Step 16. An Effective Pipeline Review

Doing a regular Pipeline Review will keep you aware of what deals are coming and going from your sales department. Too many Founders and Sales Leaders don't know they've lost a deal until it's gone. There are four critical steps to take in a sales Pipeline Review: 1. Make sure your pipeline review starts and ends the exact same day and time each week. Consistency builds good habits. 2. Only focus on the deals that will close that month or quarter. Set up a separate session to review progress on longer-term deals. 3️. Make sure each deal has what the PROSPECT committed to on their last call and what the next step(s) will be. It should not be what the salesperson thinks or hopes will happen. The only thing that matters is what the prospect has done. 4. As I mentioned earlier - Your salesperson needs to be able to justify why a prospect is in the stage they're in. Follow this Pipeline Review process and never be surprised again. One other activity you can do to see the benefit of having a healthy pipeline is: Take snapshots of your pipeline over time. See how much time a prospect stays, on average, in each stage. Isolate the stages where a prospect spends the most time, and review how you can improve and speed up that part of your prospect's buying journey. Sometimes, pipelines can be set up with terms like Suspect, Prospect, Warm, Hot, and Closing. Using these terms is ok, so long as they are represented by corresponding percentages and are based on the prospect's completed activities. A good pipeline review is short, strict, and tied to next steps. This video gives founders and small teams a clear format to spot risk, move deals, and keep the forecast real. You’ll learn what to check first, what to ignore, and how to link every deal to pain, power, value, and plan. We cover stage rules, aging, close dates, and deal owners. You’ll see a five-question deal inspection, how to set one action per deal, and how to use your CRM so follow-ups happen on time. This works for founder-led selling and fractional sales leadership because it turns weekly talk into booked meetings and closed revenue. Frequntly Asked Questions (FAQs): Effective Pipeline Reviews 1. What is the main purpose of a weekly pipeline review? The review is primarily for the business owner, founder, or CEO’s benefit. It allows you to manage cash flow effectively by getting a realistic view of which deals are actually going to close in the near term. 2. Which deals should I focus on during these meetings? It is best to focus specifically on deals expected to close within the current month or quarter. Longer-term deals should be handled in a separate meeting with different qualifying questions to keep the weekly review focused and efficient. 3. How can I tell if a salesperson's pipeline is actually healthy? A full pipeline can be misleading. You can gauge its health by looking at the ratio of deals closing versus the number of opportunities listed. If a salesperson has many opportunities but few closes, it’s a sign that the deals may not be as far along as they appear. 4. How do I prevent salespeople from listing "hopeful" deals? Go through the pipeline deal-by-deal and ask what the customer has specifically committed to. This helps verify if a deal has truly earned its stage in the pipeline, rather than just being something the salesperson "hopes" will happen. 5. How often should these reviews take place? While a weekly cadence is suggested, holding them every two weeks is also acceptable. The most important factor is consistency, ensuring the meetings stay on track so salespeople learn that only realistic data is accepted. 🙋🏽‍♂️ I'm a Fractional Sales VP and INC 500 Winner I organize, optimize, and train your sales team, so you don't have to. My website - https://www.louiebernstein.com ➡️ Schedule a call: https://calendly.com/louiebernstein/30minutes 📌If you want a dose of inspiration, check out my Sunday Starter. It's designed to accelerate your success. https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6914239256987131904/