What Execs Love to See in a Sales Pipeline Report

This report will show everyone how many deals are at each stage of the pipeline at the time the report is made, the value of each of these deals, and other important metrics.

You generate the report and present it to the team. Some people have questions, some people look confused, and others have dozed off altogether because the meeting is just dragging on… and on...

If this sounds familiar, your sales pipeline report wasn’t as effective as it could’ve been.

It wasn’t clear enough, or people wouldn’t be so confused. And it probably wasn’t relevant enough to everyone in the room, or there wouldn’t be people nodding off, uninterested.

Hey, reporting is tough. We get it.

That’s why we put this list together of 10 things to include in a sales pipeline report that execs will love (and you’ll love too, when all the time and effort you put in begin to pay off):

1. Total opportunities
2. Sold vs. budget
3. Won revenue
4. Won revenue by region
5. Won revenue by industry
6. Win rate
7. Revenue growth rate
8. Highest priority accounts for closing
9. Average time to close
10. Sales reps by revenue

Remember: people are busy.

Your sales pipeline report could have all the right information already.

But if readers have to spend time searching through it for the information they need or even understanding it at all, then that report, well… sucks.

So before we get into what to include in your sales pipeline report, let’s cover some best practices to follow in general. We’ll call them “the basics.”

• Easy to understand: Any employee who looks at your report should know instantly what the data means. Make sure it’s clear and simple.
• Actually useful: Don’t try fitting every sales stat possible into your report. Just stick with the high-level ones that have outcomes executives care about (more on this coming up).
• Visually appealing: Because one can only look at so many standard-format Excel spreadsheets before losing their mind.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s jump into the 10 ingredients needed for a rave-worthy sales pipeline report.

Who cares about this the most: CEO, CMO, VP of Sales

Common questions this section should answer:

• What is the total number of opportunities in the sales pipeline?
• Is that value of our opportunities enough to meet our budget?

The number of opportunities currently in your sales pipeline is essentially everything your sales team has to work with, so this is a critical one. If there aren’t enough leads in your sales pipeline, then there’s no way Sales can meet the budget—and the responsibility to ensure this doesn’t happen falls on Marketing.

The CMO will definitely want to know if there aren’t enough opportunities in the pipeline so they can pass that information along to their team to up their top-of-funnel game and bring more quality leads in.

Who cares about this the most: CEO, CMO, VP of Sales, CFO, sales reps (pretty much everyone)

Common questions this section should answer:

• How much revenue do we need to bring in this quarter?
• How much revenue have we brought in so far?

Generating revenue is why we do this whole sales stuff, right? Execs will want to know at a glance how much more money the company needs to bring in to meet their goals (or at least break even).

If budget isn’t being met, the CMO and VP of Sales will know to prioritize revenue generation in the next month. For example, Sales might need to dedicate some more time to outbound prospecting, while Marketing might need to make some changes to their inbound campaigns.

Who cares about this the most: CEO, VP of Sales

Common questions this section should answer:

• How many opportunities did we win during the period in this report?
• What’s the total value of those won opportunities?

This section should, plain and simple, tell the team how many opportunities have been won in the given reporting period and the total amount of $$ those opportunities brought in.

Who cares about this the most: CMO, VP of Sales

Common questions this section should answer:

• In which region do the majority of our customers live?
• Are we effectively focusing our marketing budget on these regions?

Knowing the rate at which leads from different regions are converting into paying customers is extremely valuable to marketing leaders because it’ll help direct their marketing efforts. For example, if the majority of won revenue comes from western states, Marketing can put more of their budget into these regions since they’ve proven the highest ROI.

Who cares about this the most: CMO

Common questions this section should answer:

• In which industries do the majority of our customers work?
• Are we effectively targeting our marketing to these industries?

Similar to the previous section, this one is most useful to the marketing team. Knowing which industries the majority of your closed sales come from means Marketing can better target their advertising efforts to these niches.

Who cares about this the most: CEO, CMO, VP of Sales, sales reps

Common questions this section should answer:

• What percentage of our opportunities are we closing?
• How many are we losing and why?

The formula: Win rate = # won opportunities / # total opportunities

This number shows how many of the potential deals within your sales activity turn into paying customers. It’s important to keep track of your win rate as any sudden drops can mean something is out of whack—-whether it’s sales rep performance or a misalignment between Marketing and Sales.

Who cares about this the most: CEO, CMO, VP of Sales, CFO

Common questions this section should answer:

• Is the amount of revenue we’re generating going up?

Revenue growth rate = revenue current period / revenue previous period

It’s important everyone knows your revenue growth rate because it’ll instantly tell you whether your sales and marketing efforts are improving, stagnating, or declining. If the latter, both Sales and Marketing will have to work as a team to increase this number. The CEO will definitely want to know the company is heading toward growth as well.

Who cares about this the most: VP of Sales, sales reps

Common questions this section should answer:

• Which prospects should sales reps be focusing their efforts on?
• How much is each of these accounts worth?

By knowing exactly who your biggest opportunities are, sales reps can put in extra work to close them in order to drastically increase your amount of won revenue, even if fewer total accounts are closed.

Who cares about this the most: CMO, VP of Sales, sales reps

Common questions this section should answer:

• How long does it typically take for a lead to turn into a sale?

Knowing how long it normally takes for a deal to close is very helpful to both Marketing and Sales leadership.

For example, if the average sale takes a long time to close, Marketing might want to invest in creating more middle- and bottom-of-funnel content to help push leads through the sales funnel and ensure they don’t get lost along the way. Sales will want to ensure their sales cadence is designed for a longer sales cycle so they’re not giving up on leads too early.

Who cares about this the most: VP of Sales, sales reps

Common questions this section should answer:

• Which sales reps are closing the most deals?
• Which sales reps are closing the fewest deals?
• What is the average won revenue by sales rep?

This section will be the part that shows how much each sales rep has contributed to the total won revenue this period. Sharing this information with the entire sales team can be a good way to praise the top performers and motivate the lower-ranking sellers to push themselves harder.

Sales pipeline reporting is super important because it shows you—and everyone else in your company—how sales are doing and where the company is going, and empowers team members with the knowledge to make improvements on a regular basis

Now that you know what to include in a sales pipeline report, do you want help putting it all together? Take Copper for a free 14-day test drive and see how easy it makes pipeline management!