Pipeline stall
A pipeline stall is a deal that has stopped moving toward a decision: the next step isn't booked and the stage hasn't changed in longer than similar deals usually take. Sales teams usually call it a stalled deal. The danger is that it still looks alive in the CRM, so it keeps counting toward the forecast.
Why it matters
A pipeline view shows where each deal sits and says nothing about how long it has been sitting there. A proposal sent last month and one sent yesterday look the same in the column. So you plan capacity and hiring around deals that ended weeks ago and that nobody marked lost. It usually shows up at month end, when the forecast misses, and by then the chance to save those deals has passed.
An example
Take an agency with a deal in the proposal stage. The client said they'd review it with their finance lead. Nobody booked the follow-up call, the account lead got pulled onto a delivery problem, and a few weeks pass. The deal still sits in proposal at full value. Nothing about it has changed except that the client has stopped thinking about it.
How a system handles it
A system gives each stage a time limit, set from how your own deals move, and checks every open deal against it each day. When a deal passes its limit with nothing logged, the account lead gets a short note naming the deal, what was last said and the next step to take. You see every stalled deal in one list each week. If a deal is marked lost, it moves to the reactivation list, so it isn't forgotten.
Questions
How long before a deal counts as stalled?
It depends on your own sales cycle. I'd look at how long won deals spent in each stage, and treat anything sitting well past that as stalled. A fixed limit borrowed from someone else's pipeline will flag the wrong deals.
What's the difference between a stalled deal and a lost one?
A lost deal has an answer. A stalled deal is still open with nobody working it, so it keeps counting toward the forecast. Left alone, it turns into a lost deal anyway, only later and without the chance to save it.
Related
- Lead reactivationLead reactivation means going back to leads and past clients that went cold, with a reason to talk now. Why it matters and how a system keeps it running.
- Stock and flowStock and flow sees a pipeline as a pile of open deals and the rates at which deals enter and leave. Why the rates matter more than the pile.
- The follow-up bottleneck: why follow-ups fall through the cracksFollow-ups slip when the next step lives in someone's head. They hold when every open lead carries a next step, a date and a drafted nudge a person approves.