Building Strong Pipeline: 4 Types of Metrics to Monitor

Sales teams think their pipeline is healthy until deals start falling through the cracks. You've been there: looking at your monthly numbers, feeling confident about your forecast, only to watch deals mysteriously disappear at the last minute. The problem isn't that you're not tracking metrics; it's that you're tracking the wrong ones at the wrong time.

Laura Wheeler, COO & Co-founder at RVNU, knows this pain intimately. She contributed to growing the federal sector business from $5M to $250M, and through that journey, she discovered something crucial:

"Looking at numbers isn't enough. The magic happens when you track metrics over time."

In this article, we'll analyze Laura's proven framework for pipeline health that transforms how sales teams monitor their performance. Instead of playing catch-up with problems, you'll learn to spot warning signs before they become deal-killers.

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The Hidden Problem with Traditional Pipeline Tracking

Most sales teams make the same critical mistake when monitoring their pipeline health. They focus on vanity metrics that mask underlying issues, creating a false sense of security that leads to missed targets and frustrated sales reps.

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Here's what's going wrong:

• Only looking at monthly ARR totals. While revenue numbers are important, they're lagging indicators. By the time you see a dip in monthly recurring revenue, the damage is already done. You're looking at the result, not the cause.
• Missing why deals are falling out. Teams track how many deals they lose but fail to dig deeper into the reasons. Without understanding the "why" behind lost opportunities, you can't fix the underlying problems that keep costing you deals.
• Not seeing conversion rate declines. A slow decline in conversion rates between pipeline stages often goes unnoticed when you're only looking at total pipeline value. This gradual deterioration can devastate your forecast accuracy.

The key is shifting from reactive to proactive pipeline management through strategic metric tracking.

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The Four-Layer Pipeline Health Framework

Laura's approach breaks pipeline monitoring into four distinct time horizons, each serving a specific purpose in maintaining pipeline health. This layered system ensures nothing falls through the cracks while keeping your team focused on the right activities at the right time.

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Daily Metrics

Think of daily metrics as your pipeline's vital signs. Just like a doctor monitors heart rate and blood pressure for immediate health indicators, you need daily metrics that signal trouble before it becomes critical.

• Unique website visitors serve as your top-of-funnel activity indicator. A sudden drop in website traffic often predicts pipeline problems weeks before they show up in your CRM. Laura emphasizes tracking this daily because it's your earliest signal of potential pipeline issues.
• Daily active users reveal product engagement depth. If your prospects aren't engaging with your product or demo environment, they're unlikely to convert. This metric helps you identify which deals need immediate attention from your sales reps.
• Outbound activity measures your sales team's momentum. Are your sellers making the calls, sending the emails, and booking the meetings they need to hit their numbers? Daily activity tracking ensures your team maintains the discipline necessary for consistent results.

These indicators help you course-correct before small problems become big ones.

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Weekly Metrics

Weekly metrics function like air traffic control, giving you visibility into what's moving through your pipeline and where potential bottlenecks exist. This weekly rhythm allows you to make tactical adjustments without overreacting to daily fluctuations.

• Pipeline creation shows what's flowing into your funnel. Track not just the number of new opportunities, but their quality and source. Are you generating enough pipeline to hit your targets? Is the quality consistent with your ideal customer profile?
• Pipeline fallout reveals what's dropping out and, crucially, why. Laura emphasizes the importance of understanding fallout reasons. Are deals stalling due to budget constraints, competitive pressure, or timing issues? Each reason requires a different response strategy.
• Lead source performance identifies what's actually working in your marketing and sales efforts. Don't just look at volume – analyze conversion rates and deal quality by source. This helps you double down on what works and cut what doesn't.
• Close loss reasons help you learn from every "no." Laura recommends categorizing losses to identify patterns. Are you losing to competitors on price, features, or timing? Understanding these patterns helps you refine your sales process and improve win rates.

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Monthly Metrics

Monthly reviews are where you "connect all the dots," as Laura puts it. This is your opportunity to step back from daily and weekly tactics and analyze broader trends that impact your business strategy.

• Trend analysis reveals patterns emerging over time. Are conversion rates improving or declining? Is your sales cycle lengthening or shortening? These trends often predict future performance better than point-in-time snapshots.
• Funnel conversion points show exactly where you're losing deals in your sales process. Laura recommends calculating conversion rates between each stage of your funnel and tracking how these rates change over time. A declining conversion rate at a specific stage signals a problem that needs immediate attention.
• ICP performance answers a critical question: Are you selling to the right people? Analyze your closed-won deals to understand which customer segments convert best, have the shortest sales cycles, and generate the highest lifetime value.
• Onboarding success measures whether new customers are getting value from your product. Laura emphasizes this because customer success directly impacts retention, expansion, and referrals – all critical for long-term pipeline health.

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Quarterly Metrics

Quarterly reviews reshape your strategy, according to Laura. This is where you make the big decisions that impact your long-term pipeline health and business growth.

• CAC payback periods measure investment efficiency. How long does it take to recover your customer acquisition costs? Changes in payback periods signal shifts in your market, competition, or sales effectiveness.
• Lifetime value cohorts help you understand different customer segments' value. Laura recommends analyzing LTV by customer size, industry, use case, and acquisition channel to optimize your sales and marketing investments.
• Use case patterns reveal how people actually use your product versus how you think they use it. These insights help you refine your ideal customer profile and improve your sales messaging.
• Customer feedback themes provide voice-of-customer insights that inform product development and sales strategy. Laura emphasizes looking for patterns in feedback that can help you better serve your market.
• Competitive loss analysis shows where you're losing and why. Understanding competitive dynamics helps you position more effectively and identify areas where you need to strengthen your offering.

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Warning Signs of Pipeline Problems

Laura warns sales teams to watch for specific indicators that signal pipeline trouble ahead. Recognizing these warning signs early allows you to take corrective action before they impact your results.

• Conversion rates declining over time often indicate problems with your sales process, market positioning, or competitive landscape. Even small declines compound over time, dramatically impacting your ability to hit targets.
• Deal cycles lengthening without explanation suggest buyers are having trouble getting comfortable with your solution or navigating their internal approval processes. This often points to issues with your qualification process or value proposition.
• Feature adoption dropping post-onboarding predicts churn and expansion problems. If customers aren't using your product effectively, they won't renew or expand their contracts.
• Close loss reasons becoming repetitive indicate systematic problems rather than isolated incidents. If you're consistently losing for the same reasons, you need to address the root cause, not just the symptoms.
• CAC payback periods extending signal declining efficiency in your sales and marketing efforts. This trend often precedes more serious pipeline problems.

Laura's key insight: "The right people using the right features equals customer for life."

When you see warning signs, dig deeper to understand whether you're attracting the right prospects and delivering the right value.

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Conclusion

Pipeline health isn't about having perfect numbers at any given moment – it's about understanding the trends and patterns that predict future performance. Laura Wheeler's four-layer framework transforms pipeline monitoring from a reactive exercise into a proactive system that prevents problems before they impact results.

By tracking daily early warning signals, managing weekly pipeline flow, analyzing monthly trends, and conducting quarterly strategic reviews, sales teams can maintain healthier pipelines and more predictable results. The key is consistent execution and a focus on changes over time rather than static snapshots.

Remember Laura's core principle: track changes over time, not just point-in-time numbers. When you implement this systematic approach to pipeline health, you'll move from hoping your forecast is accurate to knowing it is.

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Full episode on the topic ⬇️

In this episode of SellMeThisPen Podcast, Michael and Laura dive deep into the metrics that actually matter for pipeline health. They discuss the common mistakes sales teams make when tracking performance, Laura's four-layer framework for pipeline monitoring, and the warning signs that predict deal problems before they happen.

Laura Wheeler is the COO & Co-founder at RVNU and a former sales leader at Tableau, where she contributed to growing the federal sector business from $5M to $250M. She brings extensive expertise in revenue operations, sales enablement, and building scalable sales infrastructures that drive predictable growth.

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