Sales Pipeline Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A deal has been sitting in the 'Proposal Sent' stage for 45 days with no response. What is the BEST first action?
- Archive the deal as lost
- Send a breakup email to create urgency (Correct answer)
- Escalate directly to the prospect's CEO
- Move it back to Discovery and restart
Correct answer: Send a breakup email to create urgency
A breakup email signals you may disengage, which often prompts a response and reveals whether the deal is still alive.
Question 2: Which metric best indicates the overall health of a sales pipeline?
- Total number of open deals
- Weighted pipeline value (Correct answer)
- Average deal size
- Number of demos scheduled
Correct answer: Weighted pipeline value
Weighted pipeline value multiplies deal value by probability, giving a realistic forecast of expected revenue.
Question 3: A rep has 80 deals in their pipeline. A manager reviewing this pipeline should be MOST concerned about:
- Too many deals causing neglect of high-priority opportunities (Correct answer)
- The rep's ability to handle a large territory
- Insufficient deal diversity across industries
- The lack of enterprise-level opportunities
Correct answer: Too many deals causing neglect of high-priority opportunities
An overloaded pipeline leads to neglected deals; research suggests 20-40 active opportunities is a healthy range for most reps.
Question 4: What does 'pipeline velocity' measure?
- The speed at which reps make outbound calls
- The rate at which revenue moves through the pipeline (Correct answer)
- The number of new deals added per week
- The time between demo and proposal
Correct answer: The rate at which revenue moves through the pipeline
Pipeline velocity = (# of deals × win rate × average deal size) ÷ sales cycle length, showing how fast revenue flows.
Question 5: When should a deal be officially marked as 'Closed Lost' in a CRM?
- When the rep hasn't spoken to the prospect in 30 days
- When the prospect asks to be removed from email lists
- When the prospect explicitly states they are not moving forward (Correct answer)
- When the deal exceeds the average sales cycle length
Correct answer: When the prospect explicitly states they are not moving forward
A deal should only be marked lost upon explicit confirmation from the prospect to maintain pipeline accuracy.
Question 6: A sales manager notices most deals stall between the 'Demo' and 'Proposal' stages. What is the MOST likely root cause?
- Reps are offering too many discounts
- The demos are not uncovering the prospect's real pain points (Correct answer)
- Proposals are priced too high
- The CRM stage definitions are unclear
Correct answer: The demos are not uncovering the prospect's real pain points
If demos fail to connect the product to the buyer's specific pain, there is no urgency to move forward to a proposal.
Question 7: Which action BEST protects pipeline accuracy during a quarterly review?
- Adding every open conversation as an opportunity
- Removing any deal where the close date has passed without closure
- Requiring reps to update close dates weekly (Correct answer)
- Lowering probability percentages across all deals
Correct answer: Requiring reps to update close dates weekly
Requiring weekly close date updates forces reps to actively assess deal status and keeps forecast data current.
Sales Pipeline Management 2
A deal has been sitting in the 'Proposal Sent' stage for 45 days with no response.
What is the BEST first action?