Blog · Forecast and pipeline · Sales teams
A template for a one-to-one pipeline review between a sales manager and a rep: the pre-read table that flags which deals need discussing, the six questions to ask about each flagged deal, how to handle stalled deals and slipped close dates, how the review feeds the forecast, and what to record. This page gives the flags, the questions, a thirty-minute structure, and a copyable template, so the review is about the ten deals that need a decision and not a recital of all forty.
Most pipeline reviews walk every deal from the top and run out of time before the ones that matter. This one starts from a table that says which deals to talk about.
Computed from the CRM export before the meeting. One row per open deal, five flags.
| Flag | Rule | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Aged | Days in stage more than twice the norm for that stage, from the team's own won deals | Stalled, or in the wrong stage |
| Quiet | No two-way activity logged in 30 days | Nobody is talking |
| Slipped | Close date moved more than once, or by more than 30 days | The date was a hope |
| Early and soon | Close date inside the period; stage before proposal | Forecast risk |
| Single-threaded | One contact at the account associated with the deal | One departure from dead |
| Deal | Value | Stage | Days in stage; norm | Last activity | Close date; moves | Contacts | Flags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halden: warehouse | $220,000 | Proposal | 96; 40 | 41 days | 30 Sep; 3 | 1 | Aged, quiet, slipped, single |
| Pryce: line 2 | $140,000 | Negotiation | 12; 25 | 3 days | 15 Oct; 0 | 4 | None |
| Tessel: framework | $310,000 | Discovery | 20; 30 | 6 days | 28 Sep; 0 | 2 | Early and soon |
Pryce is skipped. Halden and Tessel are the conversation. On a book of forty deals, ten to fifteen will carry a flag.
For each flagged deal, in this order.
1. What did the customer last say or do, and when? Customer actions only. A meeting attended, a question asked, a document returned. If the last customer action was six weeks ago, the deal is quiet whatever the rep has sent since.
2. Who else is involved in the decision, and have we spoken to them? Names and roles. The economic buyer, the user, procurement, whoever can say no. One contact is a relationship, not a deal.
3. What happens next, and on what date? A specific event with a date, agreed with the customer. Follow up is not a next step. No dated next step, no place in this period's forecast.
4. What would stop this? Budget, a competitor, an incumbent, a reorganisation, doing nothing. The rep who cannot name a risk has not looked for one.
5. Why this close date? It should come from the customer's process: a board date, a budget year, a project start. A date at the end of the quarter with no customer reason is the rep's date, not the customer's.
6. What do you need? A senior introduction, a price decision, a technical resource. This is where the manager earns the meeting.
| Situation | Decision |
|---|---|
| Dated next step with the customer; risks named | Keep; note the step |
| No dated next step | Move the close date out of the period, or close |
| Aged and quiet, no customer action in 60 days | Close as lost, stalled. Reopen if the customer comes back |
| Early stage, close date in period | Move the date, or show why this one is different |
| Single-threaded, over a stated value | Action: second contact by a date |
Closing stalled deals is the part managers avoid and the part that makes every other number true. Win rate, coverage and the forecast all depend on it; see pipeline coverage versus weighted pipeline.
| Minutes | Item |
|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | Coverage for the period: in-period pipeline, aged removed, against required. Is there enough? |
| 3 to 23 | Flagged deals, largest first. Six questions, two minutes each. Decision recorded |
| 23 to 27 | Pipeline creation: what was added since last time, against what is needed per fortnight |
| 27 to 30 | Actions and asks, read back |
Pipeline creation gets its own slot because a review that only inspects existing deals never notices that nothing new is coming in.
In the CRM, on the deal, not in a separate document:
Next time, the pre-read shows whether the dated next step happened. A next step that passed its date with nothing logged is a sixth flag.
After the review, each in-period deal is in one of three states: committed, with a customer-dated next step and named risks; possible; or moved out. The rep's forecast is the committed deals plus a judged share of the possible. The manager's roll-up then corrects for what is known about each rep's bias; see forecast bias by rep.
Pipeline review: [rep], [date]. 30 minutes.
Pre-read attached: open deals with flags. Coverage: [x] against required [y].
Flagged deals, for each:
Pipeline created since last review: [value] against [needed].
Actions: [who, what, when].
Every deal, top to bottom. Time runs out at deal fifteen; the stalled ones are at the bottom.
Rep activity accepted as progress. Sent the proposal again is not the customer doing something.
Stalled deals left open. Coverage looks fine for three quarters running and the number is missed in all three.
Done in a group. Deals defended, not examined.
No look at creation. A healthy-looking pipeline that is not being refilled.
Flag first, then ask six questions about the flagged deals only, decide keep, move or close, and record the dated next step where it will be checked. For the team meeting that sits beside it, see the weekly sales meeting agenda; for the required coverage figure, what is a good pipeline coverage ratio. Covirage produces the flagged pre-read from the opportunity and activity exports, with stage norms from the team's own won deals.
The pipeline review is where the deal information is tested; the forecast call is where the tested figures are rolled up. Doing both at once, in a group, produces optimistic deals defended in public. Do the review one to one, first, and the forecast call becomes short.
What did the customer last do, and when? It separates deals that are moving from deals the rep is hoping about. An answer about what the rep did, sent a proposal, left a message, is not an answer. Progress is measured by customer actions.
Fortnightly for most B2B teams, weekly in the last month of a quarter or where cycles are short. Monthly is too slow to catch a stalled deal before it has cost a quarter. The flags are what make fortnightly affordable: twenty to thirty minutes, because most deals are skipped.