Every web design lead should move through six pipeline stages: Found, Contacted, Interested, Proposal, and then Won or Lost. Each stage has a clear entry condition and a clear exit condition — if you can't say what moves a lead from one stage to the next, the stage isn't doing its job.
Here's what belongs in each one, using the six-stage model built into Runvax's pipeline as the reference structure.
Why Six Stages, Not Twelve
It's tempting to build an elaborate pipeline with a dozen micro-stages — "researched," "warmed up," "qualified," "pitched," and so on. In practice, more stages means more manual updating, and manual updating is where tracking systems die. Six stages is enough resolution to know exactly where a deal stands without turning stage-updating into its own chore.
| Stage | Entry Condition | Exit Condition | |---|---|---| | Found | You've identified a business with no website or a weak one | You send first outreach | | Contacted | First message sent (email, WhatsApp, call) | They respond with real signal, or 3+ days pass with nothing | | Interested | They've replied with genuine engagement | You send a formal proposal | | Proposal | Proposal sent | They accept (Won) or decline/go silent (Lost) | | Won | Contract signed or deposit paid | — | | Lost | Declined, or gone silent past your follow-up cutoff | — |
Found: The Stage Most Freelancers Skip Entirely
Most informal tracking systems start at "Contacted" — you don't log a lead until you've reached out. That's a mistake, because it means you have no record of who you identified but haven't gotten to yet, which is exactly the kind of prospect that falls through the cracks during a busy week.
Logging "Found" separately does two things: it turns prospecting into a trackable activity with its own volume (how many businesses did you actually identify this week, regardless of outreach), and it gives you a queue to work from instead of relying on memory or a separate scratch list. If you're sourcing leads by searching for no-website businesses, this is also the stage where a tool like Runvax does the identification work for you — the business shows up already qualified as "no website," ready to move to Contacted.
Contacted: Where the 3-Day Clock Starts
The moment first outreach goes out, the clock starts. This is the stage where automatic staleness detection earns its keep — a lead sitting in "Contacted" for more than 3 days with no reply and no follow-up logged should surface as "needs follow-up," not quietly age until you happen to scroll past it.
This threshold isn't arbitrary. Move too fast (flagging at 24 hours) and you'll be pinged constantly for leads that are still within a normal response window. Wait too long (a week or more) and you've lost the momentum that makes a follow-up land — see how often should you follow up with a lead before giving up for the cadence math on why 3 days is the right cutoff for a first nudge, not a final one.
Interested: The Stage With the Most Nuance
"Interested" is where most tracking systems go flat and lose useful information, because "interested" isn't one signal — it's several, and they call for different responses. Splitting it into sub-states is what makes this stage actually useful:
- Asked price — they want a number. Respond fast; pricing questions have a short attention window.
- Requested info — they want more detail before deciding. Send it promptly, and don't over-explain; give them what they asked for.
- Requested a call — highest-intent signal in this stage. Book it same day if you can; delay here is the single most avoidable way to lose an otherwise-won deal.
- Said "okay thanks" — ambiguous. Could mean "not now" or could mean they're still deciding. Needs a follow-up nudge, not silence.
- Said "I'll think about it" — a soft no or a genuine pause. Needs a different kind of follow-up than "just checking in" — see why leads go cold and how to revive them for what actually works here.
Treating all five of these as one undifferentiated "Interested" bucket is how a lead who requested a call sits next to a lead who's politely declining, with no way to tell which is which without re-reading the whole message thread.
Proposal: Speed Matters More Than Polish
Once a lead reaches Proposal, the data is unambiguous: 42.5% of closed-won deals close within 24 hours of the client opening the proposal. That's not a coincidence — it's a decision window. A prospect is roughly 80% ready to move forward on day one after receiving a proposal; by day seven, they're reconsidering whether they need the work at all.
This makes Proposal the stage where tracking discipline pays off fastest. If you're not logging exactly when a proposal was sent, you can't know when that 24-hour window is closing, and "just checking in" three weeks later is the lowest-performing follow-up you can send into a decision that's already gone cold.
Won and Lost: Both Are Data, Not Just Outcomes
It's natural to log Won deals carefully (they're the reward) and barely log Lost ones (they're just... gone). That's a mistake. Every Lost deal that records why — price, timing, went with someone else, went silent — becomes the input for your close rate math and for spotting patterns, like a specific objection showing up repeatedly. See how to calculate and improve your web design close rate for how Won/Lost data turns into an actual improvable number instead of a vague feeling about how sales are going.
A running total of pipeline value (everything currently in Found through Proposal) and won value (everything closed) is the other half of this — it's what lets you see, at a glance, how much revenue is realistically in motion versus already banked.
Building This Without a Dedicated Tool
If you're setting this up in a spreadsheet or kanban tool, the minimum viable version is: six columns matching the stages above, a sub-status field for Interested specifically, a "last touched" date on every lead, and a weekly manual check for anything past 3 days untouched. It works, but it's manual — see how to track web design leads without a spreadsheet for why that manual check is exactly the kind of task that quietly stops happening once you get busy.
Getting the pipeline structure right is also what makes lead generation efforts actually pay off — a strong pipeline structure is meaningless if nothing's flowing into "Found" in the first place. See the complete guide to lead generation for small business for the generation side of this equation.
Track the Stage, Not Just the Contact
A name and a phone number tell you who you talked to. A stage tells you what to do next. Runvax builds this exact six-stage pipeline — including the Interested sub-states and automatic 3-day follow-up flags — directly into the same tool that finds no-website businesses and drafts your first outreach. Free to start, no credit card required.