Most electrical 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 (service call, panel-upgrade quote request, EV charger inquiry). 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. Quote Sent
Proposal delivered (panel swap, generator install, whole-home rewire, etc.). Follow-up sequence running. Most jobs die in this stage. Watch the time-in-stage report weekly. Anything over 14 days = call personally or close-lost. No middle ground.
3. Quote Discussed
Homeowner has questions, wants to compare, or asked to discuss financing. This is the live conversation stage — not 'thinking about it.' Trigger to move out: verbal commit or explicit decline. Anything stuck here past 7 days resets to Quote Sent and re-enters the sequence.
4. Permit Pulled / Job Scheduled
Contract signed, deposit collected, permit submitted, install on the calendar. Automation fires the materials-ordered text and the rough-in date. SLA: from signed to scheduled in 5 business days, otherwise something is broken in the back office — find it.
5. Job Done
Final inspection passed, power restored, site cleaned. Hands off to billing. Trigger automation: post-install review request inside 2 hours, warranty registration, 12-month safety-inspection ping queued.
6. Review Requested
Review SMS sent, email reminder queued for 48 hours later. Move to closed-won-with-review when the review lands. Track conversion rate of this stage — it's the cheapest marketing channel you own and most electricians never measure it.
What NOT to track as stages
- →'Thinking about it' — it's not a stage, it's a stalled quote
- →'Waiting on GC' — that's a parallel pipeline for new construction, don't mix flows
- →'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
- →Quote-to-close ratio by service tech
- →Source ROI by closed-won (not lead count)
Pipelines aren't about tracking what happened. They're about forcing what happens next.