Pipeline Velocity

It still amazes me how many salespeople and businesses focus purely on the size of their sales pipeline: how many leads they’ve got, the total deal value, or the number of opportunities they have “in play.” But here’s the truth: it’s not about how big your pipeline is — it’s about how fast it moves.

That’s what pipeline velocity is all about.

Pipeline velocity measures how quickly opportunities move through your sales cycle and how efficiently they convert into revenue. A big pipeline might look impressive in a review meeting, but if nothing’s moving, you’re in trouble.

Think of it like traffic on the M25 (for people outside the UK, this is a horrible motorway that circles London), it doesn’t matter if there are 10 or 10,000 cars, if no one’s moving, none of them will get to their destination on time.

A slow or stuck pipeline gives you a false sense of progress right up until you miss your target for that period or worse the end of year.

The reason for bringing up Pipeline Velocity now, in the ‘Qualification’ section, is that you need to monitor your deals velocity, right from the start once it is qualified through to close.

WHY PIPELINE VELOCITY MATTERS

• Predictability: Faster movement means more accurate forecasts. You know what’s likely to close, and when.

• Efficiency: Improving velocity means increasing revenue without adding more people or marketing spend.

• Focus: It highlights the real bottlenecks in your process, where deals stall and why, so you can fix the right things.

• Momentum: Salespeople need movement. When deals progress, confidence builds. When they sit idle, motivation disappears.