1. Customer Relationship Management for Sales Implementation Guide
  2. Sales Pipelines

Sales Pipelines

Sales pipelines provide you with an at-a-glance view of the amount of revenue that is currently in process, and might be realized in the near future. The sales pipeline includes the revenue amounts that are associated with active sales opportunities, and is divided into categories by the probability that the opportunity will close successfully. For example, if an opportunity has a close probability of 25 percent, the revenue associated with that opportunity is included in the 20–29 percent category of the sales pipeline.

You can review the sales pipeline for individual employees, customers, contacts, industry groupings, territories, forecasts, and competitors. Reviewing the pipeline for each of these entities can provide you with:

  • Pipeline information for employees.

    Reviewing the pipelines for individual employees gives you an easy and fast method of comparing the members of the sales organization to determine which sales teams and sales team members are the most productive.

  • Pipeline information for customers.

    Reviewing customer pipelines can help you to determine which customers are providing the organization with the most potential revenue. This information can help you determine whether specific customers need additional sales team members to support them, which customers might be valuable business references, or whether specific customers should receive additional or special attention from the organization.

  • Pipeline information for competitors.

    Reviewing the sales pipeline for competitors can help you determine which competitors are effecting the sales organization the most. When reviewing competitor pipelines, you might find that a certain competitor stands out and is involved in more sales deals than any other organization. You can then take the necessary steps, such as pricing or product changes, to compete effectively with the specified competitor.

  • Pipeline information for industry groupings and territories.

    Reviewing the pipelines for industry groupings and territories can help you determine which products, in which areas, are providing the organization with the most potential revenue. If you find that the pipeline for a particular industry or territory is significantly larger than others, you can focus resources on those areas.