If you’re in sales, revenue ops, or just trying to keep your pipeline healthy, you’ve probably wrestled with reporting tools that promise a lot and deliver a headache. This guide is for anyone who wants real insight into their sales pipeline growth—without hiring a data scientist or sitting through endless “strategy” meetings. If you’re using Rev for dashboards (or thinking about it), I’ll walk you through what to set up, what to watch, and what to ignore.
Why Pipeline Growth Actually Matters
Pipeline growth isn’t some vanity number for board slides. It’s the clearest sign of whether your sales efforts are paying off or if you’re about to run dry. If you don’t track it right, you’re basically driving a car with no fuel gauge.
A good dashboard should answer: - Is my pipeline bigger or smaller than last month? - Where are new deals actually coming from? - Are my reps bringing in real opportunities or just stuffing junk in the CRM? - What’s dropping out, and why?
If your dashboard doesn’t help with these, it’s just another pretty chart.
Step 1: Decide What “Pipeline Growth” Really Means for You
Before you even open Rev, nail down what you actually want to measure. Here’s what matters and what’s fluff:
The basics: - New pipeline created: Value of new opportunities added in a timeframe. - Pipeline progression: Are deals moving to later stages, or getting stuck? - Win/loss rates: How much new pipeline actually closes? - Aging pipeline: How long do deals sit before they move (or die)?
Ignore the noise: - Don’t obsess over “number of activities” logged—busywork isn’t growth. - Avoid blending new and existing pipeline unless you have a reason.
Pro tip: If your exec team or board wants a bunch of fancy metrics, ask them what decisions they’ll make based on those numbers. If they don’t know, skip it.
Step 2: Get Your Data Clean (or at Least Not Awful)
Rev is only as good as your CRM data. If your pipeline is full of dead deals or junk opportunities, your “growth” numbers will be a lie.
Here’s what to check: - Closed-lost deals: Move them out of the pipeline. Don’t let them linger. - Stale opportunities: If a deal hasn’t moved in 90 days, kill it or at least flag it. - Stage definitions: Make sure everyone’s using the same definitions for each pipeline stage. - Required fields: Don’t let reps create “opportunities” with no value or close date.
Be ruthless: It’s better to have a smaller, real pipeline than a bloated one full of ghosts.
Step 3: Build Your Core Pipeline Growth Dashboard in Rev
Now, fire up Rev and build a dashboard that actually tells you something useful. Here’s how:
1. Start Simple: The Basic Pipeline Growth Chart
- Metric: “New Pipeline Created” by week or month.
- How: Filter for deals with a “created date” in the time frame you care about.
- Display: Line or bar chart—whatever’s easiest to read at a glance.
Why this matters: You need to see if you’re growing, shrinking, or flatlining. Don’t overthink it.
2. Add Stage Movement Tracking
- Metric: “Opportunities by Stage” over time.
- How: Show how many deals are in each stage now vs. last month.
- Display: Stacked bar or funnel chart.
Look for: Bottlenecks (e.g., lots of deals stuck in “Proposal Sent”) and leaks (stages where deals drop off).
3. Show Pipeline Source Breakdown
- Metric: “New Pipeline by Source” (e.g., inbound, outbound, partner).
- How: Use opportunity source fields to group deals.
- Display: Pie chart or bar chart.
Why: If all your growth is coming from one channel, that’s risky. Diversify or double down as needed.
4. Track Pipeline Aging
- Metric: “Average Age of Deals” in pipeline.
- How: Calculate days since deal created for each open opp.
- Display: Simple table or box-and-whisker plot if you want to get fancy.
Ignore: Individual deal stories—look for patterns. If deals are getting older, your pipeline might look healthy on paper but is rotting underneath.
5. Add Win/Loss Reporting
- Metric: “Pipeline Won,” “Pipeline Lost,” and close rates.
- How: Track outcomes of deals created in the period.
- Display: Simple summary stats or a side-by-side bar chart.
Pro tip: Don’t just track closed-won value. Watch how much of your new pipeline actually converts.
Step 4: Automate and Share Reports (But Keep It Human)
Nobody wants to build the same report every week. In Rev, set up automatic dashboard refreshes and scheduled email reports.
Tips: - Don’t blast the whole company. Share with people who can do something with the data (sales leads, execs, ops). - Add commentary. Numbers without context can be misleading. Write a quick note on what changed and why. - Don’t hide bad news. If pipeline shrank, say so. Hiding it doesn’t help anyone.
Step 5: Look for Trends, Not Just Spikes
It’s easy to get excited (or freak out) over a big week. Don’t. Most “big jumps” are just noise—maybe a rep dumped a bunch of deals in at once, or a campaign just hit. Always look for 3–6 month trends.
What to watch: - Is pipeline growth steady, accelerating, or dropping off? - Are certain reps or teams consistently creating more (or less) pipeline? - Are new sources (like a new marketing channel) paying off?
If you spot a real trend, dig in. If it’s just a blip, don’t overreact.
Step 6: Avoid the Most Common Reporting Traps
Here’s where most teams go wrong:
- Overcomplicating dashboards: More charts ≠ more insight. If you can’t explain it to your CEO in two sentences, simplify.
- Chasing vanity metrics: “We have 10,000 opps!”—if most are junk, who cares?
- Ignoring data quality: Garbage in, garbage out.
- Relying only on dashboards: Talk to your reps. Sometimes the story behind the numbers matters more than the numbers themselves.
Step 7: Review, Iterate, and Actually Use the Insights
Dashboards aren’t magic. They’re just a tool. Set a regular time (monthly or quarterly) to review your pipeline growth dashboards with the team. Ask:
- What’s working? What’s not?
- Did we hit our pipeline growth targets?
- What needs to change—process, people, or just expectations?
Then go back and tweak your Rev dashboards. Remove anything nobody looks at. Add what you actually need.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple and Real
Tracking sales pipeline growth in Rev doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy. Focus on a handful of metrics that tell you the truth, not what you wish was true. Clean data, simple charts, and honest conversations will get you further than any “next-gen AI-driven analytics suite.” Start small, iterate, and don’t let your dashboards become a second job. That’s how you actually use data to grow your pipeline—and your revenue.