Master Pipeline Coverage with the Sales Manager Dashboard
Sales leaders know that pipeline coverage is the backbone of hitting revenue targets.
That's why the latest enhancement to the GSP Target Tracker app—the powerful Sales Manager Dashboard—is a game-changer.
Here's the reality: confidence in hitting your quota becomes a guessing game without a strong understanding of pipeline coverage versus your sales targets.
Pipeline coverage measures whether a sales pipeline has enough deals of sufficient quality to meet revenue targets. Using pipeline coverage reports and metrics, sales managers can compare revenue goals with weighted and unweighted funnel values, gaining actionable insights to hit sales quotas.
Fortunately, the Sales Manager Dashboard gives you unparalleled visibility into your sales funnel, ensuring you can confidently answer three critical questions:
- Do you have enough pipeline coverage to achieve your revenue targets?
- Is the pipeline quality strong enough to hit the figure you need?
- Which high-impact deals should you prioritize right now to meet your goals?
Packed with essential metrics and actionable insights, the Sales Manager Dashboard isn't just another Salesforce add-on—it's the pipeline coverage tool that can transform how you manage your sales team's performance.
Curious about how it works?
In this article, we'll explain the dashboard's essential features, show you how to interpret the reports and charts and share best practices from other businesses. We'll also explain how to get a demo of the GSP Target Tracker and how to start a free trial today.
With that, let's look at the first Sales Manager Dashboard component.
Focus on Deals Closing This Month and Next Month
The Deals Closing This Month/Next Month table is your starting point on the Sales Manager Dashboard.
The table instantly clarifies which opportunities merit attention, enabling sales managers to prioritize effectively and weed out opportunities likely to slip.
And here's the other critical point about this table:
If you are confident that the deals scheduled to close this month and next are legitimate, your pipeline coverage metrics give you a reliable and robust picture.
What It Shows
This table displays open opportunities set to close this month and next, ranked by deal size. For each deal, you'll find essential details: Opportunity Name, Owner, Type (e.g., New or Existing Customer), Stage, Amount, and Close Date.
Additionally, the table highlights three critical pipeline quality metrics:
- Close Date Month Extensions: Tracks how often the Close Date has shifted to a new month. Three or more shifts are highlighted in red.
- Days Since Last Stage Change: Measures the time since the sales team last updated the opportunity's stage.
- Days Open: Calculates the time the opportunity has been in the pipeline.
Why These Metrics Matter
If you want accurate pipeline coverage metrics, then the starting point is removing dead wood from your funnel.
Let's consider an example. Assume it's January 2025, and the third opportunity on the list is "United Oil Refinery – New Generator".
Here's what stands out:
- Close Date: End of January, just two weeks away.
- Stage: Still in the Discovery phase.
- Extensions: The Close Date has slipped four times.
- Stage Change: Over two months since the last Stage update.
- Days Open: The deal has been in the pipeline for 212 days.
- Type: New Customer.
These details immediately raise red flags. A deal in this condition risks slipping from the forecast, undermining your pipeline coverage and forecast reliability. While there could be valid reasons why the opportunity owner, Dave Apthorp, believes it will close on time, the metrics reveal this deal requires further scrutiny.
Right-click on the Opportunity Name to see the deal in a separate tab. That way, you can investigate the opportunity while keeping the Sales Manager Dashboard open.
Best Practices for Using This Table
Use the Deals Closing This Month/Next Month table to validate your short-term pipeline and establish the basis for accurate pipeline coverage metrics.
Apply these best practices:
- Sense-Check Opportunities: Review the deals in this table before diving into the pipeline coverage metrics further down the dashboard. Are any close dates overly optimistic? Should some opportunities be deferred or removed altogether?
Watch for High-Risk Deals: Pay special attention to opportunities with three or more Close Date Extensions (highlighted in red). Deals that repeatedly slip are less likely to close successfully.
Engage Your Team: Encourage your sales team to review their deals before your cadence calls. They should ensure the dashboard reflects their most realistic projections. Let them own their data—your role is to facilitate discussions based on their input, not do the groundwork for them.
Salespeople can use the opportunity owner filter at the top of the dashboard to condense the charts and reports to show only their deals and targets.
Pipeline Coverage This Month
The second row of the Sales Manager Dashboard focuses on pipeline coverage for this month. It includes three key charts:
- Pipeline Coverage Summary for This Month.
- Pipeline by Owner.
- Pipeline by Stage.
These charts and the underlying reports provide critical insights that help managers assess the health of their pipeline, validate its quality, and compare pipeline coverage with revenue goals.
Let's take a quick look at each chart.
1. Pipeline Coverage Summary
This chart summarizes the pipeline coverage across all salespeople in the team.
What It Shows
This chart compares the monthly revenue target to two numbers:
- Closed Won Deals – Revenue from deals already secured this month.
- Weighted Pipeline – The expected value of opportunities due to close, calculated by multiplying deal amounts by their probabilities.
The final column highlights the variance between the target and the sum of these two numbers, instantly revealing whether your team has enough pipeline to meet its goal.
Why This Matters
The Pipeline Coverage Summary chart provides a real-time snapshot of whether your current funnel is sufficient to hit the target. For example, a negative variance indicates a shortfall, meaning you must act to close the gap.
2. Pipeline by Owner
This chart displays the total pipeline scheduled to close this month, segmented by opportunity owner.
What It Shows
The Pipeline by Owner chart highlights the top contributors to the current funnel. You can drill down by clicking the report link to view deal values per salesperson. Then, you can click individual numbers to reveal deal details, including critical pipeline quality metrics.
Why This Matters
If a single salesperson, like Dave Apthorp in our example, owns a significant portion, the robustness of their pipeline is a critical priority.
3. Pipeline by Stage
What It Shows
The Pipeline by Stage chart breaks down the total pipeline for the month by opportunity stage.
Why This Matters
This chart helps you gauge the reliability of the pipeline. A funnel heavily weighted with early-stage deals likely indicates an over-optimistic forecast. Given that the chart shows pipeline deals due to close this month, you expect most deals to be in the later stages of your sales process.
Best Practices for using the three charts
To effectively use these charts, adopt the following best practices:
- Act upon Positive Pipeline Coverage: If the pipeline coverage variance is positive, focus on closing the deals already in your pipeline. That includes creating a detailed Close Plan specifying the actions you and the customer must take to bring the deal to fruition.
- Act upon Negative Pipeline Coverage: If the pipeline coverage variance is negative, you'll need additional pipeline deals to meet your revenue target. Consider leveraging existing customers or identifying minor upgrades and incremental opportunities in this case. In addition, review the pipeline for next month - are there deals you can bring forward and close earlier?
- Assess the Pipeline by Stage and Owner: Ensure the distribution of opportunities across stages is balanced appropriately. A disproportionate number of deals in the early stages threatens your pipeline coverage. And review the pipeline by Opportunity Owner to pinpoint critical salespeople with significant deals closing this month. Prioritize collaboration with these team members to optimize your overall revenue.
Next up, let's review the pipeline coverage by salesperson.
Pipeline Coverage by Salesperson: This Month
The third row of the Sales Manager Dashboard provides a detailed breakdown of pipeline coverage for each salesperson this month.
What It Shows
This chart displays these critical metrics for every team member:
- Revenue Target: The sales goal for the individual for the month.
- Deals Won: The value of closed-won opportunities.
- Weighted Pipeline: We calculate the opportunity amount multiplied by the probability.
- Expected Variance: The variance is the gap between the revenue target and the Expected Revenue (the combined total of Deals Won and the Weighted Pipeline).
In our example:
- Dave has the highest target but a slight negative variance, indicating he's close but marginally short of his target.
- Sarah has already exceeded her target, putting her in excellent shape.
- Shaun has a positive variance but he needs to close those pipeline deals.
- Jo's negative variance contributes significantly to the team's overall shortfall.
Why This Matters
This chart provides insight into the pipeline coverage of individual team members, complementing the summary coverage data from the row above. It answers critical questions:
- Why is the team above or below target?
- Who needs the most support to hit their goals?
The chart highlights these insights, enabling managers to allocate their time effectively and take proactive steps to drive team performance.
Best Practices for Using This Chart
To effectively use these charts, adopt the following best practices:
- Validate Deals in the Pipeline: Before diving into individual coverage metrics, review deals set to close this month or next. Remove stale opportunities or deals that have repeatedly slipped in the past.
- Focus Your Efforts: Use the chart to identify salespeople with the most significant variances and prioritize coaching, deal reviews, or resource allocation for those who need it most.
- Consider Adjusting the Timeframe: For businesses with longer sales cycles, switching from monthly to quarterly targets can provide a more realistic view. The GSP Target Tracker simplifies this adjustment, allowing you to tailor the dashboard to your team's sales process.
By leveraging this chart, sales leaders gain actionable insights into short-term pipeline coverage, empowering them to make informed decisions and implement timely interventions.
Next up: Pipeline Coverage for the Following Month.
Pipeline Coverage: Planning for Next Month
The following section of the Sales Manager Dashboard shifts focus to next month's pipeline. This section provides essential insights to evaluate whether the upcoming pipeline is strong enough to meet next month's revenue targets.
What This Section Includes
- Pipeline Coverage Summary for Next Month. A high-level view of the pipeline coverage compared to the revenue target.
- Pipeline by Owner. Visibility into which team members own the deals, helping you pinpoint areas of accountability and potential risks.
- Pipeline by Stage. A breakdown of opportunities by sales stage highlights imbalances indicating pipeline coverage risk.
Below these charts, we can see the pipeline coverage for the individual sales team members next month.
Why This Matters
Sales managers naturally focus on short-term goals, often zeroing in on the current month. However, successful sales leaders also keep an eye on the future, regularly asking, Do I have enough pipeline to meet next month's quota? Proactively tracking next month's pipeline ensures you are prepared, reduces last-minute stress, strengthens your team's strategy, and paves the way for consistent success.
Best Practices for Next Month's Pipeline
To maximize the value of this dashboard section, adopt these strategies:
- Identify and Address Risky Opportunities. Carefully assess deals in next month's pipeline, especially those with a low probability of closing. Since next month's success relies entirely on pipeline opportunities, prioritize identifying and mitigating potential risks.
- Avoid Rushing Deals Prematurely. Resist the temptation to pull next month's deals forward by offering discounts or concessions to close them early. This approach can erode margins and compromise overall profitability. Focus on advancing opportunities naturally and sustainably.
- Adjust the Opportunity Probability. The opportunity probability aligns with the stage but remains flexible. Skilled sales managers guide their teams to adjust probabilities based on specific risks or positive factors in the deal. This approach enhances the weighted value's reliability and increases confidence in the pipeline coverage report.
Of course, most sales leaders also need an accurate view of the quarter's won deals and pipeline coverage.
Pipeline Coverage for This Quarter
This section mirrors the format of the This Month and Next Month sections.
The charts:
- Summarize the pipeline coverage for the fiscal quarter. If you're partway through the quarter, we hope to find some deals already in the Closed Won column.
- Analyze the pipeline for the quarter by owner and stage.
- Provide critical information on the sales performance and pipeline coverage in the quarter for each salesperson.
As with the This Month and Next Month sections, review the charts carefully, focusing on weeding out deals that no longer have legs. I recommend drilling down to the reports for the owner and stage analysis and then reviewing the opportunities that make up each summary number.
Total Pipeline Overview
This section of the Sales Manager dashboard contains two charts and reports essential for successful funnel management.
1. Total Open Pipeline by Close Date and Stage
What It Shows
This chart displays all open opportunities segmented by close date and stacked by stage, offering a clear view of short-, mid-, and long-term pipeline health.
Why This Matters
- Understand overall pipeline balance: This chart enables sales leaders to evaluate whether the pipeline is appropriately balanced. For example, the near-term pipeline should predominantly contain late-stage deals; in contrast, the further out we go, the more there should be a mix of mid and late-stage opportunities.
- Spot gaps early: The chart identifies potential shortfalls in the mid- and long-term funnel. This information helps you take proactive steps to drive up the overall pipeline, like launching marketing campaigns or business development initiatives, to fill the pipeline.
Best Practices
- Validate outliers: Watch for early-stage deals with short-term close dates or late-stage deals with far-off close dates. These anomalies can distort your pipeline coverage metrics.
- Address past-due opportunities: Resolve open deals with close dates in the past. Unless you have a time-turner, these deals will not close in the past.
- Beware of year-end spikes: If the pipeline surges toward the financial or calendar year's end, investigate whether these deals are realistic or merely shunted to later dates because the customer has no genuine buying intent.
Dive deeper into this chart in blogs like "The #1 Pipeline Report You Should Be Using This Year".
2. Open Opportunities Stacked by Owner
What It Shows
This chart adds further insight by stacking the pipeline by the opportunity owner. That means it lets you see who drives short- and long-term revenue opportunities.
Why This Matters
- Spot top performers and gaps: Quickly assess which salespeople contribute most to the pipeline.
- Validate balance: Drill into the report to verify if individual pipelines are correctly balanced. For example, check for longer-term opportunities in the late stages or short-term deals in the early stages.
- Identify coaching opportunities: Pinpoint team members who need support building or advancing their pipeline.
Best Practices
- Cross-check against conversion rates: Compare this chart with opportunity conversion reports to uncover potential sandbagging. High win rates might indicate that reps create opportunities only when deals are nearly closed.
- Filter by owner: Use the dashboard's filters to focus on individual salespeople—coach team members with low or unbalanced pipelines on creating new opportunities and advancing existing ones.
- Review mismatches: Investigate deals where the stage and close date don't align.
Finally, you're going to need charts that deliver a clear picture of the year.
Years Perspective Chart: A Deep Dive
This section of the Sales Manager Dashboard includes three key charts designed to help sales leaders monitor performance against annual and monthly goals.
Let's look:
1. Pipeline Coverage vs. Total Year Target
What It Shows
This chart compares the total annual revenue goal to actual performance. It combines the sum of all team members' sales targets with the value of closed-won deals and weighted opportunities.
Why This Matters
The chart offers a clear snapshot of year-to-date progress, helping sales leaders assess whether they are on track to meet the company's annual revenue target. As such, the chart often highlights whether a gap must be closed with additional pipeline creation.
Best Practices
- Start with the pipeline coverage charts and opportunity tables earlier in the dashboard to ensure your overall forecast is realistic.
- Evaluate pipeline creation trends regularly. Collaborate with team members to verify whether enough new opportunities are being generated to bridge gaps.
2. Closed Won by Owner This Year
What It Shows
This chart highlights total closed-won revenue for each salesperson throughout the year.
Why This Matters
Salespeople thrive on competition. This chart fosters a performance-driven culture by showing how each team member stacks up against their peers. The underlying report also helps managers pinpoint coaching opportunities and address underperformance effectively.
Best practices
- Use the chart as a starting point for one-on-one discussions with team members. Recognize top performers and identify areas for targeted coaching.
- Regularly celebrate achievements to maintain motivation and drive across the team.
3. Sales vs. Monthly Targets This Year
What It Shows
This chart tracks monthly performance against targets. It displays actual closed-won revenue, targets, and any variances for past and current months. It highlights targets, the weighted pipeline, and projected variances for future months. Managers can drill into reports for a detailed view of individual sales performance.
Why This Matters
- It provides complete visibility into sales performance and is essential for keeping stakeholders informed.
- Offers instant insight into whether pipeline coverage is adequate to meet future targets.
- The underlying reports are valuable for managing individual salesperson performance.
Best practices
- While future months may show pipeline gaps, ensure sufficient lead generation and business development activities are underway to build momentum.
- Review individual performance trends regularly. Strive for consistent results across the team, even if individual monthly achievements vary.
Your Next Steps
The Sales Manager dashboard is integral to the GSP Target Tracker app. The app provides comprehensive sales versus target monitoring and forecasting at the salesperson, team, product and company levels.
It's the easiest, most straightforward, yet powerful way to keep on top of quota management in Salesforce.
Here are steps you can take today:
- Review the GSP Target Tracker.
There's a video and more detail on the Target Tracker page. - Take a Test Drive.
Click the Try It Free link on the AppExchange Listing. - Request a demo.
Contact us, and we'll walk you through the Sales Manager dashboard and discuss aligning it with your business needs. - Take a free trial.
Follow the Get It Now button on the AppExchange Listing (no payment details needed) to start a free trial in your sandbox or production environments.
Speak soon.
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