The EOQ State of the Sales Pipeline Address

My fellow salespeople – it’s just a few weeks from the end of the quarter, and it’s time to take a hard look at the state of your sales pipeline. Sales managers must look at a number of key metrics in order to track progress and measure success. Just a few weeks before the quarter ends, you should already know with near-certainty whether your team will hit or miss the quarterly goal.

Much like the President of the United States, sales leaders need the best data and information possible at their fingertips in order to be the best that they can be. But what pipeline analytics should you look at within your sales organization to be confident at the end of the quarter?

Total Pipeline Size

You can find out very quickly whether or not you’re going to miss your sales goals with a glance at the current sales pipeline report. This shows you the maximum amount of revenue your reps could bring in over the next few weeks, if everything goes perfectly.

If, based on your historical sales pipeline-to-quota ratio, you don’t have enough opportunities to hit your goal, it’s probably too late to make up the difference by the end of the quarter. Depending on the length of your company’s sales cycle, any new opportunities generated will not have enough time to make it down the pipeline to Closed-Won. In that case, it’s time to re-focus your team and look ahead to next quarter’s goals instead.

In this case, we can see that your reps could close up to $114K by the end of the quarter. This is great news, since you know that you’re only $60K away from your goal. Your team has enough pipeline to hit your number; however, how do you ensure that of those open deals, your reps will close the majority of them?

Pipeline by Stage

This is where your Pipeline by Stage screen comes in handy. This report shows you exactly which opportunities will be closing soon, and which need to be pushed to the next stage quickly. If an opportunity is still in the qualifying stage, for example, it probably won’t close within the next two weeks. You know you can’t count on that deal to contribute to your goal, and can focus your reps on other opportunities instead.

In this case, you can see that a high percentage of opportunities are in the Technical Fit and Present Solution stages. You need to move those to the Closing stage or you may be in danger of falling short of your goals. It’s now time to implement sales tactics and tools to help your reps move those opportunities down the pipeline quickly.

Pipeline by Rep

As a manager, the only thing you can really do to improve sales results is help your reps win with better sales coaching. In this report, you can see how much of the pipeline each employee owns, and factor in their historical win rate to learn how many deals they’re likely to close this quarter.

If the data shows Nancy’s win rate is too low to hit the numbers you need, you have to push her to the limit. It’s time to start coaching your reps for that last push to cross the finish line. Offer all the help that you can – get on the phone with a customer’s CEO, sit in on a call, or approve a price discount – whatever you need to do to make the deal happen. With the right sales coaching and a focused effort, you can help your reps reach a new personal best.

You know that sales managers cannot just check the pipeline a few weeks before the end of the quarter. You should have an eye on your team’s progress every week, always looking at the size of the pipeline, opportunities by stage and each rep’s individual pipeline and historical win rates. Combining great leadership together with powerful sales analytics can make your business a success.