How To Know If Your Pipeline Size Is Getting Bigger or Smaller

This guide provides practical advice on tracking sales pipeline growth and identifying whether your funnel is expanding, shrinking, or changing in quality.

It summarises key ideas from our full best practice article and explains how Salesforce reports and dashboards can be used to monitor pipeline trends over the long, medium, and short term.

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Why This Matters

A healthy pipeline needs a consistent flow of new, high-quality opportunities. If the funnel is shrinking without a clear reason, future revenue may be at risk; if it is growing because of poor-quality or speculative opportunities, the apparent growth can be misleading. Tracking pipeline trends gives sales managers early visibility of these changes so they can understand what is driving them and take action before they affect revenue performance.

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Key Insights

• Track pipeline trends over time: Use historical pipeline reporting to understand whether the overall funnel is growing or shrinking. Looking at the pipeline at consistent points in time provides a much clearer picture than simply looking at today’s pipeline value.
• Pipeline size is only part of the story: A growing pipeline is valuable only when the opportunities are legitimate and of sufficient quality. A shrinking pipeline may also be positive if dormant or unrealistic opportunities have been removed.
• Analyse which stages are driving the trend: Drill into the pipeline by Opportunity Stage to determine where growth or decline is occurring. Growth concentrated in early-stage opportunities can indicate healthy future pipeline—or simply the creation of unqualified deals.
• Understand why the pipeline is changing: Compare pipeline trends with opportunity creation, Closed Won, and Closed Lost activity. This helps distinguish genuine pipeline growth from changes caused by successful deal closure, lost opportunities, or reduced prospecting.
• Monitor both long- and short-term trends: Long-term reports show broader changes in pipeline size, while short-term historical trending helps managers understand recent movements caused by campaigns, lead generation, opportunity creation, and sales activity.

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How To Apply This

1. Establish your long-term pipeline trend.
   Use the Salesforce Opportunity Trends report to compare the size and composition of your open pipeline at consistent points in time. Review the trend by stage to understand where growth or decline is occurring.
2. Investigate the reason for significant changes.
   If the pipeline is shrinking, determine whether this is due to successful deal closure, opportunities being lost, or insufficient new opportunity creation. If it is growing, check that the additional opportunities are genuine and properly qualified.
3. Monitor short-term movements.
   Use Salesforce Historical Trending to track changes in the pipeline over recent weeks. Combine this with opportunity creation and conversion information to understand whether current sales and marketing activity is generating enough quality pipeline for future revenue.

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Read The Full Article

For a deeper dive, including examples and detailed guidance, read the full blog:

How To Track Whether Your Funnel Is Growing Or Shrinking

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Related Guidance

• Measure Sales Pipeline Size With These 4 Vital Dashboard Charts
• 3 Proven Ways To Boost Pipeline Quality You Can Start Today
• The #1 Salesforce Pipeline Report to Use This Year
• 12 Must-Have Salesforce Dashboard Charts | With Video And Examples

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