Date on the calendar. Reminder automation active. Trigger to move out: tour completed (not just scheduled). A tour that no-shows resets to New Lead with a re-engagement task.
3. Trial Started
Pass redeemed, first class booked. Trigger: trial wraps up within agreed window. Anything sitting here past the trial end date is a process leak — find which staffer it is, fix the workflow.
4. Offer Sent
Membership agreement delivered, follow-up sequence running. Most prospects die in this stage. Watch the time-in-stage report weekly. Anything over 14 days = call personally or close-lost. No middle ground.
5. Verbal Yes
Prospect committed verbally but agreement not signed. Automation fires DocuSign plus first-payment link. SLA: signed within 72 hours or back to offer-sent stage. Verbal yes is not a sale until paper says so.
6. Closed Won
Agreement signed, first payment collected. Hands off to onboarding. Pipeline job done. Trigger automation: post-class review request, 30-day check-in, anniversary thank-you.
What NOT to track as stages
- →'Thinking about it' — it's not a stage, it's a stalled offer
- →'Waiting for paycheck' — that's a re-engagement task with a date
- →'Cold' — leads aren't cold, follow-up is. Re-engage or close-lost
- →'Maybe next year' — close-lost with a 6-month re-engagement task
The metrics that matter
- →Conversion rate stage-to-stage
- →Average time-in-stage
- →Trial-to-member ratio by sales rep / coach
- →Source ROI by closed-won (not lead count)
Pipelines aren't about tracking what happened. They're about forcing what happens next.