Articles in this section

Pipeline Dashboard Metrics Overview

Avatar
Joel
Updated
Follow

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to provide Outreach Users with information about Outreach’s Pipeline Dashboard metrics.

Intended Audience

  • Sales managers
  • Outreach admins

Table of Contents

Pipeline Dashboard Overview

For all metrics powered by historical data, Outreach recommends you have at least 3 sales periods worth of data to execute our AI models effectively.

All metrics provide the ability to create and save custom views.  For more information on how to create, save, and share metric filters, read this article.

Pipeline

This metric shows deal movement by stage or forecast category and is helpful for inspecting pipeline movement over the last week.  The data displayed reflects any changes that have occurred between the previous Friday and the current day of the week.   

In the example shown below, the user is hovering their cursor over the Pipeline forecast category bar. Users can click “view opportunities” to see all opportunities currently in that particular sales stage or forecast category.  Additionally, this view shows the weekly movement of the cumulative value of deals in out and out of sales stages or forecast categories:

  • Progressed: Deals originally in this stage that progressed to a later stage
  • Added: Deals added to this stage
  • Pushed: Deals pushed to a later period
  • Lost: Deals marked closed lost in this stage

Quota Attainment

This metric provides a view into the rep or team in the user rollup’s opportunity closed won attainment towards their quota set for the given sales period.  The chart shows quota progress for the current sales period (typically quarterly) as well as the fiscal year.

Top Opportunities

The top opportunities are listed based on an evaluation of proximity to the close date and size of the deal.  Top opportunities consist of the deals owned by the specific user rollup team selected.

By clicking on an opportunity, users are navigated to the Deal Overview experience. 

Leaderboard

The leaderboard serves as a visual to rank reps within the user rollup based on their quota attainment.  

Total Projected Finish

The total projected finish metric displays a single call for the sales period based on actuals and typical close rates for the specified user rollup team.  This projection is comprised of four components:

  • Currently Won: deals marked closed-won in this sales period.
  • Remaining weighted pipeline: the value of the deals expected to close based on your user rollup team’s average win rates by stage and days remaining in the sales period.
  • Projected Remaining Intra-Quarter: deals that do not yet exist in your pipeline, but are expected to be opened and marked closed-won within the current sales period.
  • Projected Remaining Pulled-In: Expected closed won pipeline that exists in a future period and is expected to be pulled into the current sales period.

To generate the projection of where you're likely to finish on intra-period revenue, Outreach looks back in time. It determines how much intra-period business you closed from this point in the sales period until the end of past sales periods. 

Outreach generates a machine learning model to adjust this prediction based on several factors like seasonality, sales team size, opportunity creation trends, and more.

Revenue Attainment

The Revenue Attainment metric shows how closed won revenue is trending for this sales period compared to the previous period and the same period last year.  Hovering your cursor over the chart lets you see the revenue attainment at different times in the quarter.

This Metric is shown for all teams and individuals in the user rollup. By default, it will show all deals that Outreach tracks for that given team or individual. For historical team numbers, Outreach uses the individual CRM users who are both active and inactive and assigned to the same user rollup team.

To be included in this metric, deals must have been marked closed and won within the given sales period by the current number of calendar days in the sales period.

Scorecard

Scorecards allow leaders and managers to analyze true team and rep attainment pacing by tracking progress toward their goals week-over-week or month-over-month, depending on your sales period.  Outreach will generate a productivity score represented by Red, Yellow, or Green stoplights. The colors for each value are shown based on this key:

  • Green: 80-100% of weekly or monthly quota goal achieved
  • Yellow: 60-79% of weekly or monthly quota goal achieved
  • Red: Less than 60% of weekly or monthly quota goal achieved

Monthly Scorecard View

To understand how this attainment pacing score is calculated, consider this example: Manager Brian wants to track how much quota his team attains each month. Each AE has a quarterly quota that gets broken down into monthly increments. If AE Matt attains $50k in month 1 of this $150k quarterly quota, then he has reached his goal. Thus, a green score indicator. If AE Matt only attains $30k in month 1, then his pacing attainment would be shown as a yellow 60 (the percentage resulting from $30k/$50k). 

Note the actual quota breakdown per month is based on the calendar days in the particular month, which means the pacing target may vary from month to month (e.g., March vs. April).

Weekly Scorecard View

The weekly scorecard takes the quota interval set by the organization and approximates an equivalent weekly target attainment.  Quarterly quotas are divided by about 13 to get a weekly target, while monthly quotas are divided by roughly 4.3 to get a weekly target.  Again, the actual target is based on the number of calendar days.

Deal Pacing

The Deal Pacing metric answers, "How many of the dollars in my pipeline are pacing to close within the sales period per my team’s normal win model?"

To provide this answer, the metric breaks down all the deals that are currently open that have a close date within the current sales period.

For those deals, Outreach analyzes the pacing (time in each stage) and the time between now and the close date (time remaining to close).

Given the current remaining time in the sales period, the Deal Pacing metric shows the amount of pipeline likely to close based on historical pacing from the stage where each deal currently resides.

Weighted Pipeline

The weighted pipeline in Outreach answers the question: "Given my historical win rates from each stage (or forecast category), how much of my pipeline am I likely to win at this point in the sales period?"

On the left side of the metric, you'll see:

  • Your current Total Pipeline: The sum of all deal amounts currently open and set to close in the sales period.
  • Your Remaining Quota: For the selected team or individual, if they have a quota goal set in Outreach, this shows the quota minus the sum of all won deal amounts owned by that person or team.
  • Your Weighted Pipeline value: The sum of each weighted stage or forecast category (depending on the version of the metric you have selected). Weighting is described in more detail below.
  • Your Gap: This shows the difference between the Remaining Quota and the Weighted Pipeline. In other words, the amount of weighted pipeline that falls short of hitting your quota.

To dive deeper into how Outreach calculates the weighted percentages for each stage or forecast category, keep reading:

  • Outreach starts with the current point in the sales period. Our chance of closing deals usually changes as we progress through the month or quarter, so Outreach runs a daily refresh on the statistical win rates based on the current point in the sales period.
  • Then, for the given team or individual, Outreach goes back 12 months and looks at this point in past sales periods to see what deals the team or individual had in their pipeline that were open and set to close in that sales period.
  • Then, for each stage or forecast category represented, we do a win percentage calculation, essentially a division formula.
  • For each deal, if it was ultimately Won, it goes in the numerator. All deals that closed (won or lost) or failed to close (slipped) go into the denominator. These are broken down by stage or forecast category and provide an overall win percentage for each.
  • The final weighted pipeline value is then calculated as a sum of all current deal values in the pipeline, multiplied by the win rate percentage of whatever stage or forecast category they are currently in.

Next Period Coverage

Next period coverage shows the weekly changes for how your next period (monthly or quarterly) pipeline is trending.  This metric categorizes the deals into 5 subsets: Created, Existing, Moved out, Won, and Lost.

For organizations that track quota, Next Period Coverage calculates the amount of pipeline you likely need to attain your quota. Outreach does this by applying your historical coverage ratio over the past 4 periods.

You will notice that the legend includes “Won” and “Lost” amounts.  These amounts will appear if an opportunity is won or lost, but the close date remains in the next period.  Generally, we recommend moving the close date to the current period when this occurs.

Historical Coverage

The historical coverage metric calculates the average coverage needed at the beginning of the period based on your last 4 periods with quota. 

Included in the metrics are your starting pipeline amount, ending Closed Won amount, quota, and any gap that remained to quota at the end of the period. If quota was missed, the coverage that would have been required to achieve quota is shown. In the case of overachievement, the coverage overage is shown on the coverage bar tooltip.

Win/Loss Model

The Win/Loss Model gives a multi-faceted view of your sales process. Primarily, it's a powerful tool for analyzing the efficiency of stages or forecast categories related to conversion rates and pacing.

Each row of the Win/Loss Model shows a stage (or forecast category) and associated stats about winning and losing deals that have reached that stage.

The royal blue bars indicate the Win model. The length of the bar is determined by the number of days winning deals spent in that stage. Those days are also labeled just after the bar. The number of activities is also shown for winning deals. 

The dark blue bars indicate the Loss model. By seeing both, you can analyze important differences between when you're winning versus losing.

Definitions:

  • Conversion Rate: For deals closing within the last 12 months, what percentage of deals that were at one point in the given stage later progressed to a stage further into the sales process?
  • Win Rate: For deals closed within the last 12 months, what percentage of deals at one point in the given stage ultimately won?
  • Days in stage: For deals closed in the last 12 months, for the given stage, what is the average number of days deals spend in that particular stage before being updated to a different stage?
  • Activities: For deals closed in the last 12 months, what is the average number of emails, calls, or meetings per deal in that particular stage? Outreach classifies activities as any task or event associated with the deal and owned by the seller or team.

Closed Lost Reasons

The Closed Lost Reason metric breaks down the various lost reasons in your CRM and helps you analyze where deals are getting lost, what the average value of those deals is, and what the breakdown looks like.

Each of your Closed Lost Reasons is shown in the table view on the right side, keyed by color. For each of the averages, Outreach looks at all closed lost deals within the last 12 months (by default).

For the percentage lost over the last 90 days and last year, Outreach analyzes deals that were marked closed lost within that time period and shows you the percentage of lost deals that were for that given reason.

In the tooltip, you can see the number of deals in the last 90 days that were lost due to that particular reason and the total value of all of those deals.

Pipeline by Source

Pipeline by source breaks down exactly where your pipeline is coming from, how quickly deals are won by that specific source, and at what rate your business is winning deals. Use this metric to analyze where the bulk of the pipeline comes from and what is most effective when building a winnable pipeline. Leveraging sales cycle and win rate data allows sales and marketing to understand what truly works for your business.

Sales Cycle Over Time

The Sales Cycle Over Time metric shows how your sales cycle is evolving month-to-month.

Each of your sales stages is shown as a different color on the chart. For each month shown, the included deals are those that closed and won in that given month, regardless of when they were created. For all of those deals, the average days they spent in each stage is shown in the stacked bar representing that month.

12 Month Rolling Funnel

The 12 Month Rolling Funnel metric gives you a view into how each of your lead sources and their associated pipeline looks coming into each month.

For each of the last 12 months, the amount of pipeline on the first day of each month that was set to close in that same month is shown broken down by your lead sources. The total amount of pipeline for that month open on the first day of the month is displayed at the top of each bar.

Rep Strengths and Weaknesses

Understanding the performance metrics of individual sales reps is crucial for optimizing team performance and ensuring consistent growth. The Pipeline Dashboard page offers a detailed insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each sales rep, allowing managers and team leads to make informed decisions.

This granular view provides a comprehensive analysis of how a particular sales rep manages their sales pipeline compared to their peers within the same team, as represented by the user rollup.

For instance, by delving into these details, you might uncover that a certain rep consistently outperforms the average win rate of the user rollup. This could indicate that the rep possesses exceptional persuasion skills, a deep understanding of the product, or a unique approach to customer engagement. Such insights can be invaluable, as they can be used to identify best practices that can be shared and implemented across the team.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much History is Required to Display Key Metrics?

Most of Outreach’s key metrics require 3 sales periods of history to provide meaningful results.  When a customer does not have enough history or the dataset is too small, Outreach will display an error indicating that it does not have enough data to produce a meaningful metric.

Will Metrics Appear for Newly Created Teams?

Outreach utilizes averages based on user rollup level performance to construct its metrics.  If a team has just been created, the metric will not appear in the feed until at least one previous quarter’s historical data for the individuals on the new team.

How Often Is This Data Refreshed?

Opportunity updates are reflected in the various Pipeline dashboard metrics based on a 15-minute sync with CRM interval. Additionally, any changes made to opportunities fields utilizing inline editing are reflected in real time.

Any metric requiring calculations, such as the weighted pipeline win rates by stage, are calculated on a daily basis.

Related articles