🤯 Salesforce just increased their own pipeline goals by 50% from 2x to 3x.

8️⃣ 𝐬𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧 B2B Fusion 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬:

1️⃣ Focus on active, qualified pipeline rather than just top-of-funnel quantity. Leads or accounts that don’t translate into real sales opportunities don’t contribute to accurate pipeline coverage. This counters Quantity > Quality.

2️⃣ Establish a consistent definition and process for what constitutes active pipeline across sales and marketing. This creates alignment on what is being measured. Building the right dashboard from this point helps here (ask us how).

3️⃣ Have a regular “Pipeline Council” meeting with sales, marketing, and other go-to-market teams to review pipeline metrics, identify gaps, and take action. Executive involvement is key. Critical ABM/ABX step in your GTM planning.

4️⃣ Recognize that long sales cycles can create a disconnect between current pipeline and revenue outcomes. Trend analysis is needed to understand the pipeline-to-revenue correlation. This is where measuring conversions by source type matters most. (ask us how)

5️⃣ Strive for transparency around assumptions in pipeline models, as lack of trust in the models undermines their usefulness. This is where regular spot checking helps – I remember as an operator not doing enough spot checking and taking information at face value.

6️⃣ For companies selling to enterprise (eg ABM/ABX), pipeline discussions often revolve around specific deals rather than just metrics. Qualitative deal reviews are important at that level.

7️⃣ Consider account prioritization and coverage in pipeline analysis, not just aggregate pipeline. Visibility into each territory’s pipeline health is valuable, especially again for ABM/ABX.

8️⃣ Align pipeline coverage targets with the company’s growth goals and factor in conversion rates, sales cycles, and marketing’s contribution. Oh yeah, Marketing can help here.

Keep in mind this post is looking mostly at ‘top of funnel’.

GTM leaders are constantly tuning forecasts and we’re about to enter forecast season – so hopefully these tips can guide your conversations.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬?