Most sales organizations have phases: explore, proposal, negotiation, won. In the CRM every deal has a phase. But ask three sales reps when a deal moves from "explore" to "proposal" and you get three answers. Then your pipeline mostly measures how optimistic someone is. Exit criteria solve that. In this article you read what a good exit criterion is, how to write one per phase and how to make them work in practice.
What an exit criterion is
An exit criterion describes when a phase is done. A good criterion describes something the customer has done, not something the sales rep has done. "Quote sent" says something about the sales rep. "The customer has discussed the quote with us and knows who decides" says something about the deal.
That distinction is the core. A sales rep can send a quote without the customer doing anything with it. A phase that depends on what the customer does predicts better whether the deal will go through.
One exit criterion per phase
For each phase, write one sentence that starts with "Done when". Keep it concrete enough that someone else can check it. An example for a B2B sales process with five phases:
- Explore. Done when the customer has named a problem that fits our promise.
- Analyze. Done when we have seen the situation and know who decides.
- Proposal. Done when the customer has discussed the quote with us, not just received it.
- Decision. Done when there is a signed order, or a recorded reason for the loss.
- Start and retention. Done when the handover is complete and the first evaluation is scheduled.
How to write exit criteria in five steps
- Write down the phases as you use them today. Even if they are messy. Look in the CRM at which phases exist and how often they are used.
- For each phase, take five deals that recently left it. What was true at the moment they moved on? What had the customer done or said?
- Draft a first "Done when". Use what the customer did, not what you did. Keep it to one sentence.
- Test it with the team. Put five open deals next to the criterion. Does everyone agree on which phase they are in? If not, the criterion is still too vague.
- Adjust the CRM. Put the criterion as an explanation next to the phase, so someone sees it at the moment they move a deal.
A fictional example
An installation company with three account managers had the phase "Quote" in its CRM. Every deal with a quote sat there. The pipeline looked full. Yet every quarter revenue came in lower than the forecast.
Walking through the deals revealed the pattern. About half of the quotes had never been discussed with the customer. A request had come in, a price had been calculated, a quote had been sent. After that, silence.
The team rewrote the criterion to: "Done when the customer has discussed the quote with us and we know when they will decide." Deals that did not meet it stayed in the previous phase. The pipeline shrank considerably in one go. That felt bad at first. But the forecast was more accurate afterwards, and the account managers knew the next step for each deal: schedule a conversation.
Common mistakes
Too many phases. More phases feels more precise, but makes the process heavier. Five to seven is enough for almost every organization.
Criteria that are an activity. "Demo given" is an activity. What has to be true after the demo? For example: "The customer has indicated which two parts weigh most heavily."
Forgetting the loss. A deal is also done when it is lost. Make "reason for loss recorded" part of the criterion, and you learn from every deal.
Criteria nobody can check. "The customer is enthusiastic" sounds good, but who decides that? Pick something you can see in a report, an email or an appointment in the calendar.
Criteria only the manager knows. If the criterion sits in a presentation and not in the CRM, nobody uses it at the moment it matters.
Checklist for a good exit criterion
- Starts with "Done when". That forces you to describe an end state.
- Is about the customer. What have they done, said or decided?
- Is checkable. A colleague can see whether it is true without asking the sales rep.
- Is one sentence. Two conditions is fine, three becomes a form.
- Also covers the loss. Wherever a deal can stop, "reason recorded" is part of done.
Starting with exit criteria tomorrow
You do not have to rewrite all phases at once. This is how to start small:
- Pick the phase where deals linger longest. That is where a sharp criterion pays off most.
- Write one "Done when" on a whiteboard. Ask in the next weekly meeting whether everyone agrees.
- Walk through the deals in that phase together. Which ones meet it, which do not? The latter move back one phase, without judgment.
- For each deal that does not meet it, ask: what does the customer still have to do? That is immediately the next action for the sales rep.
If it works after a month, take the next phase. That way the set grows by itself, and the team has lived through every step.
What exit criteria deliver
With clear exit criteria you can trust forecasts more, you coach on something concrete ("what does the customer still have to do?") and a new colleague works by the same definitions from the first week.
It is also the backbone for the rest of your sales approach. The win points and the activities per phase in building layer 3 hang on the phases. Quote follow-up in building layer 4 is about what happens between proposal and decision. The roles in building layer 5 say who is in charge per phase. And the KPIs per phase in building layer 7 measure whether deals make it through the phases. Whoever has sharp exit criteria makes all those other parts easier.
Frequently asked questions
What are good phases for a B2B sales process?
There is no fixed set. Many SMBs end up with five to seven phases, from first contact to customer relationship. More important than the names is that every phase has a clear exit criterion.
What is the difference between a phase and an activity?
A phase is a stretch of the road a deal travels. An activity is something you do to move the deal along. An exit criterion describes when the phase is done, not which activities you carry out to get there.
How do you make your sales forecast more reliable?
Start with the phases. If a deal may only move to the next phase when the customer has done something, the pipeline says more about reality. After that you can look per phase at what share of deals moves on.
How often do you adjust exit criteria?
Not often. Look at them every quarter, and adjust them when you notice deals regularly moving on without the criterion being met. A change calls for a short explanation to the whole team.
Capture the phases and their exit criteria in the Phases building block of building layer 2. If you change a criterion later, you immediately see which activities and KPIs need another look.