I don’t have a pipeline managing secret. But I do mid-month check Ins with my reps to make sure we stay on track and asses each deal or opp that needs to be worked on to ensure higher win rates and better the accuracy of our forecast.

I don’t manage a direct pipeline, but I do train a lot on how to have Forecasting Best Practices. I set parameters for how to forecast “Commit” “Best Guess” “Low.” This is documented in SF and reviewed weekly by the managers. 

When managing pipeline I love to rely on data and it’s not really a secret but I use Gong dealboards in 1:1s with my team. We look at the open pipe for the quarter, go through deal warnings and the deals with low activity. Then we look at the best case and commit tabs of the board to see if the deals are in the correct stages and where we should focus on this week. So much better than looking at Salesforce! 

Using warnings to identify opportunities stalled per stage will be a game change. We could use some help with optimizing the right number for “no change for X days or more” in each stage to flash an accurate warning. I also like to use the “next call” data pulled from the calendar to ensure it matches the “next step” pulled from the crm. 

While admittedly still new to Deal boards, I am starting to do some of the same things as noted above.  Looking at warnings, the visual side of activity etc.   I like to look for commonalities like the number of contacts in each deal and how that impacts close rates.   I am also finding some interesting commonalities in the company account status page.   The ratio of incoming to outgoing emails is interesting but most of all I can now see the top topics discussed in deals that are closing.   For me it’s pretty consistent so this allows me to see deals where some are forecasting to close but when I don’t see the top topics I expect to see I can really dig in and find out why.    It’s another layer or sniff test that goes past the data that I find is working well.

Weekly forecast calls so reps can learn from one another, share roadblocks and have each other chime in with remedies that have worked with them in the past. #oneteamonedream

I wouldn’t say its a true secret, but in all habits consistency is king. I’ve created a consistent day and time I review my reps forecast to gain insights and prep for reviews. This consistent habit helps bring continuity to my relationships with my reps and their management of their pipeline. 

Something that has always worked for me as a seller and leader is to strive for ‘X’ amount in certain sales stages dependent on my monthly goal.  If goal is 50k, I need 2x goal in submitted, 5x goal in qualified….

Every rep has a success to share. When adding to the library, I ensure that everybody has representation to showcase a best practice, a win, something the whole team can learn from. 

This builds confidence and trust and makes coaching a lot easier and more enjoyable. 

The hard part is staying disciplined and ensuring the library gets populated, but it’s an effort worth making.

Not a secret or unique, but i love looking at long comments from customers after a smart question from our side.  Great insight into good questions and a really quick way to get to know what the customer cares about and get to know them a bit without having to watch through a full call.  My favorite pattern to see!

We have weekly pipeline discussions based on close dates that we roll up to our recruiting team so they can focus their recruiting efforts in that territory. This pushes our AE’s to clean a neat, uniform deal board. 

Also, we have a roll-up, high-level projections that are submitted every Friday; this ensures my management team is keeping a pulse on deal activity, close dates, and projection amounts.

And lastly, Bi-Weekly 1-on-1’s. 

You can see some pipeline management tips in our videos here. many of which reference Gong specifically  https://www.youtube.com/@GTMAdvisors/videos. Also here is an asset we made you can reference as well