Quarterly Pipeline Cleanup

Every quarter, the pipeline accumulates dead weight. Deals that should have been closed-lost but were not. Deals that were advanced prematurely and now sit in late stages with no engagement. Deals where the champion left the company and no one updated the record. The quarterly cleanup is the hygiene exercise that removes the dead weight and restores accuracy. It is not popular. Reps do not enjoy losing pipeline. But a pipeline that includes dead deals produces inaccurate forecasts, inflated coverage ratios, and false confidence. The cleanup is painful and necessary.

1. Pull the Aging Report Every deal that has exceeded 2x its stage benchmark with no engagement in the last fourteen days. This is the cleanup candidate list. Expect 10-20% of the pipeline to qualify. If it is less than 5%, the criteria are too tight. If it is more than 30%, the pipeline has been neglected.
2. Disposition Each Deal For each candidate: close-lost if the opportunity is dead, down-stage if the deal regressed, or keep with a documented recovery plan and a two-week deadline. Every deal gets a disposition. No exceptions. No "let me check on it next week."
3. Measure the Impact Record the pipeline value before and after cleanup. The difference is the amount of fiction that was in the forecast. Track this number quarterly. If it is growing, the pipeline hygiene process between cleanups needs improvement.