TL;DR:
A pipeline review checks that every open deal is in the right stage and has a dated next step.
Define each stage by evidence, such as a quote sent, so deals do not sit in a stage on hope.
Pick out stuck deals by the days since the last real activity, then decide to push, change or close each.
On Monday the pipeline looks healthy: ten open deals and a big total. By Friday you are not sure which of them are real. A weekly review is a short, fixed routine that separates live deals from wishful ones, and it takes less time the more often you do it.
What the review is for
The aim is not to report numbers upward. It is to make sure every deal has an honest stage and a next step with a date, and to decide what to do about the ones that do not. If you leave with that, the meeting worked.
Before the meeting
Export or open the list of open deals with stage, amount, last activity date and next step.
Write down your stage criteria, one line each. Example: "Proposal: a written quote has been sent."
Update your own records first. Reviewing stale data wastes everyone's time.
Choose a stuck threshold, for example no activity in 14 days. Pick a number that suits your sales cycle.
Step by step
Sort deals by stage, latest first: Start with those closest to closing, because they are where a day matters.
Check each stage against its criteria: If the evidence is missing, move the deal back. This is the stage criteria in action.
Flag the stuck deals: Compute the days since last activity. In a sheet with the date in C2 and today's date in the function, use
=TODAY()-C2.Decide on each stuck deal: Push (one specific action this week), change (new approach or person), or close it as lost.
Confirm next steps: Each deal leaves with an action, an owner and a date.
Write down what you decided: Update the records in the meeting so nothing depends on anyone's memory.
Worked example: reviewing ten open deals
Say it is 12 November and the list holds ten deals (invented for this example). You use the threshold of 14 days with no activity.
Deal | Stage | Amount | Last activity | Days since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
A | Proposal | 12,000 | 10 Nov | 2 |
B | Proposal | 9,000 | 20 Oct | 23 |
C | Discovery | 6,000 | 9 Nov | 3 |
D | Negotiation | 5,000 | 11 Nov | 1 |
E | Discovery | 4,000 | 2 Nov | 10 |
F | Proposal | 3,200 | 8 Nov | 4 |
G | Discovery | 2,500 | 15 Oct | 28 |
H | Negotiation | 2,000 | 6 Nov | 6 |
I | Discovery | 1,500 | 5 Nov | 7 |
J | Discovery | 800 | 25 Oct | 18 |
First, the total. Adding the amounts: 12,000 + 9,000 + 6,000 + 5,000 + 4,000 + 3,200 + 2,500 + 2,000 + 1,500 + 800 = 46,000. Then check the days: from 20 Oct to 12 Nov is 11 + 12 = 23 days, and from 15 Oct is 16 + 12 = 28 days.
With a 14-day threshold, three deals are stuck: B (23 days), G (28 days) and J (18 days). Their amounts are 9,000 + 2,500 + 800 = 12,300 out of 46,000 in the pipeline, so more than a quarter of the value is not moving. That is the figure to bring to the discussion.
B, Proposal, 9,000: a proposal has been out for 23 days. Push: call the person, do not email again, and ask what is blocking a decision.
G, Discovery, 2,500: 28 days of silence in the first stage. Change: send one last note and, if no reply, close as lost.
J, Discovery, 800: small and quiet. Close it for now and set a reminder for three months.
Then check stages. If deal F is marked Proposal but no quote went out, move it back to Discovery; the amount stays but the stage tells the truth. End the meeting by reading out the list of next steps with names and dates.
Mistakes to avoid
Letting deals stay in a late stage out of optimism.
Counting any contact as activity. A one-line "checking in" email is not progress.
Spending the half hour on the largest deal only.
Leaving deals without a dated next step.
Making the review a status report instead of a decision meeting.
Writing stage criteria that hold up
Good criteria describe something that happened, not something that is felt. "Discovery: we have had one conversation and know their problem." "Proposal: a written quote is with them." "Negotiation: they replied to the quote with questions or changes." Anyone can check these against the record.
Avoid criteria like "the customer seems keen". They invite every deal to drift forward. If your team disagrees about where a deal belongs, that is a sign the criteria need to be rewritten, and the review is the right place to do it.
Doing it faster
Prepare the list with the days-since column before the meeting so you spend the time deciding. Keep the meeting to a fixed length and the same weekday. If you want a prompt for your own review, DuckyHelper can read the deal list on screen and ask you out loud which deals have no next step.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a pipeline review take?
Aim for about half an hour for around ten deals. If it takes longer, the stage criteria or the records are probably unclear.
Should lost deals be deleted?
Mark them lost with a reason rather than deleting. The reasons show you patterns later.
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