Mastering Sales Pipeline Reporting: The Adam Sand Playbook

Alright, let’s get into it. If you’re running a roofing business—or any business, really—and you’re not leveraging your sales pipeline data, you’re flying blind. Sales pipeline reporting isn’t just some fancy dashboard to impress your team, it’s the backbone of consistent, predictable revenue growth. But here’s the kicker: most companies screw it up. They get bogged down with messy deal stages, missing data, and reports that don’t actually answer the questions they need to grow. Let’s fix that. Here’s how to turn your pipeline into a crystal ball for your business.

What Pipeline Reporting Really Means

First off, let’s clear up a common misconception: reporting isn’t just about slapping some charts on a dashboard. A report is a tool to answer a specific question about your business. That’s it. If your reports aren’t helping you make decisions, they’re useless.

Here’s the golden rule: every report should answer a question.

• Where are deals getting stuck or lost?
• How much revenue can we expect this month?
• What objections are killing deals?

If your reports aren’t giving you actionable answers, you’re just decorating your CRM. And let’s be real, HubSpot isn’t cheap—so let’s make it work for you.

Why Accurate Deal Stages Matter

Your deal stages are the foundation of your pipeline. They’re like the tracks your deals follow from lead to close. But here’s the problem: if those tracks are inconsistent or constantly changing, your reports are garbage.

Adam’s Rule: “Don’t mess with your deal stages.”
Once you’ve set them up, stick to them. Changing deal stages mid-flight is like moving the goalposts during a game—it confuses your team and wrecks your data.

Pro Tips:

1. Document your deal stages and make sure everyone uses them the same way.
2. Train your team to move deals methodically through each stage—no skipping!
3. Treat missing stage data like a red flag. If it’s not in the system, it didn’t happen.

The Power of the Sankey Diagram

If you’re not using the Sankey diagram in HubSpot, you’re leaving insights on the table. This tool shows you how deals flow—or don’t flow—through your pipeline. It’s like an X-ray for your sales process.

What the Sankey Diagram Reveals:

• Where deals are getting stuck or lost.
• Which stages are being skipped (e.g., jumping from inspection to lost).
• Patterns in your team’s behavior that might be breaking the process.

For example, if deals are stalling before contracts are sent, maybe your team needs better follow-up processes. Or if inspections are too far out on the calendar, you’ve got a scheduling problem. The Sankey diagram doesn’t just show you what’s happening—it shows you where to take action.

The Five Questions Every Sales Manager Must Answer

If you’re managing a sales team, you need to know the answers to these five questions for every deal in your pipeline:

1. How Much Money Can We Make?
   This is your deal amount. If you can’t sum up your total pipeline value, you’re guessing at your revenue.

2. When Will We Make This Money?
   Forecasting isn’t just about potential—it’s about timing. Use the Close Date field to predict when deals will close.

3. Why Don’t We Have This Money Yet?
   Every stalled deal has an objection—or should. If your team isn’t logging objections, you’re flying blind.

4. What Will We Do About It?
   This is your Next Step property. Every deal needs a clear action plan to move forward.

5. When Will We Take That Next Step?
   A plan without a date is just a wish. Track your Next Activity Date to keep deals moving.

The CSM Audit View: Your Reporting Foundation

The CSM Audit View is a custom HubSpot setup that ensures every deal is tracked with complete and accurate data. It’s your safety net as your team grows.

How to Set It Up:

• Make sure every deal has these five fields: Amount, Close Date, Objection, Next Step, and Next Activity Date.
• Regularly review deals with missing or outdated info.
• Build dashboards to surface deals that are missing key data.

This isn’t just about keeping your CRM clean—it’s about giving your sales managers the tools they need to coach effectively and close more deals.

Revenue Forecasting: From Hindsight to Foresight

The ultimate goal of pipeline reporting is foresight—the ability to predict not just what will close, but when. This is where most companies fall short. They’re stuck in hindsight, looking at what happened last month, instead of using their data to forecast the future.

How to Nail Forecasting:

1. Update Close Dates regularly—don’t let deals linger with stale dates.
2. Build reports grouped by Close Date (e.g., This Week, This Month, This Quarter).
3. Remove deals with past close dates that haven’t moved—only active, correctly dated deals should feed your forecast.

When done right, forecasting lets you plan resources, target follow-ups, and measure sales effectiveness in real-time.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Even with the best systems, mistakes happen. Here are the top pitfalls I see—and how to avoid them:

1. Changing Deal Stages Mid-Flight: Stick to your pipeline flow. Changing stages confuses your team and wrecks your data.
2. Incomplete Data Fields: Missing objections, next steps, or close dates make your reports useless.
3. Vague Objections: “Needs to think about it” isn’t an objection—it’s a cop-out. Train your team to dig deeper.
4. No Next Steps: A deal without a next step is on the “hope plan,” not the “growth plan.”
5. Stale Close Dates: Rolling deals forward without updating close dates skews your forecasts.

Conclusion: Build a Culture of Sales Excellence

Mastering pipeline reporting isn’t just about tools and dashboards—it’s about creating a culture of data accuracy, process discipline, and continuous improvement. When your team can answer the five essential questions for every deal, you’re not just managing—you’re leading.

Key Takeaways:

• Clarify your reporting questions before building any report.
• Standardize and document your deal stages—and stick to them.
• Use tools like the Sankey diagram to uncover hidden patterns.
• Make the CSM Audit View your central hub for sales process integrity.
• Build revenue forecasting into your monthly workflow—update those close dates!
• Regularly coach your team on data entry discipline and objection handling.

With these foundations in place, you’ll trust your data, coach your team, and grow your business with confidence. Ready to transform your pipeline reporting? Start by auditing your own pipeline with these five vital questions—and watch the difference it makes. Let’s go!