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Because most pipelines name stages and stop there. "Negotiation" means a signed order to one rep and a returned phone call to another, so the forecast built on those stages is arithmetic over opinions.
A pipeline is an ordered set of stages a deal moves through, each with entry criteria you write, so a stage is a statement about the deal rather than a label on a card.
Each stage carries entry criteria — fields that must hold values, a named budget holder, a scheduled next step. A deal cannot enter until they are satisfied, and the criteria are visible on the deal rather than buried in an admin screen.
Bexley Group's new-business pipeline had 60% of value sitting in Negotiation. Adding two criteria — a named budget holder and a booked review date — moved a third of it back to Proposal on the first pass, which is what the forecast had been missing.
It will not stop a determined rep filling in a field to advance a deal. Criteria make the claim explicit and auditable; they do not make it true.
Weighted forecasting reads the stage for its probability, stage automation fires on entry, and pipeline reports measure conversion between them. Loop opens delivery phases when a deal reaches Won.
As many as you have distinct sales motions. Each carries its own stages, criteria and probabilities.
Yes. Stage history is kept per deal, so reports over past quarters still resolve the stages those deals actually moved through.
No. That is what multiple pipelines are for — renewals and new business rarely share a shape.
Fourteen days, every module, no card. Or half an hour with someone who will run it on your own records and tell you where it does not help.