Sales managers are always looking for ways to improve their team's performance. One of the most important tools they have at their disposal is pipeline reporting, which is a great way to perform a sales pipeline analysis.
Pipeline reporting helps sales managers track the progress of their team's sales pipeline, identify areas of opportunity and potential bottlenecks, and take corrective action where necessary.
There are many different ways to approach pipeline reporting, but the most important thing is to make sure that it is tailored to the specific needs of your team.
In this article, we’ll give you a crash course in pipeline reporting, so you can start making the most of this valuable tool.
The benefits of sales pipeline reporting
Sales pipeline reporting can help you in a number of ways to improve your business. By understanding where your sales are at in the sales pipeline, you can better manage your resources and time to close more sales.
You can identify which products or services are selling well and which ones may need more attention. You can also keep track of your sales team's performance and identify any potential problems in your sales process.
Plus, sales pipeline reporting can help you improve your customer relationships by understanding their needs and pain points.
What makes a good sales pipeline report?
A good sales pipeline report should provide an overview of the current sales situation, including the number of deals in the pipeline, their stage of development, and the value of each deal. It should also include information on the expected close date for each deal. By the way, we have a dedicated article to sales pipeline metrics you should track. And if you're using Salesforce, this one on (in our view) must-track Salesforce KPIs might also be something for you.
In addition, a good sales pipeline report will highlight any trends that are emerging from the data. For example, if there are more deals than usual in a particular stage of the pipeline, or if the value of deals is increasing or decreasing over time. The key here is to include only the actually useful information in these reports—don’t just try fitting every sales stat possible.
Finally, a good sales pipeline report should be easy to understand and interpret. It should be clear at a glance what the data means and how it can be used to inform decisions about sales strategy.
Now that we’ve got the basics out of the way, let’s jump into 10 reporting must-haves.
10 sales pipeline reports every sales manager should create
Sales managers should create a variety of reports in order to get a comprehensive view of their sales pipeline. Here are 10 essential metrics that every sales manager should include in a sales pipeline report:
1. Opportunities in pipeline
Most important to: Sales managers, CEO, CMO
Questions this will answer:
- How many opportunities are in the sales pipeline?
- Do our opportunities have enough value to meet our budget?
Why it matters:
Your sales team can only work with what’s in the pipeline. If there aren’t enough opportunities, there’s no way Sales can meet budget. Keeping track of this metric will ensure you know when to flag Marketing to make improvements to their top-of-funnel strategy and bring more quality leads in.
Weflow tip: Sales managers use Weflow (for free!) to easily create Salesforce reports. You can just sign-up with your Salesforce account. Learn more.
2. Average deal size
Most important to: Sales managers, CEO, CMO
Questions this will answer:
- What is the average value of the opportunities coming in?
- What market segment do the majority of our customers fall under (e.g. SMB vs. Enterprise)?
Why it matters:
As a sales manager, knowing the average deal size of opportunities coming in will help you accurately forecast revenue and predict your ability to meet or exceed budget. Marketing can use this information as well to know what market segment to tailor their advertising efforts to.
3. Highest priority accounts for closing
Most important to: Sales managers
Questions this will answer:
- Which opportunities should sales reps be working on first?
- How much money are these opportunities worth?
Why it matters:
Knowing your biggest opportunities can help sales reps prioritize their efforts, focusing on the highest-value accounts first and working their way down. This will help increase revenue and hit targets even if fewer total accounts are closed, since the deal sizes will be bigger.
4. Average sales cycle
Most important to: Sales managers, CEO
Questions this will answer:
- How long does it take a lead to turn into a customer?
- Based on this sales cycle length, how long will it take us to hit our sales targets?
Why it matters:
The length of your sales cycle is important to measure because it helps you set realistic sales targets. For example, if you have 100 deals in the works and your sales cycle lasts 6 weeks, it doesn’t make sense to have a goal of closing 50 deals a month. Having this knowledge also helps you identify areas for improvement. Which stage of the sales process takes the longest? How can it be shortened? Is there anything else you can do to optimize your sales process?
5. Win rate
Most important to: Sales managers, CEO
Questions this will answer:
- What percentage of our opportunities are we closing?
- How many are we losing and why?
Why it matters:
This number shows how many of your prospects actually turn into customers. By keeping track of this metric, you'll be able to notice right away if numbers drop and figure out why. For example, the issue could be an underperforming sales rep, misalignment between Sales and Marketing, or a new competitor in the industry. The sooner you can dig into the why, the sooner you’ll be able to alleviate the problem.
6. Sold vs. budget
Most important to: Sales managers, sales reps, CEO
Questions this will answer:
- How much revenue do we need this quarter?
- How much revenue have we made so far?
Why it matters:
Because revenue is the whole reason we’re in sales! Execs want to know how much more money the company needs to meet its goals. If budget isn't met, it means some strategy adjustments need to happen. Sales might need to spend more time outbound prospecting, while Marketing might need to change their inbound campaigns.
7. Won revenue by region
Most important to: CEO, CMO
Questions this will answer:
- Where do most of our customers live?
- Are we spending our marketing money on the right places?
Why it matters:
This one is for the marketing execs. They need to know how many leads from different regions turn into customers so they can effectively focus their efforts. For example, if most revenue comes from eastern states, Marketing can spend more targeting those regions because they've shown the highest return.
8. Won revenue by industry
Most important to: CEO, CMO
Questions this will answer:
- Which industries do most of our customers work in?
- Are we advertising to these industries?
Why it matters:
Another one for the marketing team. Knowing which industries most of your closed sales come from means Marketing can better target their advertising efforts to these verticals.
For example, if a lot of your customers are in the Healthcare industry, it may be worthwhile to create downloadable healthcare-related content for the website to attract more leads from that vertical.
9. Revenue growth rate
Most important to: Sales managers, CEO, CMO
Questions this will answer:
- Is the amount of revenue we’re generating going up?
- What percentage is it increasing (or decreasing) by?
Why it matters:
Knowing your revenue growth rate will instantly tell you whether the effort your company is putting into sales and marketing is paying off. Revenue increasing? You must be doing something right. Stagnating? No need to panic—look for areas to improve. Declining? Time to take a good hard look at your business strategy. (Could just be a bad month!)
Regardless of the outcome, Sales and Marketing will need to work together on this one, since both play a crucial role in revenue generation. And of course, your CEO will want to know the company is heading toward growth as well.
10. Conversion rate by sales rep
Most important to: Sales managers, sales reps
Questions this will answer:
- Which sales reps are closing the most deals?
- Which sales reps are closing the fewest deals?
Why it matters:
This metric will show how much revenue each sales rep has brought in during a certain period. This information can be shared with the entire sales team as a way to recognize top performers and motivate lower-ranking sellers to up their game.
Start creating effective pipeline reports today
A sales pipeline report is an essential tool for sales managers, providing them with a comprehensive overview of the current sales situation.
By creating a variety of sales reports, sales managers can get a detailed view of each stage of the sales process, track changes in the sales pipeline over time, compare the performance of different salespeople, and forecast future sales.
