Sales pipeline review

Working in sales is considered to be one of the most stressful careers. And one of the most stressful times as a sales rep is joining a sales pipeline review meeting where they get down to the nitty-gritty details of their progress or lack of it. But is it possible to run a sales pipeline meeting without the stress? It might not be 100% stress-free, but the sales review process can be a fruitful and even fun event when the right process is followed.

What is a sales pipeline meeting?

A sales pipeline review meeting is where the sales manager and sales rep discuss the current deals in the pipeline that can be closed or converted into deals within a specific period. Specific metrics are also discussed, including:

• Number of qualified leads
• Number of demos booked
• Number of deals that are in negotiation

Depending on your sales cycle, you may have this meeting weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. The length of the meeting should also depend on the frequency of the meeting. If you're running a sales pipeline review meeting weekly, is 30 minutes enough to go over all the opportunities? It's advised to play around with the time and experiment with the frequency and length of the meetings.

Benefits of a Regular Sales Pipeline Meeting

• Allows you to identify the most critical opportunities
• Ensures that everyone's on track with their goals
• Provides extra support when there are challenges arising
• Offers valuable insights that will help improve the sales process

How to run a sales pipeline meeting?

Running a sales pipeline meeting is just like getting better at sales. Success is a numbers game. The more sessions you run, the better you get at it. So, how do you write a sales review for a meeting?

Prepare reports ahead of time.

While the meeting's purpose is to review the pipeline, it's essential that everyone has already checked it ahead of time. This saves time during the meeting and avoids the situation of everyone awkwardly looking on the CRM, and no one saying anything. Everyone should be at least familiar with the overview of the numbers so that you can dive right into the discussion. You might also ask the sales rep to write a short sales review before the meeting.

Focus on the most critical and urgent leads.

Don't wait until the end of the meeting to discuss the most critical leads that need to be converted. Is there a sales rep that can close a deal and just needs some more detail or added context? Address any questions immediately so that the sales rep can quickly close the deal.

Use tools to organize your sales pipeline and meeting.

Tools are critical to run effective meetings. You need a CRM tool to visualize the pipeline and to track the metrics in one place. Additionally, use Complish to organize your meeting agenda, or in some cases, hold your sales pipeline review meeting asynchronously.

What's Inside This Sales Pipeline Review Meeting Agenda

Whether you're doing an in-person or virtual sales pipeline review meeting, this agenda fits perfectly. You can co-create the agenda asynchronously and share it before the meeting. This also works as a sales review template.

Metrics review

Start the meeting with a short summary of the most critical metrics and opportunities.

Set Goals & Targets

These goals will be associated with purpose-driven activities and linked to the pipeline expectations and deliverables.

Calculate the opportunities needed for your team to hit their goals.

Pipeline Updates

• Follow up on the last pipeline review and progress made since the last meeting
• Review all the most recent high-priority updates on deals currently in the pipeline

Wins

Acknowledge successes and wins (deals closed, promising intros made etc.). This is important to highlight because it can inspire and motivate others to kick it up a notch.

Roadblocks

Discuss any roadblocks or challenges; brainstorm as a team how you can tackle the issues.

Sales Coaching

Offer a section in the pipeline to help sales reps close a sale. You can also run a separate 1-1 meeting or coaching if someone requires more guidance, especially if it's a tricky deal.

Action Items

Summarize all the deals and turn them into action items. Make sure to prioritize the critical sales.

Competitors Update

Discuss any new competitors or news that could affect some of the deals. With the pandemic, some industries are pretty unstable, and it's best to be aware of which ones are struggling.

Ready to run your sales pipeline review meeting? Access our free template for a sales review meeting agenda or discover other meeting templates for you and your team. With Complish, we'll help you run fewer, better meetings, so your team can focus on its objectives and generating results rather than getting stuck in endless meetings.