Qualification Stage-Gate Checklist

Each gate lists the exit criteria a deal must clear — and the CRM fields that must be populated — before it can move to the next stage.

Stage 1 → Stage 2: Lead → Qualified / Discovery Scheduled

• Contact has a real, named pain confirmed in their own words (not inferred)
• Contact's role/title confirmed and logged
• Company fits ICP (size, industry, geography) — confirmed, not assumed from list source
• A discovery call is booked with a specific date/time (not "will schedule")
• Required CRM fields: Lead Source, ICP Fit Score, Contact Role

Stage 2 → Stage 3: Discovery Complete → Solution Validation

• Pain is quantified — a number, cost, or consequence attached (not just "it's annoying")
• Economic Buyer identified by name (even if not yet met)
• Decision process mapped: who's involved, roughly how a decision like this gets made here
• Timeline/trigger event identified — a reason this needs solving by a specific point in time
• Champion identified — someone internally advocating, not just a friendly contact
• Required CRM fields: Economic Buyer Name, Quantified Pain, Decision Process Notes, Close-Driving Event

Stage 3 → Stage 4: Solution Validation → Proposal

• Decision criteria confirmed directly by the prospect (not assumed)
• Prospect has seen a solution walkthrough mapped to their specific pain (not a generic demo)
• Budget range confirmed, or a credible path to funding confirmed
• Competitive landscape known — named competitors in play, or confirmed there are none
• At least one additional stakeholder beyond the original contact has engaged directly
• Required CRM fields: Decision Criteria, Budget Range/Status, Competitors in Play, Stakeholder Count

Stage 4 → Stage 5: Proposal → Negotiation / Verbal

• Formal proposal/quote sent AND reviewed on a call (not just emailed and left)
• Economic Buyer has personally engaged (call, email, or meeting — not secondhand via champion only)
• Procurement/legal process identified, including paper-process owner and typical cycle time
• Objections raised have been addressed and acknowledged by the prospect directly
• Mutual close plan exists with dates agreed by the prospect (not just drafted internally)
• Required CRM fields: Proposal Sent Date, Mutual Close Plan (attached), Procurement Contact

Stage 5 → Stage 6: Verbal → Closed-Won

• Verbal commitment obtained from the Economic Buyer specifically (not the champion alone)
• Contract/paperwork in active review with procurement/legal (not "about to send")
• No open, unaddressed objections from any known stakeholder
• Signature date target confirmed by the prospect within the current forecast period
• Required CRM fields: Verbal Date, Contract Status, Expected Signature Date

CRM Field-Locking Rules

• Deals cannot be manually dragged to a later stage in the pipeline view — advancement requires the gate's required fields to be populated first, enforced via validation rules, not the honor system.
• Any deal sitting in a stage more than [X] days beyond the average cycle time for that stage triggers an automatic flag for manager review.

Manager Override Protocol

• Overrides require: (1) written justification in the deal's notes field, (2) named manager approval logged as an activity, (3) a committed date by which the missing criteria will close.
• Overrides are capped at one per deal per stage — a second override request escalates to a forecast call review.

Stalled-Deal Review Triggers

• No stage movement in 21 days → auto-flag on the manager's stalled-deal report
• No logged activity in 14 days at Proposal stage or later → auto-flag
• Close date pushed more than twice → mandatory deal review with manager before a third push is accepted