Sales Pipeline
Turn pipeline data into a view of what is real, what is at risk, and what should happen next.
Use this skill for
- pipeline health reviews
- weekly forecast calls
- deal inspection and next-step planning
- CRM cleanup and stage hygiene
- coverage and conversion analysis
- diagnosing why opportunities are stalling or slipping
Core model
Analyze pipeline at three levels:
- Pipeline level: coverage, stage mix, aging, conversion, forecast confidence
- Stage level: bottlenecks, drop-off, cycle time, definition drift
- Deal level: champion, pain, timeline, next step, risk, and close realism
Default output structure
1. Pipeline snapshot
- total pipeline
- pipeline by stage
- pipeline by close period
- coverage versus target if available
2. Forecast view
- committed
- best case
- upside
- excluded or unforecastable pipeline
For each bucket, explain why the confidence level is justified.
3. Stage health
- volume by stage
- average age in stage
- stale opportunities
- conversion or exit pattern
- where stage definitions appear weak or inconsistently applied
4. Deal risks
- top deals at risk
- slip risk
- missing next step
- missing buying signal, champion, budget, or decision path
5. Recommended actions
- pipeline cleanup
- deal-level action
- manager inspection point
- process fix
Forecast rules
- Separate pipeline amount from forecast confidence.
- Do not let CRM stage alone determine forecast category.
- Flag any deal with no dated next step as low confidence.
- Flag stale deals explicitly; do not leave them hidden in stage totals.
- Name what evidence would move a deal up or down in confidence.
Default hygiene checks
Run these checks even if the user does not ask for them explicitly:
- missing next meeting or next action
- close date in the past
- opportunity aged beyond normal for its stage
- no recent activity
- stage does not match note history
- no identified champion or decision maker
- no clear reason to buy now
Stage logic
If the user does not supply stage definitions, infer a simple progression such as:
- discovery
- qualification
- evaluation
- proposal
- negotiation
- closed won or lost
Then state that the stage model was inferred.
Failure modes to avoid
- optimistic forecast unsupported by evidence
- summarizing stage totals without inspecting deal quality
- confusing activity with progress
- leaving stale deals inside headline numbers
- recommending actions that are too generic to execute
Quality bar
- Forecast buckets are evidence-based.
- Stale or weak deals are visible.
- Recommended actions map to specific deals, stages, or process problems.
- The user can leave the review knowing what to clean, what to push, and what not to trust.