If your organization lacks confidence in the accuracy and health of the Sales Pipeline, having the appropriate fields on the Open Sales Pipeline Report is the first step.
To better understand a team’s sales pipeline and progress toward goals, the Open Sales Pipeline Report offers a scientific approach to increase efficiency and maximize results in the sales organization.
The Open Sales Pipeline Report is the simplest and most effective tool for a sales organization, top to bottom, to manage sales performance and ensure sales strategy execution.
The trouble is that for many organizations, their Open Sales Pipeline Report does not contain the information needed for the sales organization to manage the Pipeline effectively. This gap contributes to an organizational lack of confidence in the sales pipeline and allows stuck, stale, and dead opportunities to dwell where they don’t belong.
The Essential Fields for the Open Pipeline Report
In addition to Sales Stage, Forecast Category, and Close Date, we think the essential field elements for an Open Sales Pipeline Report are as follows:
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Open Sales Pipeline Report Field
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Field Rationale
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Sales Stage Duration (Days)
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Indicates the number of days the sales opportunity has been in the current Sales Stage. This metric provides insight into whether or not the opportunity is exceeding a typical or average dwell time for this phase of the sales process. The longer the Stage Duration is versus the average, the likelihood of deal success falls.
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Age (Days)
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Indicates the number of days the sales opportunity has existed in the Pipeline. Used in conjunction with the Sales Stage Duration field, the Age field suggests that the opportunity is stuck, stale, or dead.
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Close Date Push Counter
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Indicates how often the salesperson has pushed the opportunity close date relative to the initial close date. Many close-date pushes usually suggest that the salesperson may not understand the prospect’s decision-making process or that the customer may not have a sense of urgency to change the status quo.
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Close Date Days Pushed
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Indicates the total number of days the close date has been pushed relative to the initial close date. Used in conjunction with the Close Date Push Counter, one can determine if the opportunity is progressing appropriately. A close date that continues pushing is usually a red flag to deal success.
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Opportunity Update
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Salespersons need a long text field that allows the capture of a brief, intelligent, and relevant update on the Opportunity progress. Time-bound next steps and recent milestones will enable the opportunity owner, sales manager, and others in the organization to keep track of opportunity progress in one place, which mitigates the need to provide ad-hoc updates.
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Adding the above-suggested fields to your Open Pipeline report is one thing—reasonably easy.
Enabling sales leaders and their direct reports to effectively and consistently adopt the Open Sales Pipeline report requires much effort.