How to reduce pipeline leakage
Pipeline leakage is the deals that enter your pipeline but never close and never formally die, they just stall and rot. Every stalled deal inflates your forecast and hides your real conversion rates. Plugging leaks is often cheaper than generating more.
Short answer
Reduce pipeline leakage by finding where deals stall or die, tightening qualification so only real deals enter, enforcing a next step on every open deal, and shortening time-in-stage at the worst transition. Track the leak rate per stage and coach to the single biggest drop.
Step by step
Measure leak rate by stage
For each stage, calculate the percent of deals that neither advanced nor were marked lost within the expected window. High no-decision rates point to the leak.
Tighten entry qualification
Many leaks are unqualified deals that never should have entered. Enforce stricter exit criteria on the qualifying stage so only real opportunities move forward.
Require a next step on every deal
A deal with no scheduled next meeting is leaking. Make a dated next step mandatory to keep a deal open.
Attack the worst transition
Focus on the single stage with the biggest drop. Diagnose whether it is a qualification, value, or process problem and coach a specific fix.
- No next step: automate a reminder and a re-engagement play
- Stuck past average: manager inspects and either advances or closes it
- Ghosted: run a multithread and a breakup email
Age out zombies automatically
Auto-flag deals with no activity in 30 to 45 days and force a decision: advance, close-lost, or push out with a real reason. Do not let dead deals pad the number.
How Ardovo helps
Rook watches every open deal and flags the ones with no next step, no recent activity, or a stalled stage, then suggests the play to re-engage or the reason to close. Leak detection becomes automatic instead of a quarterly cleanup.
Frequently asked questions
What causes pipeline leakage?
Loose qualification letting weak deals in, no enforced next step, single-threaded relationships that ghost, and managers who never force stale deals to a decision. Most leakage is a discipline problem, not a demand problem.
How do I know if a deal is leaking versus just slow?
A slow deal still has recent activity and a scheduled next step. A leaking deal has neither. If nobody on the buyer side has engaged in weeks and there is no next meeting, it is leaking.
Is it better to close-lost a stalled deal or keep it open?
Close it lost if there is no path and no engagement. Keeping zombies open inflates your forecast and hides your true win rate. You can always reopen if the buyer re-engages.