In the sales landscape, you may have to juggle many different prospects and deals, and you can’t afford to lose one through the cracks. 

 

Hence, many sales leaders employ a “sales pipeline” to keep an eye on all their deals in one place. A promising sales pipeline is key to understanding what is happening across your sales process. However, you should also be aware that having your sales pipeline alone does not mean your tale is over. 

 

Creating a sales pipeline is just the first step to success. You must consistently analyze your sales pipeline to turn every touchpoint into sales. Here, in this article, we will give a quick rundown on “pipeline analysis” so that you can empower your team to reach their sales goals and make sure no deal gets left behind.

 

What Is Sales Pipeline Analysis?

 

The practice of assessing your sales pipeline is called sales pipeline analysis. Analyzing your sales pipeline helps you track, analyze and determine which prospects are ready to complete a purchase and which need to catch up in reaching their final buying stage. 

 

Additionally, it will show you the key stages in your sales funnel and the stage at which your prospects are falling off. In a nutshell, it gives you a visualization of how your sales process works, enabling you to adjust your sales strategy to close more deals. 

 

Typically, the sales pipeline analysis aims to assist you with the following:

• Spots opportunities in the sales pipeline to seal more deals.
• It gives you advice on where to allocate your resources so that you can elevate your sales.
• Third, it shows you the progress of your current strategies.
• Fourth, it helps you understand where and how your sales reps invest their time.
• Fifth, it helps you identify potential prospects so you can devote more attention to them.
• Finally, determines the obstacles hindering your sales reps’ efforts from sealing deals with the best prospects.
  
  

To efficiently analyze your sales pipeline and to acquire a clear picture of your sales process,  you need to track specific KPIs.These metrics allow you to effectively complete your sales pipeline analysis, facilitating a solid planning and forecasting strategy for your sales process. So, let’s explore some of the critical metrics you should be tracking when analyzing your sales pipeline:

• Average deal size indicates the total revenue businesses generate in a given period per the number of deals they close during that time frame.

• Average sales cycle length refers to the time it takes for an initial lead to turn into a buyer. It’s crucial to strive for a short sales cycle as it allows your salespeople to work on more deals in a given timeframe.

• Win rate – This KPI shows you how well your sales force is doing with regard to closing deals. To calculate the win rate, divide the number of won deals by the number of opportunities generated during that specific time. If your sales team successfully hits its targets, you should keep using your current approach to close other deals.

• The number of opportunities – tracking this metric is important because knowing how many options are within your pipeline will allow you to step forward to clinch your deals.
  
  

All of the above metrics will help you gain granular insight into the health of your sales pipeline and know where action needs to be taken to improve your pipeline. Therefore, use these indicators to analyze your sales pipeline and discover what is required to have a robust pipeline.

How To Make Pipeline Analysis

To begin this process, you must first accumulate your sales data from various sources, such as reviewing past performance, consulting with your sales staff, or conducting lead surveys. 

Once you have the sales data, you should evaluate it to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date. You may need to employ a tool if you can’t examine your data manually. You can perform your sales pipeline analysis effectively by accurately accessing your sales data.

Related: How inside sales lead gen platform/strategies impact the sales funnel and sales pipeline

A doctor first analyzes the symptoms before they turn into something more serious. Like a doctor, your “sales pipeline analysis” regularly checks the condition of your pipeline. This allows you to “diagnose” any issues in your pipeline and fix them before they affect your team or your sales.

Your sales pipeline is crucial to the smooth running of your inside sales management process. So, to have a clean and effective pipeline, maintain a routine for pipeline analysis and consistently keep your quotas clicking.