kienbui1995/pipeline-management

Pipeline Management

When to Use

When managing a sales pipeline — reviewing deal health, forecasting revenue, or improving CRM data quality.

Core Jobs

1. Define Stage Definitions

Each stage needs an objective criterion to move forward — not "rep feels good about it": | Stage | Criteria to Enter | Exit Criteria | |-------|------------------|---------------| | Qualified | MEDDIC partially complete, pain confirmed | Discovery call completed | | Demo | Problem aligned, right buyer engaged | Demo delivered, next steps agreed | | Proposal | Economic buyer engaged, budget confirmed | Proposal sent and reviewed | | Negotiation | Verbal commitment, pricing discussed | Signed contract |

2. Weekly Pipeline Review

For each deal in pipeline:

• Last activity date (> 2 weeks = at risk)
• Next step with a date
• Economic buyer engaged? (Y/N)
• Blockers?

Deal health score: Green (on track) / Yellow (at risk) / Red (stalled)

3. Build the Forecast

Weighted pipeline:

• Each deal × close probability by stage
• Stage probabilities: Qualified 20%, Demo 40%, Proposal 60%, Negotiation 80%
• Compare: weighted pipeline vs quota for the month/quarter

Categories:

• Commit: deals you'll stake your reputation on closing
• Best case: deals that could close with some luck
• Pipeline: full weighted value

4. Pipeline Hygiene

Monthly:

• Close or remove deals with no activity in 30 days
• Update stage, close date, deal value
• Ensure next step exists for every deal

Key Outputs

• Stage definitions with objective criteria
• Weekly pipeline review template
• Forecast spreadsheet (weighted by stage)
• Pipeline hygiene report

Anti-Patterns

• Stage definitions based on rep's gut feeling
• Deals sitting in "Proposal" stage for 60+ days without update
• Forecast based on gut, not weighted pipeline
• Deals with no next steps (they will stall)