# Pipeline Review: Numbers a Sales Manager Can Use

> Numbers for the pipeline review: how far each rep is from target, whether the pipeline covers the gap and which deals can still land or are at risk.

Canonical: https://funneleconomics.ai/solutions/sales-manager

Funnel Economics gives sales managers numbers for the weekly pipeline review and the one-on-one, straight from Salesforce. Per sales rep, they show how far the target is away, whether the pipeline covers the gap and which deals can still land or are at risk. Every deal at risk comes with a measured age statement, its health band.

## Which questions does a sales manager ask?

Leading sales reps directly calls for an order in the review. Each question builds on the one before. A gap that is not established cannot be forecast. A list of deals without the funnel behind it produces activity instead of a decision. Five questions can be answered with metrics drawn from your own opportunities.

### Where does each sales rep stand, and how large is the gap?

The reference point for everything that follows is attainment and the remaining gap per sales rep. Without that reference point, every later figure is a number without a denominator.

A sales rep with no target on file should be named, not left out. Otherwise the team looks complete when it is not.

### Does the pipeline carry the gap?

Coverage belongs on the table as a pair. Nominal coverage divides the open pipeline by the gap to target. Risk-adjusted coverage puts [rEFV, the risk-adjusted revenue expectation](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/refv), in the place of the open pipeline. The finding is the distance between the two values.

A low risk-adjusted value has two opposite causes. If nominal coverage is high, the pipeline is there but does not carry. If nominal coverage is low as well, there is too little pipeline. Recommending a clean-up where pipeline is missing makes things worse.

This question decides what comes next: more pipeline, or the pipeline that is already there.

Per sales rep, the gap is not a planned quarterly target. It is derived from the annual target. At the level of the organisation and the region, where a planned target is the denominator, the risk-adjusted value is called [HACR, the Health-Adjusted Coverage Ratio](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/hacr).

### Who looks strong on the look back and thin ahead?

[CIF, the share of the team's result](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/cif), measures a sales rep's share of the deals won and the revenue won by the team in one period. [PAS as a combined measure](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/pas) multiplies a sales rep's win rate across all their decided deals by their CIF. The [win rate, the share of deals won](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/win-rate), is here the win rate across all decided deals: won among decided.

These metrics look back: they are calculated on decided deals. Whoever is strong on the look back and has little pipeline ahead risks missing the target. A ranking by what has been won hides exactly that person.

A weakness here is a coaching lever, not a failure.

### Which deals can still land, and which are at risk?

The answer is two lists per sales rep, not one ranking. The largest deals are neither the most promising nor the most endangered. A list sorted by amount mixes the two.

The first list shows the deals that can still realistically close. The second list shows the deals at risk, each with its health band, measured on total age against the SLA values of its stage. Every deal at risk gets one concrete action.

The health band comes from [SLA Health, a deal's age measured against the SLA](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/sla-health). An SLA value is the time target of a stage; what is compared is the deal's total age. Your organisation sets two values for it per stage and opportunity type. SLA Health compares each opportunity's total age in the funnel with them.

### Which stage is slower than intended?

Time spent per stage is measured by [BPV, the deviation from the SLA per stage](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/bpv). A health band and a BPV are not the same statement. The health band asks whether a deal is old for its stage. BPV asks whether a stage is slow.

When the share of the DELAYED and STALLED bands rises against the funnel's own history, that is a pattern of its own. It is called [funnel calcification, when the conspicuous health bands grow](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/patterns/funnel-calcification). What gets named is the stage in which the over-aged stock stands, not the average across the whole funnel.

## Which metrics matter for sales managers?

| Metric | Answers the question | More |
|---|---|---|
| Win rate | What share of all of a sales rep's decided deals is won? | [Win rate in the glossary](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/win-rate) |
| PAS | How do a sales rep's win rate across all decided deals and contribution stand together? | [PAS in the glossary](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/pas) |
| CIF | What share of the team's result does a sales rep carry? | [CIF in the glossary](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/cif) |
| bEFV | What is the open pipeline worth at your own stage win rates? | [bEFV in the glossary](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/befv) |
| rEFV | What can be expected once SLA Health is factored in? | [rEFV in the glossary](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/refv) |
| Coverage as a pair | Does the pipeline cover the gap to target, nominally and risk-adjusted? | [HACR in the glossary, for organisation and region](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/hacr) |
| BPV | In which stage does it take longer than intended? | [BPV in the glossary](https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/bpv) |

:::merksatz
The largest deals are neither the most promising nor the most endangered. A review needs two lists, not one ranking by amount.
:::

## How to get started

Funnel Economics is entering its beta phase. During the beta, you start by running it against a Salesforce sandbox.

Funnel Economics Core is a managed package that runs in your Salesforce org. The prerequisite is Salesforce Enterprise Edition; Data Cloud is not required. There, Core calculates bEFV and a simplified rEFV by health status.

Core ships with dashboards. Among other things, they show how the open deals spread across HEALTHY, DELAYED and STALLED, as a share and as an amount. For dashboard commentary, Core can call a language model. This AI data transfer is off by default and is enabled per org and per user; the package masks personal values before the call.

Funnel Economics Strategist is an optional add-on and not active by default. Strategist requires a per-user authorisation that your Salesforce administrator controls and can revoke. The prepared context then passes through a service we operate to the language model you have chosen, with the names of sales reps and opportunities and record links.

The language model processes the data under your own agreement with the provider. We strongly recommend securing the use of Strategist with an enterprise agreement with that provider, including a data-processing agreement that excludes the use of the data for training. That is a recommendation, not a precondition.

The analyses per sales rep described here, coverage as a pair and the two lists are delivered by Strategist. For sales managers, Strategist is designed to break results down to sales reps and individual deals. Each one-on-one is meant to come with concrete questions to put to the sales rep.

If you lead several sales managers, the page [Sales Leadership: Reading the Numbers Across Teams](https://funneleconomics.ai/solutions/vp-sales) has the matching questions.

Discover is meant for trying Funnel Economics before any installation. It is built on a demo org.

## FAQ

### Which numbers do I need for a pipeline review?

That depends on the question. Attainment and the remaining gap show where each sales rep stands. Nominal and risk-adjusted coverage, as a pair, show whether the pipeline covers the gap. The win rate across all decided deals, PAS and CIF show who is strong on the look back. BPV shows which stage is slower than intended. A pipeline review also needs two lists per sales rep: deals that can still close, and deals at risk with their health band.

### How can I tell who is about to miss the quarter?

By comparing the look back with the look ahead. The win rate across all decided deals, PAS and CIF look back. Coverage looks ahead. Whoever looks strong on the look back and has little pipeline ahead risks missing the target. A ranking by what has been won hides exactly that person.

### Do I get a single forecast number?

The forecast range consists of three named cases: worst case, realistic case and best case. Each case stands for an assumption about the business, not for a confidence bound. cEFV is the best case. Funnel Economics Strategist is designed to give this range as the forecast answer for a window not yet begun. The running quarter gets three standings: won so far, expected (an upper bound) and the bound of today's stock – everything open today won, no absolute ceiling.

### Where does Funnel Economics Core calculate, and what leaves Salesforce in the process?

Funnel Economics Core calculates in your Salesforce org. For dashboard commentary, Core can call a language model. This AI data transfer is off by default and is enabled per org and per user; the package masks personal values before the call.

### What leaves Salesforce when Strategist is active?

Funnel Economics Strategist is an optional add-on. The prepared context passes through a service we operate to your chosen language model. Rep names, opportunity names and record links go along by design: an answer with placeholders would be useless. Our leg requires a data-processing agreement, which we are preparing. The language model processes the data under your agreement with its provider. There we strongly recommend an enterprise agreement with a data-processing agreement that excludes training use; a recommendation, not a precondition. Your Salesforce administrator controls and can revoke per-user authorisation.

### What does Core calculate, and what does Strategist calculate?

Funnel Economics Core calculates bEFV and a simplified rEFV by health status in your Salesforce org and shows both in the dashboards. Funnel Economics Strategist calculates rEFV with measured factors per health band; further figures such as cEFV build on that. Strategist also calculates BPV.