Sales pipeline template: know what's closing this month and who you haven't called back

A sales pipeline usually breaks the same way. Nobody updates the stage, so a deal that went quiet in August still says "Proposal sent" in October. This one asks for two dates on every deal, the last time you spoke and the next step, so a quiet deal shows itself without you hunting for it.

Copy the sheet, print it, or download the Excel or Word file. In Excel, the stage is a drop-down and every total works itself out.

Sales pipeline: [your name or business]

Updated: [date]. This month's goal: S$[amount].

Deals

Stages: move a deal only when this is true

• Lead: you have a name and a reason to call. 5%
• Meeting booked: it's in both calendars. 10%
• Needs agreed: they've told you the problem, who decides and by when. 25%
• Proposal sent: they have a price in writing. 50%
• Verbal yes: they've said yes and the paperwork is out. 80%
• Won: signed or paid. 100%
• Lost: write the reason in Next step, such as the price, the timing or a rival who got there first.

This month

• Closing this month: [count] deals worth S$[amount], weighted S$[amount] (open deals with this month in Close by)
• Won this month: S$[amount] against the goal of S$[amount]
• Still to find: S$[amount] (the goal minus won, minus weighted closing)

The whole tracker

• Open deals: [count] (every stage but Won and Lost)
• Open value: S$[amount]
• Weighted value: S$[amount] (each open deal's value times its chance)
• Win rate: [percent] (Won divided by Won plus Lost, counted by deal)
• Gone quiet: [count] (open deals you haven't spoken to in 14 days)
• No next step: [count] (open deals with no next step date)

Notes

The chances are a starting guess. After a quarter, use your own: of the deals that reached a stage, how many did you win?

A tracker is worth keeping when it answers these in a few minutes. If yours can't, a column is missing.

1. What's open right now? Read Open deals and Open value.
2. What will close this month? Read Closing this month, and treat the weighted figure as your honest guess.
3. Where do deals get stuck? Count the open deals in each stage. A pile in Proposal sent usually means quotes nobody chased.
4. Am I winning enough? Check the win rate. Below one in four, look at where the Lost reasons cluster.
5. Will I reach the month's goal? Compare Still to find with what's in Needs agreed and Proposal sent.

A tracker is only worth reading if the stages mean the same thing every week.

• Move a deal only when the stage's rule is true, not when it feels close.
• Give every open deal a next step with a date, even if the step is "check back in March".
• Change Last spoke every time you talk to them, by phone, WhatsApp or in person.

Do this before you open your messages, so the tracker sets the day instead of your inbox.

Then make the calls for the quiet deals first. They're the ones closest to being lost.

A made-up week for a small firm that sells fit-outs and design work, read on Monday 2 November.

Here's what the totals say:

• Open: 7 deals worth S$67,000, weighted S$30,400.
• Closing in November: 3 deals worth S$39,000, weighted S$24,900.
• Won this month: S$7,000 (Oakline Realty signed today) against a November goal of S$30,000, which leaves a S$23,000 gap.
• Still to find: S$0 on paper, because the weighted November deals come to S$24,900. That figure counts Northgate Print's S$4,500 as alive, and nobody has spoken to them in 24 days.
• Gone quiet: Northgate Print (24 days) and Tide Gym (21 days). Northgate also has no next step.

So the week starts with two calls: Northgate, because a S$9,000 quote is going cold, then Tide Gym.

Watch for these signs that the sheet is costing you deals:

• Last spoke is more than a week behind on most rows.
• Two people keep their own copies, and the numbers don't match.
• Most of the conversations happen on WhatsApp, and the sheet only hears about them at the end of the week.

That's when a CRM earns its place. Palby CRM takes the spreadsheet you already keep: import up to 2,000 rows, and one tap undoes the whole import if it went wrong. Each contact can carry several deals with a close date, adding up to a weighted forecast, and a card that sits too long in one stage gets flagged so it doesn't go quiet unnoticed.