The Peril of the "Perfect" Pipeline Review
By Shawn Hamilton, M.S., DBA(c) Shawn Hamilton is a leading sales leadership advisor and doctoral researcher at the University of Houston, specializing in Sales Leadership.
The Peril of the "Perfect" Pipeline Review
It’s Tuesday morning, time for the weekly pipeline review. The sales manager sips their coffee as a rep shares their screen.
"This deal with Acme Corp is rock solid," the rep says confidently. "They loved the demo, and the VP is reviewing the contract. I have it forecasted for 90%."
The manager nods, but they know the truth. The "VP" is a Director with no buying power, the "contract" is just a standard MSA, and the deal has been stalled on the same "next step" for three weeks.
The manager knows it. The rep knows it. But nobody says it.
Welcome to "Pipeline Theater": the single most expensive and time-wasting ritual in sales. It is a performative act where reps defend the past instead of strategizing for the future, and managers inspect deals instead of improving them.
Why It Happens: Inspection vs. Accountability
This "theater" is a rational response to a broken process. When a pipeline review is structured as a high-stakes inspection, the rep's goal is not to be honest; it's to survive. They are on trial, and their job is to defend their forecast.
This creates a culture of fear, not accountability.
True accountability is not about blame; it's about ownership. Research from the Academy of Management Journal on team accountability shows that high-performing teams view accountability as a collaborative process for achieving shared goals (Hu, He, & Lie, 2018).
But in "Pipeline Theater," accountability is a four-letter word that means "Who is to blame for this slipping?" When reps feel this, they stop bringing you problems and only bring you performances. They "polish" their CRM records for an hour before the meeting, manufacturing next steps and inflating percentages, just to avoid the third degree.
The Cost of a Bad Performance
This ritual isn't just annoying; it's catastrophic.
The Forecast is a Lie: The company gets a fantasy pipeline, leading to bad financial planning, poor resource allocation, and surprise-missed quarters.
No Real Coaching Occurs: A rep will never say, "I'm stuck. I don't know how to handle the CFO's objection." Instead, they say, "The CFO is on board; we're just finalizing details." You cannot coach a rep who is pretending to be perfect.
It Wastes Your Best Sellers' Time: Your A-players, who should be selling, are instead forced to sit through an hour-long meeting defending deals they already know how to close, while your C-players get to practice their storytelling.
Actionable Takeaways: How to End the Theater
To get a real pipeline, you have to create a safe "rehearsal space."
Change the #1 Question.
Stop Asking: "Is this deal going to close?" (A yes/no question that invites a performance).
Start Asking: "What is the single biggest risk that could kill this deal, and how can we solve it together?" (A strategic question that invites collaboration).
Separate the "Forecast Call" from the "Pipeline Review." The Forecast Call (for the VP/CRO) is about the number. That's fine. But your 1:1 Pipeline Review (with your rep) should be a coaching session. Its goal is not to get the forecast right; its goal is to make the pipeline healthier.
Review Deals from Both Ends. Don't just focus on deals closing this month. Review newly created opportunities. Coaching a rep on how to run a perfect discovery on a new deal has 10x the impact of a last-minute attempt to "save" a dying one.
Stop asking for a performance, and you'll stop getting a show. Ask for partnership, and you'll get a real pipeline.
References
Hu, S., He, W., & Lie, D. (2018). A process model of team accountability: The role of moral and competence-based transgressions. Academy of Management Journal, 61(3), 945–974.
