10 Tips for Efficient Pipeline Tracking

• RevOps
• 10 min

When times are tough, you need twice as many opportunities to close one deal.

And to get more opportunities, you need quality prospects.

A sales pipeline can give you an overview of what your selling cycle looks like.

But how do you zero in on the right deals?

How do you know they won’t fall flat a month down the line?

Meticulous pipeline tracking is the answer.

It brings sales reps closer to the moment of truth – will the deal close or not?

Let’s get started.

What is Sales Pipeline Tracking?

Pipeline tracking puts every deal under the scanner.

It tells you how each one stacks up in terms of revenue potential – which deals are likely to convert, by when, and what stage they are currently in.

Reps can then work backward from the goal and focus on the ones that will give them the best chance of hitting quota.

Let’s understand with an example.

Let’s say your conversion rate for the month is 12% on a pipeline worth $1 million.

To achieve a quota of $300,000, you will need to double the number of opportunities you have lined up.

Many people think the sales pipeline and sales funnel are the same.

There’s a difference, and it’s this: Sales pipelines represent the sales cycle from the seller’s perspective.

Sales funnels visualize it from the other side – the customer’s perspective.

With sales pipeline tracking, you can:

• Pinpoint lagging deals and take steps to revive them.
• Estimate how many deals are likely to close in the next month or quarter.
• Analyze sales productivity by individual or team and see if they are doing the right activities.
• Share actionable advice on the best way forward.
• Make deal forecasts more accurate.
• Identify opportunities for sales optimization

What are the Components of Pipeline Tracking?

Pipeline tracking has three key components:

1. Opportunity Stages

These stages show the relative position of a deal since entering the sales funnel.

2. Conversion Rates

This is the rate at which leads turn into opportunities and opportunities into sales.

3. Pipeline Value

This is the total dollar value of the pipeline as a whole. It represents the total revenue potential of every active opportunity.

10 Tips for Efficient Pipeline Tracking

For pipeline tracking to be effective, sales teams must:

1. Define the right pipeline stages

Pipeline stages like ‘closing’ or ‘negotiation’ can be confusing for reps in the middle of a busy day.

To be fair, many sales managers use the default stages available in Salesforce or other tools.

But this ends up affecting pipeline visibility, forecasting accuracy, and revenue numbers.

The key is to:

• Be as specific as possible when describing each stage. For example: ‘first call – no answer’ or ‘quote sent for approval.’
• Make sure that pipeline stages relate to the sales process.
• Have a limited number of deal stages – no more than 7.

2. Define clear exit criteria for each stage

Now that we’ve defined our pipeline stages let’s think about the exit criteria for each.

You can do this through a series of Yes/No questions based on the status of an account.

Depending on the deal stage, a few good questions could be:

• Has the rep qualified the customer by asking relevant questions? (Needs Analysis stage)
• Is the rep in contact with the economic buyer or the champion? (Initial Meeting/Needs Analysis stage)
• Has the customer confirmed they’re OK with the proposal/ mutual action plan? (Proposal stage)
• Has the customer agreed to sign the contract? (Negotiation stage)

Clear exit criteria enable reps to move deals from one stage to another with ease.

You can benchmark the average closing time per rep and then track the following:

• The number of days a deal has been open
• The number of days since the last activity
• The expected close date mentioned by the rep

3. Define the right pipeline metrics

Pipeline metrics play a key role in setting KPIs and sales quotas based on the goal.

Some key metrics are:

a. Number of new leads

This is the total number of new leads entering the pipeline. Many businesses track new leads by source. Others prefer to track them at the opportunity stage.

b. Pipeline value

This is the total projected value of the opportunities you currently have.

c. Conversion rate

This includes converting leads to opportunities or closing opportunities into deals.

d. Sales Cycle Length

This represents how long it takes your reps to finally close a deal.

Other key pipeline metrics include:

• Annual recurring revenue
• Average revenue per user
• Average deal size
• Pipeline velocity

4. Streamline lead scoring

Why do some opportunities score high but don’t convert?

And what about opportunities you didn’t pay much attention to but ended up closing?

If this happens too many times, it could be a sign that reps are not qualifying leads enough.

Review your lead scoring criteria – plus the lead qualification methodology.

5. Prioritize pipeline reviews

Many sales managers focus all their attention on late-stage (negotiation) deals.

And that’s important from the revenue point of view.

But sales reps do need a big-picture view of the pipeline as a whole.

Pipeline reviews can help identify the winnable deals earlier in the funnel.

6. Customize Salesforce reports

You may already have a go-to list of Salesforce reports — deal size, deal volume, and the like.

But you can do a lot more with custom reports.

7. Set up pipeline activity alerts

What could be better than custom reports for pipeline tracking? You can set up real-time alerts for specific events within Salesforce.

8. Optimize your sales process

Over time, certain sales processes do get outdated.

9. Educate reps on process adherence

Getting reps to fully understand and follow new process updates isn’t easy.

10. Focus on data hygiene

A key part of process adherence is data hygiene.

This phase, described as “Vision and Execution,” involves shaping and executing a strategy based on insights gathered from the discovery and alignment phases.

a. Roadmap Creation

Create a roadmap covering the next two quarters, focusing on long-term, high-impact changes that align with business goals.