Pipeline Time Machine
The Pipeline Time Machine (opens in a new tab) enables you to look back through your deal history to understand how your pipeline has changed over time. It builds a detailed historical view that reveals shifts in deal amounts, progression through stages, and key metrics across any period, giving you deep visibility into your pipeline's evolution and patterns.
Pipeline Time Machine Overview
How to Use the Pipeline Time Machine Page
The Pipeline Trends page gives you powerful tools to visualize and inspect your pipeline over time.
Configure the Chart
The first thing you want to do is choose what you would like to display:
- Group By: Choose how you want to group the data. This can be by Day, Week, Month, or Quarter.
- Choose Date Range: Specify the start and end dates for the time period you want to inspect.
- Compare: Compare your pipeline to the same time period in previous years.
- Choose your Filters: Optionally filter by pipelines & stages, deal owners, and teams.
Grouping and Filtering Options for Pipeline Time Machine
Pipeline Time Machine Chart
The chart is the main part of the Pipeline Time Machine page. It shows the value of your pipeline by your selected grouping with summary information including the ending pipeline value, the amount changed, the highest point, lowest point and average.
Mouse over the bars to see the values including the total amount, previous years (if selected), and the moving average.
Pipeline Time Machine Chart with Summary Information
Notes:
- The bar values are the value of the last day in the grouped period. For example, if you are grouping by month, the bar value is the value of the last day of the month.
- The moving average is a 3-period average based on your grouping. For example, if you are grouping by month, the moving average is the average of the current month and the previous 2 months.
Key Metrics to Inspect the Pipeline
Summary Metrics
The Key Metrics section provides a quick snapshot of what changed in the pipeline for your selected date range and filters.
Each metric shows a red/green line that reflects the impact of the metric on your pipeline value from the start of the time range to the end.
For example:
- if a deal was open at the start of the time range and closed won during the time range, it will show as a red line because, while it's a win, it grew your pipeline.
- if a deal was closed at the start of the time range and re-opened during the time range (and stayed open), it will show as a green line because it grew your pipeline.
You can click on the metrics to see the exact deal changes for that metric.
Pipeline Time Machine Key Metrics Section
| Metric | Changes | Description |
|---|---|---|
| What Grew Your Pipeline | New Deals, Amount Increased, Reopened Deals, Pipeline Entered, Assigned to Owner | These are deals that were created, had their amount increased, or were re-opened during the time range. |
| What Shrank Your Pipeline | Closed Won, Closed Lost, Amount Decreased, Pipeline Exited, Reassigned from Owner | These are deals that were open before the time range, and then were won or lost during the time range or had their amount decreased. |
| Unchanged Deals | No Movement, Moved Forward, Moved Backward | These are deals that were open before the time range, and then had no change during the time range, or had a change that did not impact the pipeline value. |
| Net Zero Changes | Created then Won, Created then Lost | These are deals that were created, then won or lost during the time range. |
Here are some of the most common causes of pipeline changes:
| Pipeline Change | Impact | Details | Advice / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Deals | When new deals are created, the pipeline goes up. | When creating new deals, be sure that you are consistent in how you pick your initial Amount value. This directly impacts your pipeline value. | |
| Closed Deals | When you Win or Lose a Deal, your pipeline goes down. | Yes - Winning Deals is bad for your pipeline. If your win ratio is 33%, for every deal you win, you must add 3 more deals to the pipeline. | |
| Amount Changes | When Deal Amounts change, your pipeline changes. | This is one of the hardest pipeline data points to uncover in your CRM. Data Parrot automatically reveals these changes for you. | |
| Re-Opened Deals | Changing a deal from closed won/lost to open again will increase your pipeline. | Data Parrot reveals re-opened deals automatically. Some companies create new deals, others re-open closed deals. Data Parrot supports both! | |
| Pipeline/Stage Changes | When filtering on Pipelines/Stages, Data Parrot reveals deals that entered/exited the filtered pipeline/stages. | Examples are a deal moving from a pre-sales pipeline to a sales pipeline, or from 'Outbound Target' to 'Qualified' | |
| Owner Changes | When filtering on Deal Owner, Data Parrot reveals deals that were re-assigned to/away from the filtered owner(s). | Most common use case: hiring a new rep and assigning new deals to them. Existing reps will have their pipelines go down! |
Notes:
- Deleted Deals will disappear from your pipeline completely including the entire history. It is typically recommended to create a custom stage (or even pipeline) to move deleted deals into instead of actually deleting them.
- Merged Deals will consolidate for your pipeline history - for instance, if you had 2 duplicate deals, merged them together, then the Pipeline Chart will show only the merged deal across the history.
Detailed Deal-Level Changes
Data Parrot provides the ability to drill in and see exactly which deal changed and the impact on your pipeline for any of the metrics above. Simply click the metric tab you want to see and view the deal details below.
Deal level inspection - this example shows amount changes for deals
The table shows relevant information based on the metric you have selected. For example, if you select 'Moved Forward', the table will show the deal name, pipeline, previous stage, current stage, close date, amount, owner, and create date. For Reassigned from Owner, the table will show the deal name, old owner and the new owner.
Making the Most of the Pipeline Time Machine
- Monitor Overall Health: Use the chart to quickly assess if your pipeline is growing, shrinking, or remaining stable over time. Group by the range that makes the most sense based on your average sales cycle.
- Investigate Individual Sales Rep Pipelines: Pipeline growth is one of the most important leading indicators of sales performance. Filter by Deal Owner to see how your reps are doing.
- Compare Previous Years: This is a great way to see how your pipeline is performing compared to prior years.
- Focus on Key Metrics: Review the Key Metrics to understand what are the most impactful changes to your pipeline.
- Investigate Changes: Use the Deal Changes section to spot any unusual activity, like significant amount changes or deals moving in or out of the pipeline.
- Drill Down: Use the detailed deal data to investigate specific deals that are impacting your pipeline's performance.
By regularly reviewing your Pipeline Time Machine, you'll gain valuable insights into your sales process, helping you make data-driven decisions to optimize your pipeline and boost your overall sales performance.
Next Steps
- Predict Sales with AI Forecast: Boost forecasting with predictive analytics.
- Track Deals with Deal Pulse: Monitor deal health and progress.
- Activity Dashboard: Explore to see a detailed view of all your sales engagements across your sales team.