REVOPS TRAINING

Pipeline Generation

The creation of new qualified opportunities, as an activity measured and owned separately from closing.

Measuring it

  1. Group by opportunity creation date, not close date. Generation and conversion are different questions and combining them answers neither.

  2. Hold the creation criterion constant. Any change to when an opportunity is created breaks the series without anything real changing.

  3. Split by source, and state whether you are counting sourced or influenced. Influenced figures overlap and must never be summed.

  4. Follow each cohort forward and report what it converted. Volume without that is uninterpretable.

The measure that improves as quality falls

Pipeline created is directly producible by the people measured on it. A target on volume alone reliably yields more opportunities and a lower win rate — visible only when you look at the cohort's eventual conversion, which is why the pairing is not optional.

Diagnosing a shortfall

  • Falling volume with a stable win rate is a demand or activity problem.

  • Stable volume with a falling win rate is a qualification problem, and probably a definitional one.

  • Volume concentrated in one source is a fragility worth naming before it corrects itself.

  • Rising creation with rising age in early stages means opportunities are being created before they are real.

RELATED TERMS

Pipeline Coverage

The ratio of open pipeline value to the target for a period. Answers whether there is enough in play to hit the number at historical conversion rates.

Sales Development Representative (SDR)

The role responsible for creating qualified pipeline through prospecting, rather than closing it.

Outbound Sales

Manufacturing pipeline by initiating contact with accounts that have not raised their hand.

Demand Generation

The discipline of creating awareness and interest in a category and a product, as distinct from capturing demand that already exists.

COMMON QUESTIONS

How do you measure pipeline generation?
Qualified opportunity value created in a period, grouped by creation date and source. Measuring it by close date instead conflates generation with conversion.
Why is pipeline generation a risky target?
Because it is trivially met by creating opportunities. Volume rises, quality falls, and the measure improves while the outcome worsens — so it must be paired with what that cohort converted a quarter or two later.
Who owns pipeline generation?
Usually shared between marketing and sales development, which is precisely why it needs one accountable owner for the outcome rather than two functions each owning their own contribution.
What is the difference between sourced and influenced pipeline?
Sourced attributes creation to one origin; influenced counts any pipeline the channel touched. Influenced figures overlap and cannot be summed, which is the most common way pipeline reporting overstates total contribution.

Learn how to apply this: RevOps 101: Revenue Operations Foundations

Definitions are the vocabulary. The courses are where you learn to operate it, with the interactive audit tools.

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