All That Glitters Is Not Gold

The Pipeline Guest Post – Mel Harding
These famous words from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice equally apply to our sales pipeline.  As sales managers, we know from experience that when we review the opportunities our sales reps have promised to close this month, next month and the next 90 day, that they won’t all close.
But which ones will close?  That’s what we have to figure out.
All That Glitters Is Not Gold
So, when our VP calls and asks; “What are you closing this month?” we can provide him/her with a list of the projects that we have a high (perhaps even very-high) confidence we will close this month.
The challenge for us is to determine;
Which deals should we win & close,
Those deals could we close (under the right circumstances),
Any deals will we lose or won’t close this month or next,
And, where do I need to get involved?
So how do we go about doing