What is a sales pipeline?
A sales pipeline is the structured view of every potential deal your business is working on, organized by stage of progression. It shows you what is in flight, what is stuck, what is likely to close, and where your team should focus its time. A good pipeline turns sales from a series of hopeful conversations into a managed process.
Who this is for and when to use it
African founders selling deals themselves, small sales teams of one to five people, operators in B2B services, and SMEs that want sales discipline without paying for a full CRM. Use the tracker from the first lead you take seriously. Review it weekly with your team, update it after every prospect interaction, and use it to forecast monthly and quarterly revenue.
What is inside
A written guide that explains how to design pipeline stages, calculate close probabilities, run a weekly pipeline review, and forecast revenue, plus an editable spreadsheet with stages, deal value, probability, weighted value, owner, next step, and last activity for every deal. Pair with The Sales Pipeline Guide for the full narrative explanation.
Key concepts you will learn
The standard B2B pipeline stages (lead, qualified, demo or discovery, proposal, negotiation, closed-won, closed-lost), weighted pipeline value, pipeline coverage (how much pipeline you need to hit quota), conversion rates between stages, sales velocity, the difference between a lead and a qualified opportunity, and how to run a useful pipeline review.