What is a sales pipeline?

A sales pipeline is the set of stages a prospect moves through as they progress from a new lead to a customer.
It consists of the total amount of live opportunities that have the potential to close.  A pipeline report helps sellers keep track of all opportunities in each stage of the pipeline at the time the report is run.  It also helps understand if they have an appropriate distribution of deals in order to meet their sales targets.
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​When this is executed effectively it has a direct and significant impact on growing your sales revenue.  Research shows (HBR) that companies that mastered pipeline practices saw 28% higher revenue growth.

Difference between a sales pipeline and a sales funnel:

A pipeline reflects what a seller does during the sales process and a funnel measures conversion rates through the sales process.