If you’re responsible for a sales pipeline, you know how easy it is for things to go sideways—leads stall, deals vanish, and forecasts start to look like wishful thinking. This guide is for anyone who wants to get a real handle on pipeline health using the reporting tools in SecondBody. No fluff, no vague dashboards—just practical steps to catch problems early and keep your pipeline honest.
Step 1: Get Your Data in Order
Before you even open SecondBody, make sure your sales data isn’t a mess. Reporting tools are only as good as the information you feed them.
- Check for missing info: Deals without values, stages, or owners won’t show up right in reports.
- Review closed dates: Old, “zombie” opportunities will muddy your pipeline health stats.
- Standardize stages: Everyone should use the same definitions for pipeline stages, or reports get confusing fast.
Pro tip: Spend 20 minutes cleaning up your CRM before you start. It’s not fun, but it’ll save you hours of head-scratching later.
Step 2: Connect SecondBody to Your CRM
SecondBody works best when it’s directly plugged into your CRM (like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive).
- Use direct integrations: These are more reliable and require less manual work. Go through the proper OAuth or API setup.
- Check sync frequency: If your data only updates nightly, you won’t see real-time changes. Adjust this if you can.
- Test it: Create a dummy deal in your CRM and see if it shows up in SecondBody. If it doesn’t, troubleshoot now—not after you’ve built out a bunch of reports.
What to ignore: CSV imports. They’re only useful in emergencies or for one-off analyses. You want live data, not last week’s snapshot.
Step 3: Explore the Pre-Built Pipeline Health Dashboards
SecondBody comes with several “starter” dashboards for pipeline health. They aren’t perfect, but they’ll get you 80% of the way there.
Look for these key widgets:
- Stage Distribution: Shows how many deals sit in each stage. If you see a pile-up in one stage, that’s a red flag.
- Deal Velocity: How long deals spend in each stage. Bottlenecks show up quickly here.
- Win Rate: Percentage of deals that actually close. If this is dropping, it’s time to dig in.
- Forecast vs. Actual: Compares your team’s predictions with reality. Consistent over-forecasting means you’re either optimistic or sandbagging.
Take notes on anything that looks weird or surprising. Don’t panic—just flag it for a closer look in the next steps.
Honest take: Most pre-built dashboards look slick but miss real context. Trust your gut; if something seems off, it probably is.
Step 4: Build a Custom Pipeline Health Report (Only If You Need To)
The default dashboards won’t fit every sales process. If your team has unique stages or metrics, build a custom report:
- Pick your key metrics: Don’t track everything. Focus on:
- Number of deals per stage
- Average deal age
- Stalled deals (no activity in X days)
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Stage-to-stage conversion rates
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Set up filters: Exclude junk deals (test data, internal opportunities, or deals outside your focus region). Filter by date if you want to spot recent trends.
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Group by owner or region: This helps you see if problems are widespread or tied to individual reps.
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Visualize simply: Use bar or line charts. Avoid pie charts—they rarely help for pipeline health.
What doesn’t work: Don’t try to cram a dozen metrics into one view. More data isn’t always better—clarity is.
Step 5: Spot the Warning Signs
Here’s what healthy and unhealthy pipelines look like—and what to watch for in SecondBody:
- Healthy signs:
- Deals move steadily from one stage to the next.
- Each stage is proportional—no obvious traffic jams.
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Win rates are stable (or improving) quarter-to-quarter.
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Red flags:
- Lots of old deals sitting in the same stage for weeks.
- Sudden drop in new deals entering the pipeline.
- Forecasts are way off from actuals, repeatedly.
- One rep’s numbers are way out of line with the rest.
When you see these, don’t just note them—act. Have a conversation with your team about specific deals or stages, not just the overall numbers.
Ignore: Vanity metrics like “number of activities logged.” They rarely tell you anything useful about pipeline health.
Step 6: Set Up Alerts (But Don’t Overdo It)
SecondBody lets you set up automated alerts for certain pipeline conditions (e.g., deals aging out, sudden drop in pipeline value).
- Set alerts sparingly: Only trigger on things that need immediate attention, like:
- Deals with no activity for 14+ days
- Pipeline coverage drops below 2x quota
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Stage conversion rates tank suddenly
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Who gets notified: Don’t blast alerts to everyone. Send them to team leads or managers who can actually fix the problem.
Pro tip: Review your alert settings every quarter. Too many alerts means people start ignoring them.
Step 7: Run a Simple Pipeline Review
Data’s only useful if you talk about it. Use your SecondBody reports in a regular pipeline review meeting:
- Start with the basics: Look at overall pipeline health, then drill down into bottlenecks or problem reps.
- Ask “why,” not just “what”: If deals are stalling, dig into whether it’s a process issue, a product problem, or just bad fit.
- Agree on next steps: Don’t let meetings become a numbers parade. Assign clear owners and actions to fix issues.
What to skip: Don’t get bogged down in edge cases or “special” deals every week. Focus on the patterns.
Step 8: Iterate—Don’t Set and Forget
Your pipeline changes, so your reports should too. Every few months:
- Review your stages: Are they still relevant, or has your process changed?
- Update your metrics: If a metric never leads to action, drop it.
- Ask the team: See if the reports actually help reps and managers, or if they’re just for show.
Honest take: No reporting tool—including SecondBody—will magically “fix” your pipeline. It’s just a mirror. The real work is talking to your team and making changes based on what you see.
Keep It Simple
If you remember one thing: pipeline health reporting isn’t about fancy charts or buying more tools, it’s about clarity. Use SecondBody to surface what matters, ignore what doesn’t, and focus your team on fixing real problems—not just moving numbers around. Start simple, tweak as you go, and don’t let dashboards replace honest conversations. That’s how you get a pipeline that doesn’t surprise you.