Summary

• A sales pipeline template brings crucial structure to your LinkedIn outreach, guiding prospects through 5 core stages from initial connection to closing a deal.

• This article shows you how to build 15 battle-tested sales pipeline templates for Excel and Google Sheets, helping you organize leads and forecast revenue without a costly CRM.

• The key to success is pairing your template with an inbox management tool to automate data entry, set follow-up reminders, and ensure no conversation gets lost.

• Supercharge your workflow by using a tool like Kondo to apply labels that mirror your pipeline stages and set reminders directly in your LinkedIn DMs.

Is your LinkedIn inbox a chaotic mess of hot leads, cold prospects, and half-forgotten follow-ups? If you're managing sales outreach on LinkedIn, you know the feeling: promising conversations get buried, potential deals slip through the cracks, and you're constantly worried that a game-changing opportunity was lost in the clutter. Without a system, you're not just disorganized—you're leaving money on the table.

A sales pipeline template is the map that guides your prospects from initial connection to loyal customer. For LinkedIn, it's the system that brings order to the chaos. While CRMs are powerful, a simple Excel or Google Sheets template is a fantastic, low-cost way to get started—perfect for tracking your LinkedIn prospecting efforts without a hefty software subscription.

We'll walk you through how to create 15 battle-tested sales pipeline templates for both Excel and Google Sheets. We'll also show you how to pair your custom-built template with tools like Kondo to create a seamless workflow that transforms your cluttered inbox into a high-efficiency sales machine.

What is a Sales Pipeline? (And Why You Need One for LinkedIn)

A sales pipeline is a visual representation of your sales process, tracking prospects as they move through different stages toward becoming a customer. It provides a clear forecast of potential revenue and helps you systematically improve your sales strategy.

It's important to understand the difference between a pipeline and a funnel:

• A pipeline outlines the stages and actions of your sales process.

• A funnel represents the buyer's journey from their perspective (awareness, consideration, decision).

Think of the pipeline as what your sales team does, and the funnel as how many prospects progress through each stage.

The 5 Core Sales Pipeline Stages for LinkedIn:

1. Prospecting: Identifying and connecting with potential leads on LinkedIn. This includes sending personalized connection requests and using tools like Sales Navigator.

2. Qualification: Engaging in initial conversations (DMs) to determine if a prospect is a good fit. This is where you might use a framework like BANT.

3. Meeting (Engagement): Moving the conversation off LinkedIn to a discovery call or demo.

4. Proposal: Sending a detailed proposal or quote based on the prospect's needs.

5. Closing: Finalizing the deal, signing contracts, and onboarding a new customer.

How to Build 15 Sales Pipeline Templates for LinkedIn Outreach

1. The Kondo-Powered LinkedIn Outreach Pipeline

Best For: Sales reps, founders, and recruiters who want maximum efficiency by bridging their LinkedIn inbox with their pipeline tracker.

Key Features: This template is designed as a workflow, not just a spreadsheet. It combines a simple tracker with the power of Kondo to eliminate manual data entry and ensure no lead is ever forgotten.

How to Build It: Create a new spreadsheet in Google Sheets or Excel with the following columns:

• Lead Name: The full name of your prospect.

• LinkedIn Profile URL: A direct link to their profile for quick access.

• Company: Where they work. This helps with account-based research.

• Role: Their job title, which helps you tailor your pitch.

• Pipeline Stage: The current stage of the deal (e.g., Prospecting, Qualified, Meeting Booked). This is the most important column to keep updated.

• Deal Value ($): The estimated or potential value of the deal for forecasting.

• Last Contact Date: The date you last communicated with them.

• Next Follow-Up Date: The scheduled date for your next touchpoint.

• Notes: A space for important context, pain points, or conversation details.

How to Supercharge it with Kondo:

• Map Pipeline Stages to Kondo Labels: Create labels in Kondo that mirror your pipeline stages (e.g., Stage 1: Connected, Stage 2: Qualified, Stage 3: Meeting Booked, Hot Lead). As you chat with a prospect, apply the relevant label with the 'L' shortcut. This turns your inbox into a visual, actionable pipeline.

• Never Miss a Follow-Up with Reminders: After you update the "Next Follow-Up Date" column in your sheet, immediately go to that conversation in Kondo and hit 'H'. Set a reminder for that exact date and time. The message will vanish and reappear at the top of your inbox when it's time to act.

• Automate Data Entry with Integrations: For ultimate efficiency, use Kondo's Business Tier to connect directly to Google Sheets. When you apply a label like Meeting Booked in a DM, Zapier or a native integration can automatically update the corresponding row in your spreadsheet.

2. The BANT Sales Pipeline Template

Best For: Teams with shorter sales cycles who need to qualify or disqualify leads quickly.

Key Features: This template is structured around the BANT framework: Budget, Authority, Need, Timing. It includes dedicated columns to track each qualification criteria.

How to Build It: This template is structured around the BANT framework. Create columns for:

• Lead Name & Company: Basic contact information.

• Budget Confirmed?: A "Yes/No" or dropdown to track if they have the budget.

• Authority Confirmed?: A "Yes/No" to confirm you're talking to a decision-maker.

• Need Identified?: A "Yes/No" to track if you've confirmed a clear pain point your solution solves.

• Timing Established?: A "Yes/No" or date to note when they plan to make a purchase.

• BANT Score: A simple score (e.g., 1-4) based on how many criteria are met, helping you prioritize leads.

• Next Step: The immediate next action required to move the deal forward.

Kondo Tip: Create Kondo labels like BANT-Qualified, No Budget, or Follow-up in Q4 based on your conversations. This allows you to filter your inbox by qualification status instantly.

3. The MEDDIC Sales Pipeline Template

Best For: Enterprise sales teams with complex, multi-stakeholder deals and longer sales cycles.

Key Features: A detailed template based on the MEDDIC framework: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion.

How to Build It: For this advanced template, create columns that map directly to the MEDDIC framework:

• Account: The target company name.

• Metrics (KPIs): The quantifiable results the prospect expects (e.g., "increase revenue by 15%").

• Economic Buyer: The name of the person with the ultimate authority to spend money.

• Decision Criteria: The specific criteria the company will use to make their decision.

• Decision Process: The steps the company will take to reach a decision (e.g., "legal review," "security audit").

• Identify Pain: The primary business pain driving the need for a solution.

• Champion: The name of your internal advocate who is selling on your behalf.

• Stage: The current pipeline stage.

Kondo Tip: The notes you take during MEDDIC discovery are critical. Use Kondo's CRM sync to push detailed conversation notes from your LinkedIn DMs directly to the opportunity record in HubSpot or Salesforce, ensuring your entire team has visibility.

More Pipeline Templates You Can Build

4. A Simple & Clean Sales Pipeline Template

Best For: New businesses or individuals who need a straightforward, visually clean, and easily customizable tracker.

How to Build It: Focus on simplicity. The goal is to create a template that isn't overwhelming. Use these essential columns:

• Lead Name: The person you're talking to.

• Company: Their organization.

• Stage: A dropdown menu with your pipeline stages (e.g., Contacted, Qualified, Demo, Proposal, Closed-Won, Closed-Lost).

• Deal Value ($): The potential deal size.

• Close Probability (%): Your estimated chance of winning the deal. This helps with forecasting.

• Expected Close Date: The target date for closing the deal.

• Next Action: The single most important next step to take.

Kondo Tip: Use Kondo's Inbox Zero methodology to process new replies. Quickly archive irrelevant messages ('E') and set reminders ('H') for leads you've added to this template.

5. The Quarterly Forecast Pipeline Template

Best For: Small businesses that need to forecast sales on a quarterly basis and report to stakeholders.

How to Build It: Start with a standard pipeline layout and add columns specifically for forecasting:

• Lead Name & Company: Basic lead details.

• Deal Value ($): The total value of the potential deal.

• Expected Close Date: The target closing date.

• Forecast Quarter: A formula that automatically calculates the quarter (e.g., Q1, Q2) based on the "Expected Close Date."

• Weighted Forecast ($): A calculated column (Deal Value * Close Probability %) that gives a more realistic revenue forecast.

• Next Actions: A clear, actionable next step.

Kondo Tip: When you fill out the "Next Actions" column in your sheet, immediately set a corresponding reminder in Kondo to ensure the task gets done.

6. The All-in-One Visual Pipeline Dashboard

Best For: Users who want a comprehensive, all-in-one view with detailed forecasting and visual graphs, all within one spreadsheet.

How to Build It: This template has two parts: a data sheet and a dashboard sheet.

1. Data Sheet: Create a sheet with your core pipeline data: Lead Name, Company, Deal Value, Stage, Owner, Close Date.

2. Dashboard Sheet: Use this sheet to visualize the data from the first sheet. Create:

   • A Pivot Table to summarize the total deal value by stage.

   • A Bar Chart based on the pivot table to visualize your pipeline health.

   • A Pie Chart to show the percentage of deals in each stage.

   • Key Metrics: Use formulas like SUMIF and COUNTIF to display total pipeline value, number of open deals, and average deal size.

Kondo Tip: As deals move through stages in this template, update their corresponding label in Kondo. This keeps your inbox and your master tracker perfectly aligned.

7. The "Spreadsheet CRM" Template

Best For: Small businesses wanting a CRM-like experience in a spreadsheet, with a visual dashboard for a high-level overview.

How to Build It: This is an advanced spreadsheet that feels like a lightweight CRM.

• Contacts Tab: A sheet to list all your contacts with columns for Name, Company, Email, LinkedIn URL.

• Opportunities Tab: Your main pipeline tracker. Include columns like Opportunity Name, Linked Contact (you can link to the Contacts tab), Stage, Value, Close Date.

• Dashboard Tab: Create a summary dashboard with key metrics:

  • Total Open Pipeline Value: SUM(Opportunities[Value]) where stage is not "Closed."

  • Deals Won This Month: COUNTIF deals with a close date in the current month and stage is "Won."

  • Win Rate: (Deals Won) / (Deals Won + Deals Lost).

Kondo Tip: Since this template acts like a mini-CRM, use Kondo's unified inbox to manage both your standard LinkedIn and Sales Navigator messages in one place, ensuring all prospect communications are captured.

8. The Automated Visual Pipeline Tracker

Best For: Visual learners and small business owners who want automatically generated charts to track pipeline performance.

How to Build It: The key here is using your spreadsheet's built-in charting tools.

1. Setup your data: Create a simple pipeline with columns for Deal Name, Stage, Value, and Creation Date.

2. Create a Funnel Chart: Select your Stage and Value columns and insert a funnel chart (available in newer versions of Excel and Google Sheets) to visualize how many deals are in each stage.

3. Create a Performance-over-Time Chart: Create a pivot table that sums the Value of deals by Creation Date (grouped by month). Then, create a line or bar chart from this pivot table to see your pipeline growth over time.

Kondo Tip: Personalize your outreach at scale. Use Kondo's voice notes feature (from desktop) to send a personal message to high-value leads you're tracking in this visual pipeline.

9. The Data-Rich Opportunity Tracker

Best For: Businesses that need deep sales insights, with data organized by quarter and opportunity details.

How to Build It: This template is all about capturing detailed data for analysis. Go beyond the basics with columns like:

• Opportunity ID: A unique number for each deal.

• Lead Source: Where the lead came from (e.g., "LinkedIn Outreach," "Referral").

• Product/Service: The specific product or service the prospect is interested in.

• Competitors: Any known competitors you are up against for this deal.

• Stage Duration (Days): A calculated column that shows how long a deal has been in its current stage.

• Last Modified Date: To see when a deal was last updated.

Kondo Tip: Speed up your inbox management with Kondo's keyboard shortcuts. Navigate conversations (J/K), archive (E), and apply labels (L) in seconds to keep this tracker updated in real-time.

10. The Marketing & Sales Alignment Pipeline

Best For: Teams that want to align their sales pipeline with marketing campaigns to see what's working.

How to Build It: Bridge the gap between marketing and sales with these columns:

• Lead Name: Standard lead info.

• Lead Source: The original source of the lead (e.g., "LinkedIn," "Webinar," "eBook Download").

• Marketing Campaign: The specific campaign that generated or nurtured the lead (e.g., "Q3 SaaS Demo Campaign").

• First Touch Point: The very first interaction the lead had with your brand.

• Last Touch Point: The most recent interaction before becoming an opportunity.

• Deal Value & Stage: Standard sales pipeline columns.

Kondo Tip: Use Kondo's snippets feature to save and reuse your best-performing outreach messages that you've identified from this template's conversion tracking.

11. The LinkedIn Sales Navigator Prospecting Template

Best For: Sales professionals who heavily use Sales Navigator and want to track their prospecting efforts systematically.

How to Build It: Create a tracker specifically for leads found via Sales Navigator.

• Lead Name & LinkedIn URL: Get these directly from Sales Navigator.

• Saved Lead List: The name of the Sales Navigator list you saved the lead to.

• SSI Score: The prospect's Social Selling Index score, which can indicate their activity on LinkedIn.

• Connection Request Sent (Date): The date you sent the connection request.

• Connection Accepted (Date): The date they accepted.

• Initial Message Sent (Date): The date you started the conversation.

• Status: A simple status like "Connected," "In Conversation," or "Not Interested."

Kondo Tip: Take advantage of Kondo's unified Sales Navigator & LinkedIn inbox to see all your prospect communications in one place, regardless of which LinkedIn inbox they came from.

12. The Multi-Touch Follow-Up Sequence Tracker

Best For: Sales reps who need to manage complex, multi-touch follow-up sequences and ensure no prospect is forgotten.

How to Build It: This template is designed for persistence and organization.

• Lead Name: The prospect you are contacting.

• Last Contact Date: The date of your most recent interaction.

• Follow-Up #1 (Date): Column for the date of your first follow-up.

• Follow-Up #2 (Date): Column for the second follow-up attempt.

• ...Follow-Up #5 (Date): Add as many columns as you have steps in your sequence.

• Response Status: A dropdown with options like "Positive Reply," "Negative Reply," "No Reply."

• Next Action: The next specific step in the sequence.

Kondo Tip: For each follow-up scheduled in this template, set a corresponding reminder in Kondo using the 'H' shortcut to ensure perfect timing in your outreach sequence.

13. The Lead Scoring & Qualification Template

Best For: Teams that want to objectively qualify and prioritize leads to focus their energy on the best opportunities.

How to Build It: Create a scoring system based on your ideal customer profile.

• Lead Name: Standard contact info.

• Company Size Score (1-5): Score based on how well their company size fits your target.

• Industry Score (1-5): Score based on their industry.

• Role/Title Score (1-5): Score based on if they are a decision-maker.

• Engagement Score (1-5): Score based on their responsiveness and interest level.

• Total Score: A sum of the scores. Use conditional formatting to color-code leads (e.g., green for high scores, red for low).

• Priority: A final designation like "High," "Medium," or "Low" based on the total score.

Kondo Tip: Apply Kondo labels that correspond to qualification scores (e.g., "High Priority Lead," "Qualification Needed") to immediately visualize your highest-value conversations.

14. The Sales Team Performance Tracker

Best For: Sales managers who need to track performance across individual team members and forecast accurately.

How to Build It: This template aggregates data from the entire team.

1. Main Pipeline Sheet: Include all the standard pipeline columns, plus one critical addition: Sales Rep Name.

2. Dashboard Sheet: Use Pivot Tables and charts to analyze the data from the pipeline sheet.

   • Deals by Rep: A pivot table showing the count and total value of deals for each sales rep.

   • Conversion Rate by Rep: A calculated field in your pivot table: (COUNT of Won Deals) / (COUNT of All Deals).

   • Team Leaderboard: A simple table ranking reps by total deals closed or pipeline value.

Kondo Tip: Share standardized snippets across your team using Kondo to ensure consistent messaging in outreach, aligned with the performance metrics you're tracking.

15. The Minimalist Starter Pipeline

Best For: Solopreneurs and new sales professionals just getting started with pipeline management who want to avoid complexity.

How to Build It: This is the simplest possible version. Create a spreadsheet with only the absolute essentials:

• Contact Name: Who you're talking to.

• Company: Where they work.

• Status: A simple dropdown (e.g., "Contacted," "In Discussion," "Closed").

• Next Step: The one thing you need to do next.

• Notes: Any critical details.

The goal is to build the habit of tracking, not to capture every piece of data.

Kondo Tip: Start building your Inbox Zero habit with Kondo's simple keyboard shortcuts. Archive (E) conversations that don't need action, and set reminders (H) for those that do.

Best Practices for Managing Your LinkedIn Sales Pipeline

1. Be Consistent: A pipeline is only useful if it's up-to-date. Set aside time daily to update your template with new leads and stage changes.

2. Focus on Key Metrics: Don't just track leads; track your performance. Key metrics include:

   • Pipeline Velocity: How fast deals move from start to finish.

   • Conversion/Close Rate: The percentage of leads that become customers.

   • Average Deal Size: The average value of a closed deal.

3. Personalize, Don't Automate Blindly: Templates and tools are for efficiency, not for replacing genuine human connection.

   • Always personalize your outreach. Reference a recent post, a shared connection, or their company's news.

   • Keep initial messages brief and value-focused (aim for 300-500 characters).

4. Adopt an Inbox Zero Philosophy: Treat your LinkedIn inbox like a to-do list. Your goal is to process every message. Use Kondo to quickly Archive what's done, Snooze what needs a future follow-up, and Label what's an active opportunity. This prevents overwhelm and ensures nothing gets missed.

Stop Drowning in DMs—Build a Sales Machine Today

A great template is your blueprint, but consistent action is what closes deals. The biggest risk to your LinkedIn pipeline isn't a flawed spreadsheet—it's the chaos of your inbox that prevents you from keeping it updated.

By pairing your pipeline tracker with Kondo, you create a seamless system to label leads, set foolproof reminders, and manage your conversations with superhuman efficiency.

Ready to turn your LinkedIn inbox into an organized sales machine? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain with our 14-day money-back guarantee. Try Kondo risk-free today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best way to track sales leads from LinkedIn?

The most effective way to track sales leads from LinkedIn is by using a dedicated sales pipeline template (like the ones in this article) combined with an inbox management tool like Kondo. The template provides a structured overview of all your deals, while an inbox tool helps you manage the dynamic, real-time conversations, set follow-up reminders, and label leads without ever leaving your inbox, ensuring your pipeline tracker stays perfectly up-to-date.

Why use a spreadsheet template instead of a CRM for my LinkedIn pipeline?

A spreadsheet template is an excellent starting point because it is low-cost, highly customizable, and easy to adopt. For individuals, freelancers, and small teams, a full CRM can be overly complex and expensive. A simple Google Sheets or Excel template allows you to build the essential habit of tracking leads and pipeline stages without a steep learning curve or financial commitment.

How many stages should a LinkedIn sales pipeline have?

A typical LinkedIn sales pipeline has 5 core stages: Prospecting, Qualification, Meeting (or Engagement), Proposal, and Closing. However, this is not a rigid rule. The ideal number of stages depends on your specific sales process. You can customize it to be simpler (e.g., Connected, Conversation, Closed) or more detailed, as long as it accurately reflects the journey your prospects take.

What is the difference between a sales pipeline and a sales funnel?

A sales pipeline represents the specific stages and actions your sales team takes to move a prospect from a new lead to a closed customer. A sales funnel represents the buyer's journey and shows the number (or percentage) of prospects that progress from one stage to the next. In short, the pipeline is about the seller's actions, while the funnel is about the buyer's conversion rates.

How can I make sure I consistently follow up with my LinkedIn leads?

The most reliable method is to use a reminder or "snooze" system directly within your LinkedIn inbox. While you can manually set calendar reminders, this is inefficient and prone to error. A tool like Kondo allows you to hit a hotkey to set a reminder on any conversation, making it disappear from your inbox and reappear at the top at the exact time you need to follow up. This ensures no lead ever slips through the cracks.

What are the most important metrics to track in a sales pipeline?

The three most vital metrics for understanding your sales health are Pipeline Velocity (how quickly deals move through your pipeline), Conversion Rate (the percentage of leads that become customers), and Average Deal Size. Tracking these metrics helps you forecast revenue accurately, identify bottlenecks in your process, and understand the overall efficiency of your sales efforts.