Pipeline Discipline

Introduction

In order to maintain a clean sales pipeline, it's important to consistently review and assess its status for accuracy and effectiveness. To achieve this, we introduced a review cadence aligned with the monthly forecasting process.

This page offers resources and guidance to support stakeholders in their efforts to maintain a clean pipeline.

Pipeline Discipline Housekeeping Rules

As shown in the diagram below, monthly actions are taken by the Sales Strategy Analysts to ensure Pipeline Health is well-maintained.

Who, What & When

EUR Sales Strategy Analysts communicate weekly with the DSMs to review non-compliant Instrument Opportunities. See table below for more information:
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What

When

Who

Central, Germany	Med	France, North, UKI
1.Open Opps with Close Date in the past [M1,M2,M3] 2.HT/MT/LT Commit & Upside Next Steps Current Q [M1,M2,M3] 3. Create stage Opps in M2 [M2] 4. Current Q Opps Not Forecasted [M3]		1.Open Opps with Close Date in the past [M1,M2,M3] 2.HT/MT/LT Commit & Upside Next Steps Current Q [M1,M2,M3] 3. Create stage Opps in M2 [M2] 4. Current Q Opps Not Forecasted [M3] 5. TM1 vs SFDC Variance [only in the week before M1, M2 & M3 snaps]
Weekly: every Wednesday
To: DSMs (1 email per subregion including all) CC: Subregional Leader, Finance Business Partner, Sales Ops Manager	To: DSMs/PAM (1 email per DSM) for Med Distributors District, the email is sent to the PAM) CC: Subregional Leader, Finance Business Partner, Sales Ops Manager	To: DSMs (1 email per individual) CC: Subregional Leader, Finance Business Partner, Sales Ops Manager

Templates

M1 Email
Example

M2 Email
Example

M3 Email
Example

Resources

Non-Compliance Procedure -Instrument Pipeline

Non-Compliance Procedure (non-Instrument Pipeline)

Sales Cockpit

Manager Cockpit

Pipeline Discipline

The diagram below shows the 3 main focus. For each of the focus points, there are timeframes that these tasks are associated with and are tagged in the diagram

Who & When to do

Pipeline Discipline

Who:

Strategy Analyst to reach out to the following stakeholders:

DSMs and TAMs of each district with SRLs in copy
TSS Managers for each Sub-Region
Inside Sales Managers for each Sub-Region
PCR Manager

‍Email Template
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When:

Emails to stakeholder:

Strategy Analysts to send emails one week before the M1, M2 & M3 forecasts each quarter.*

*Add calendar reminders to send the emails to all the stakeholders.

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Who:

Strategy Analysts to review Non Compliance, instrument pipeline and opportunity stages on a weekly basis

When:

Weekly review (every Tuesday 9:45am-10AM) and ad-hoc reaching out if needed

How to achieve

Pipeline Discipline

Focus

Focus 1: Non-Compliance

Sales Teams to check opportunities for Non-Compliance.
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Criteria for non-compliance

Instruments or Opportunities >$50k
Close Date in the past
Rev Recs Terms missing
Last Modified Date:

~Close date CQ: 14 days
~Close date: CQ+ 1: 30 days
~Close date CQ+ 2: 45 days
~Close date CQ +3 and more: 180 days

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Action steps

Download SFDC report with all the Non-Compliant Opps
Use the Non-Compliance Tracker to generate the Non-Compliant Opps for all the stakeholders

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Resources

Non-Compliance Procedure

Governance
Model Procedure

Sales Cockpit

Manager Cockpit

In-line editing to make changes to the NC opportunities

~Close Date
~Rev Rec terms
~Stage
~Competition
~Next steps‍

For Shipping in Close Quarter and Probability % please open the opportunity and make the required changes

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Focus 2: Instrument Pipeline Reconciliation

Sales Teams to Check their Rollup vs Forecast for discrepancies. Any variance can indicate misalignment between SFDC (which feeds Rollup) and TM1(which feeds Forecast). The syncing timing could lead to a discrepancy between TM1 and the dashboard.

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Action steps

Please send an email with links on how to check and review (based on your stakeholders’ experience)
For new managers, ensure there is training and send screenshots where applicable.

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Resources

Instrument Pipeline Dashboard

Check “Tactical View” to look for any misalignments between Rollup vs Forecast.

Focus 3: Opportunity Stage

Clean opportunity stage to reflect accurate pipeline

Before M2 forecast – No opportunity with Probability 10%
Before M3 forecast – No opportunity in not forecasted category

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Action steps

Please send an email with links on how to check and review (based on your stakeholders’ experience)

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Resources

Review Pipeline Phasing for the Current Quarter in the Sales Cockpit to ensure opportunities in these stages have been scrubbed.

Focus 4: Recording Competitive Information

Action steps

Add the note below in your email
~Reminder to record competitor information which they can visualize in the competitors view dashboard (Sales Cockpits)

Appendix

Email Template

Please edit and amend based on the month, your relationship with the stakeholders and their level of experience
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