Why you do this session / potential triggers
As a manager, you should be able to communicate the value of active pipeline management.
You should be able to give solid advice, remembering that this is separate from a deal or pipeline review.
Usually, during pipeline reviews you’ll spot the issues that signal you need to do a pipeline management coaching session. Red flags might be consistently missing close dates, not having any tasks set, or deals sitting in earlier stage pipeline for too long.
What you need to prepare as a manager
You’ll review their pipeline in the CRM based on the metrics listed under the template below, adding notes under each area if you spot any issues. Share the list with the rep so they can prepare too.
What the rep needs to prepare
The rep should use the list of metrics to get their own idea of where they might be struggling.
What you’ll cover
Here’s some guidance for each talking point in the notes template:
Recap: the need for pipeline management
This is a prompt to discuss the value of pipeline management as a foundation for the rest of the session.
Current pipeline metric review
Discuss each of the areas including any concerns you raised during the preparation for the session:
- Balance
- Is there a healthy mix of leads vs opportunities?
- Does the rep have a balance of opps in each stage of the sales process or is it too heavily weighted for top of funnel?
- Deal velocity
- How quickly are deals progressing through the stages?
- Opportunity creation
- If leads are being worked correctly, then opportunities should be created. How does the pipeline look for new opportunities being created? Are the new opportunities being set up correctly with placeholder values and close dates until qualified?
- Task activity
- Has the rep set up their daily admin correctly? If there are more than a certain number of tasks set each day are they overloading themselves with admin?
Rep input: challenges / blockers
This is an opportunity for a rep to tell you anything they are struggling with that you haven’t covered as part of the metrics review.
How can the rep develop based on this?
To make the session valuable for the rep, there should be some action for them to take to make an improvement based on what they’ve learned. This section of the notes is a reminder to add those as actions so you can follow up later.
Some example actions might be:
“Review stage definitions in playbook“
or
“Identify when you can block time during the day to focus on pipeline management”
What next?
Remember to share the notes and actions once you’re done.
Based on how the session went, you might want to update the rep profile with an update or a change in their skills profile.