What Is a Pipeline? In finance, the term pipeline is used to describe progress toward a long-term goal that involves a series of discrete stages. For example, private equity (PE) firms will use the term “acquisition pipeline” to refer to a series of companies they have flagged as potential acquisition targets.

A sales pipeline is a visual snapshot of where prospects are in the sales process. Sales pipelines show you how many deals salespeople are expected to close in a given week, month or year and how close a rep is to reaching their sales quota.

A Customer Pipeline approach is to support customers proactively to identify and address issues and concerns prior to them being escalated into major sources of dissatisfaction. In a Customer Pipeline, proactive support means uplifting your customers so they are able to reach the afore-mentioned business goals.

Sales pipeline management is an estimate of how much money you'll make from current sales opportunities. It allows sales reps to organize and monitor prospects and see how deals are tracking against their monthly, quarterly, and annual goals.

The sales pipeline is a tool for converting leads into sales. It provides sales leaders with a visual representation of the different stages of the sales process (such as when a prospect becomes a qualified lead or when salespeople should follow up with a lead).

Pipeline management helps the team monitor a number of sales performance metrics, from team performance to lead qualification. It gives you a reference point from where you can pinpoint who and at which stage in the sales process is successful or holding your business back.

Characteristics of sales pipeline management Identify and do away with bottlenecks and weak points in their sales cycle. Better understand why some sales deals fail while others succeed. Spot and prepare for potential sales slumps and growth.