Pipeline hygiene: a checklist for your weekly review

The weekly pipeline hygiene checklist

Start with open deals due in the forecast period, overdue close dates, and missing next steps. Review a small batch with each owner. Use the same fields each week.

Deal: [name and record link]
Owner: [person]
Stage evidence: [buyer action and date]
Amount and currency: [value and basis]
Expected close: [date and reason]
Last buyer interaction: [date and source]
Next step: [action, owner, due date]
Blocker: [known issue or unconfirmed]
Decision: [keep open, requalify, defer, close]
Review again: [date]

• Confirm the owner and people involved

  Reassign deals when a rep leaves. Check who is still involved on the buyer's side and whether their role has changed. Record the handoff and the next contact.

• Check the stage against its exit criteria

  Look for the buyer action your team agreed would move the deal forward. A proposal being sent and a scope being accepted are separate events. Record which one your stage requires.

• Check the value and expected close date

  Confirm scope, currency, and whether the amount covers a one-off project or recurring work. Give a moved close date a reason from the buyer's decision process.

• Verify the next step and its evidence

  Name the action, owner, and date. Open the related email or meeting note when available. Check sync and access settings when the timeline looks empty.

Decide what to do with a stale deal

Set review thresholds from your own sales cycle, stage, and deal type. A long procurement review and a missed discovery call need different follow-ups. Avoid closing deals solely because a fixed number of days has passed.

• Keep open with a confirmed next step

  Record the buyer's agreed action and date. If work is waiting on legal, budget, or another team, name the blocker and the person tracking it.

• Requalify or defer

  Ask whether the project, decision process, and timing still hold. If the buyer has paused, record the reason and revisit date. Apply your team's forecast rules to deferred deals.

• Close with a reason

  When the buyer declines or the owner confirms there is no active opportunity, record the loss reason. Preserve the history for later review and any appropriate future contact.

Use defined metrics and your own baseline

Compare the same pipeline, period, currency, and deal type. Keep a record of the starting set of deals so edits during the month do not change what you are measuring.

• Missing next steps

  Count open deals without an action, owner, or due date. Divide by the open deals reviewed. For example, 8 incomplete records out of 40 gives a 20% gap. This is a worked example.

• Age in stage and activity recency

  Track days since stage entry and days since the last buyer interaction separately. Compare similar deals. An internal note can update a record without showing new buyer activity.

• Close-date slippage

  Take the deals expected to close in a period at its start. Count those still open after the period or moved to a later date. Divide by that starting count and report the reasons.

• Pipeline coverage

  Divide eligible open pipeline value for the period by the remaining revenue target for that period. State whether values are weighted. Choose a target using your own win rate and timing; there is no single safe ratio for every team.

• Sales velocity

  Multiply qualified opportunities by average deal value and win rate as a decimal, then divide by average sales-cycle days. For example, 40 × 10,000 × 0.25 ÷ 50 = 2,000 currency units per day. Use this estimate to compare pipelines. Report booked revenue separately.

Check the workflow in your CRM trial

Use a test deal to walk through the review in Lumenbase or another CRM. Compare what the record shows with the source information before relying on it in a forecast.

• Record and retrieve the decision

  Try updating the owner, stage, value, and close date. Add a note with the reason and link a follow-up task. Reopen the record and check that a colleague with the right access can find it.

• Check what activity is captured

  Test a connected email and calendar event against the relevant records. Check the connection, record links, and sharing rules if an item is missing. Account for calls and notes that need separate capture.

• Review alerts before enabling bulk actions

  Test an overdue or missing-next-step rule on sample records. Check its timing and who sees it. Require review before rules close deals, change forecast values, or contact buyers.

Common questions

Sources and setup guides

• Salesforce: sales velocity formula
• Salesforce Trailhead: pipeline metrics and review
• Lumenbase: managing deals

Sources checked on 14 September 2026.

Related guides

• Sales coaching with CRM data
• Sales velocity calculator
• Contact deduplication