Sales people are measured and managed by metrics that encourage and foster the wrong behaviours. Focusing on 'pipeline size' is a big mistake.
For years we have emphasized that it is vital that we measure our sales pipeline or sales funnel. The excepted wisdom for pipeline management was based around putting enough leads in one end, measuring the quantity of opps at each stage as they flow through, and then forecasting and realizing the orders (and revenue) that flow out the other end. Surely this cannot be wrong!
In this interview by John Smibert, Graham Hawkins slays a sacred cow of sales by suggesting that we should not measure our pipeline.
