A board with the stages "new", "in progress" and "won" tells you nothing. If half your leads sit in "in progress" for three weeks, that is not a stage, it is a drawer.
Find the stages in what you already say
Listen to how the sales team talks about leads in a Monday meeting. "I could not get hold of her", "they needed to speak to their boss", "we have sent a quote". Those are your stages. They already exist, they are just not written down in any system.
A good stage can be answered yes or no from the outside. "No answer" is a stage, because you can see whether there was an answer. "Interested" is not, because it is a feeling, and feelings do not get moved when people are busy.
Let the stage do something
- No answer after the first call: send a short SMS saying when you will try again.
- Demo booked: send a confirmation with the time and a phone number they can use.
- Lost: put the lead into a newsletter sequence instead of deleting it. A no today is often a yes in six months.
Fewer stages than you think
Five to seven stages cover almost any sales process. Add more and people stop moving the cards, and a board nobody moves is worse than no board at all, because it looks right while being wrong.