Stages are the path the lead follows in the conversation. A well-designed funnel disqualifies non-customers early, digs into the pain of those who are a fit, and hands the sales team only what is worth human time. This article covers the funnel design Nuvia uses as its standard, stage by stage, with the role of each one.
The three groups of stages
In the Stages panel on the left, stages are organized into three groups. Use Add stage inside the group you want:
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Main stages — the lead's normal path (Reception, Screening, Qualification).
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Conversion stages — the positive outcomes (Qualified, Meeting scheduled).
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Non-conversion stages — the negative outcomes (Disqualified).
The group is not cosmetic: it defines what the platform counts as conversion in the funnel and in Dashboards, and conversion and non-conversion stages do not run a prompt automatically when the lead enters them.
The standard design
| Stage | Group | Required | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reception | Main | Yes | Receives the lead and asks the first question |
| Data collection and confirmation | Main | No | Completes or confirms the lead's data |
| Screening | Main | Yes | Removes those outside the profile |
| Qualification | Main | Yes | Digs into the pain of those who passed |
| Schedule negotiation | Main | No | Finds a time and sends the invite |
| Qualified | Conversion | Yes | Lead is a fit, ready for the sales team |
| Disqualified | Non-conversion | Yes | Lead does not meet the criteria |
Reception
This is the first stage and it exists to receive the lead — including when the conversation starts from a campaign template. Here the agent welcomes the lead, asks the first screening question, and moves the lead to the next stage.
Also use it to plan for handoff scenarios that come up right at the start (the lead who wants to talk to a human right away, the lead who replies with something off topic) and, if it makes sense, an icebreaker question such as “tell me a bit about what is going on today”.
Data collection and confirmation
Use it to ask for missing data or confirm data that already came from the CRM or from enrichment.
Where to place it depends on how much the data matters:
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At the start of the flow, when the data is decisive — a disqualification rule based on data, a quote that depends on specific information, a field the sales team requires.
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After qualification, when collecting it is nice to have but not decisive. That way you do not burn the lead's interest asking for sign-up details before showing value.
Screening
The first questions, asked to disqualify quickly those who are not a fit — the merely curious, outside the ICP, outside the region you serve.
Screening questions are objective and have a clear cutoff:
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“What is the company's revenue today?” — below X, disqualified.
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“Which city are you in?” — outside the area you serve, disqualified.
Screening also helps route the lead: “are you looking for service A, B, or C?” sends the lead to the matching qualification.
Qualification
After removing those who are not a fit, here you dig into pain points and needs — and you can still disqualify if something outside the requirements comes up.
Examples: “is the problem bigger in area X or Y?”, “which systems would you need to integrate with?”.
SPIN Selling in practice. The sequence that works well on WhatsApp:
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“Now tell me a bit more about this problem.”
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“Got it. This has probably already cost you [consequence of the pain the lead mentioned].”
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“[Company] solves this with [solution]. Does it make sense to set up a call so I can show you how it works?”
The destination of qualification is always Qualified or Schedule negotiation — never leave the lead stuck in the stage.
Schedule negotiation
Handles choosing a time and sending the invite, with or without Google Calendar integration. The rules that prevent most scheduling problems:
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Offer only times that are actually free: check availability before suggesting, never make up a date.
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Work on business days, within the business hours the company serves.
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Do not offer the current day; start from the next business day.
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Suggest fixed-length blocks (1 hour is usually the default) and offer 3 or 4 options per message, not a huge list.
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If the lead asks for a past date, a weekend, or a time outside the window, explain and offer alternatives right away.
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Ask for the email before sending the invite and confirm afterward that the invite arrived.
Qualified
The lead met all the agreed criteria and is ready to buy. Two important decisions in this stage:
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Will there be a handoff? In other words, does a human take over here, or does the agent keep talking? If it continues, define which topics it can handle.
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Do not set up follow-ups in a qualified stage. The lead has already converted; automatic nudges at this point burn the relationship and get in the salesperson's way.
Disqualified
The lead did not meet one or more criteria. One rule always applies: plan for wrong information. If the lead corrects a piece of data that caused the disqualification, the agent should be able to send them back to the previous stage (Screening or Qualification) instead of closing things out for good.
Use subtypes to know why
Both Qualified and Disqualified become much more useful when you create variations instead of a single stage:
| Instead of | Use |
|---|---|
| Qualified | Qualified · Qualified – priority lead · Qualified – meeting scheduled |
| Disqualified | Disqualified · Disqualified – outside ICP · Disqualified – region not served |
The gain shows up in Dashboards: instead of “40 disqualified”, you see how many left because of region, company size, or lack of fit, and that changes campaign and ICP decisions.
Priority leads
For each decision stage (Collection, Screening, Qualification), ask the sales lead whether there is a special or very hot lead profile that should not go through the entire flow. If there is, create the short route: the agent identifies the criterion and sends the lead straight to Qualified with a handoff, skipping the remaining questions.
What if my funnel is not a sales funnel
The design above assumes a sales funnel. Support, collections, recruiting, or post-sale funnels follow a different stage logic — what stays the same is the principle: an entry stage, decision stages in the middle, and explicit outcomes in the conversion and non-conversion groups. If your case is very different from the standard, it is worth designing it with the Nuvia team before writing the instructions.
To write the content of each stage, see How to write the instructions for a stage.