The Challenge with Pipeline Data & Reporting

Your sales pipeline is your business's lifeline

Sales leaders are under immense pressure to make sure they have quality pipelines with enough coverage to hit the numbers. If your pipeline is strong and the deals are flowing, it means the business is growing. But whether you have a strong pipeline or not, the challenges with managing the pipeline are similar, especially when it comes to reporting and data hygiene.

Top Challenges with Pipeline Data Today

1. CRMs and dashboards make it easy to create complex metrics however, poor pipeline management hinders actionable insight. The greatest technology in the world is not going to be helpful if no one is looking at the data and reports, or if they simply don’t understand how to translate the information into a plan. 
2. Sales leaders lacking pipeline hygiene have trouble communicating and forecasting. Without a clear understanding of what good pipeline health looks like, it becomes much more challenging to drive performance and hold other departments accountable. With a lack of accountability comes a lack of order and efficiency. Before you know it, all your salespeople are doing their own thing and it becomes increasingly difficult to get everyone back on the same page.
3. We tend to have too many metrics, which can lead to metric tension. Pipeline metrics can be confusing if they are not built by hierarchy. A sales rep may be responsible for reporting certain metrics from their pipeline management to their direct manager, while that manager will then have to go and report a different set of metrics to the CEO or executive overseeing the sales department.

Recommendations

1. Create a monthly cadence where the sales leaders and operations team balances sharing pipeline insight, and top line goals. Alongside this, consider instituting designated pipeline days throughout the month where sales reps can focus on cleaning up the pipeline and better understanding opportunity risk associated with not having a firm control of their sales leads. 
2. Standardize reporting with 3 to 5 reports focused on facilitating pipeline clean-up for both managers and sales reps. Also ensure that regular check-ins are scheduled and conducted to monitor progress and review any notable findings from the reports.
3. Build credibility with the rest of the organization by creating more accurate forecasting that aligns with other key functions. As with anything in life or business, people respond best to an initiative when they understand not only the why behind it, but also how it is going to directly impact them in the process.
4. Build metrics focusing on efficiency that look at progress through the pipeline and effectiveness (selling at the right level). No one wants to waste their time or resources speaking with prospects who are not the actual decision makers. The faster your salespeople can get in front of the right person, the higher their conversion ratio will be and the shorter the sales cycle will become.

Your sales pipeline is one of the most important parts of your business. The better you know your pipeline, the better you can manage and predict your business. 

Do you want to get a better idea of the health of your pipeline and improve forecast accuracy? We can help. Contact us today to help you start better defining the health of your pipeline and addressing some of the many challenges that you face to establish your sales pipeline metrics and cadence.