Playbook · Diagnostic
Pipeline value is the wrong headline number. Pipeline health is the right one. This playbook gives a new revenue leader, sales director or fractional CRO a structured five-day review that surfaces whether the pipeline will convert, before week two.
Audience
Revenue leader, Sales leader, Founder / CEO
Time on task
Five working days
Context
Written by Rich Evans from advisory engagements with founder-led and PE-backed SMEs. Most pipeline reviews are recitations of value by stage. This playbook replaces that with a structured assessment of coverage, concentration, velocity and stage health, scored against thresholds.
Before you start
What you will have at the end
Coverage is the ratio of qualified pipeline to remaining target. Without coverage of three times the gap, the quarter is at meaningful risk. Without coverage of four times for a long-cycle business, the quarter is unrecoverable.
Checklist
Failure mode this step prevents
Counting early-stage pipeline in the coverage calculation. The number flatters the quarter and the leadership team is misled.
Concentration is the share of the forecast that depends on the top one, three and five deals. A quarter where the top three deals carry seventy per cent of the forecast is one phone call away from a miss.
Checklist
Failure mode this step prevents
Reporting an aggregate forecast without concentration analysis. The board hears a comfortable number; the leader knows it stands on one deal.
Velocity is how long deals take to move from one stage to the next. Stalls predict losses long before close-date slippage shows up in the forecast. Compare current cohort velocity to the trailing twelve months.
Checklist
Failure mode this step prevents
Treating an old deal as still alive because it has not been closed-lost. Stalled deals are losses with later paperwork.
Stage health is the discipline with which deals enter and exit each stage. Without exit criteria, stages are aspirational and the forecast is a hope. Audit a sample of deals against the current exit criteria.
Checklist
Failure mode this step prevents
Accepting the CRM stage as truth. Reps move deals forward to look productive; the audit is the only check on that drift.
The output is a one-page pipeline health memo with a RAG verdict on each of the four dimensions, three to five immediate actions, and an honest forecast for the quarter. The memo is read at the leadership meeting in week two.
Checklist
Failure mode this step prevents
Producing a forty-slide deck rather than a one-page memo. The leadership team disengages and the actions do not land.
Three times remaining target for a typical SaaS or B2B services business with one to three-month sales cycles. Four times for industrial, capital-equipment or enterprise sales cycles longer than six months.
Monthly against the same template once installed. The week-one review is the baseline. Re-running monthly surfaces drift before it shows up in the forecast.
Yes, in summary form. Hidden diagnostics breed mistrust; transparent diagnostics drive accountability. The named-deal detail stays at leadership level.
Pipeline coverage, concentration and velocity are typically three of the eight metrics on the weekly commercial scorecard. The week-one review establishes the baseline and the thresholds.
Related Evara work
Sectors this is most relevant to
Tools to use alongside
Sales recruitment, GTM recruitment and revenue advisory for SMEs UK-wide. We reply within one working day.
Email Rachel Lunn