Why you do this session / potential triggers
Typically a pipeline review should be a recurring event on your calendar, since it’s a session you’ll do regularly with everyone on your team. It’s a chance to help your team make sure their pipeline is healthy, balanced and that they are on top of their admin.
You can also use a pipeline review if you notice an anomaly in the CRM data that might indicate an issue with rep behaviour.
What you need to prepare as a manager
Review CRM data in advance, make sure you have the right filters and setup to review the overall pipeline and individual rep pipeline.
What the rep needs to prepare
The sales rep should know how to navigate to their view in CRM and to show any deals that they may need help with.
What you’ll cover
Here’s some guidance for each talking point in the notes template:
Pipeline Coverage
You’ll start with a high level overview of pipeline before drilling down into individual deals. Is the rep pipeline aligned to goals?
Action Review
Take a look at the actions you’ve noted from previous sessions. Are they completed? Are there any outstanding? What was the outcome of the completed action? Did it meet expectations?
- Outcomes
- Outstanding actions
Pipeline Metrics
Similar to the goal alignment exercise but delving a little bit deeper into the metrics. Does your rep have enough pipeline? Are they working leads correctly? Are they creating opportunities and moving them through the stages correctly?
- Creation
- Movement
- Progress since last meeting
Challenges / Blockers
Now it’s time to look at individual deals and/or issues a rep has. Here’s your opportunity to help unstick deals for the rep, make plays on deals and help them understand the process better.
If you have any deal-specific actions for the rep to do, it’s best for them to create tasks on that deal in the CRM.
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 playbook for pipeline stage definitions and confirm understanding”
“Update CRM with all necessary task actions for later stage pipeline”
“Identify an area for improvement and investigate resources required”
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.