--- name: "Pipeline Health" description: > CRM pipeline health assessment against whatever CRM is discovered through the gateway: stage-velocity norms derived from closed-won deals, activity-based stalled-deal detection, raw and quality-adjusted pipeline coverage against a revenue target, and the CRM-less degradation rule (report nothing rather than fabricate figures). when_to_use: >- When assessing the health of an open sales pipeline in a connected CRM — whether deals are moving at a healthy pace, which ones have stalled, and whether total pipeline value is enough to cover a revenue target. Use when: pipeline health, pipeline review, stalled deals, deal velocity, pipeline coverage, is our pipeline healthy, which deals are stuck, sales pipeline audit. --- # Pipeline Health ## Overview An open pipeline is healthy only if deals are actually moving through it. A pipeline can look reassuring at a glance — a large total value, a comfortable multiple of quota — while actually being a graveyard of deals nobody has touched in six weeks. This skill turns "how's the pipeline looking" from a vibe check into a repeatable read: stage velocity against a baseline, explicit stalled-deal detection, and a coverage ratio that distinguishes real momentum from stale inventory. This skill covers pipeline health as read from the CRM alone — deal stage, amount, age, and activity recency. It does not follow a deal's proposal or quote artifacts outside the CRM; for that handoff (quote sent → proposal sent/viewed/signed → deal marked closed-won), use the [`quote-to-close-tracking`](../quote-to-close-tracking/SKILL.md) skill, which builds on top of this one's stalled-deal detection. ## Anti-triggers - **Working deal records** — searching, creating, updating, or reporting on deals, stages, amounts, and forecast categories is the CRM's own surface; use `hubspot-deals` or `salesbuildr-opportunities`. This skill judges whether the pipeline those records describe is actually moving. - **Contact and company records behind a deal** — use `hubspot-contacts` or `hubspot-companies`. ## Discovering available tools first Never assume HubSpot (or any specific CRM) is connected just because it is the primary CRM this pack is written against. Before pulling any deal data: 1. Call `conduit__search_tools` with a query like `"list deals"` or `"pipeline"` to discover which CRM connector is actually live for this org, and the exact tool names it exposes (they follow `__`, e.g. `hubspot__list_deals`, `hubspot__search_deals`). 2. If more than one CRM is connected (uncommon, but possible during a migration), ask which one to scope to rather than silently picking one. 3. If discovery returns no CRM connector at all, stop and say so — there is no pipeline to assess without a CRM. Do not fabricate deals or degrade to a generic answer. Never fall back to guessing a tool name speculatively — an unrecognized tool call is a worse failure mode than asking the user which CRM they use. ## Key Concepts ### Stage-velocity norms Every pipeline has an implicit "how long should a deal sit in this stage" expectation, even if it's never been written down. In the absence of an org-documented norm, use recently closed-won deals (last 90 days) to establish a baseline: average days spent in each stage before advancing. Compare currently open deals against that baseline — a deal sitting in a stage 2x (or more) longer than the closed-won baseline for that stage is a early-warning candidate, distinct from a hard stall (see below). If fewer than roughly 5 closed-won deals exist in the lookback window, there isn't enough sample to trust a computed baseline — say so explicitly and fall back to a generic MSP-sales rule of thumb (discovery/qualification: 1–2 weeks; proposal/quote sent: 1–3 weeks; negotiation: 1–2 weeks) rather than presenting a thin-sample average as authoritative. ### Stalled-deal detection A stalled deal is defined by **inactivity**, not merely by time-in-stage — a deal can sit in "Negotiation" for three weeks with active back-and-forth and be perfectly healthy, while a deal with no logged activity in 14 days is a problem regardless of stage. Default staleness threshold: **no logged activity (note, call, meeting, email) in 14 or more calendar days, and no future task/follow-up scheduled.** State whichever threshold was actually applied if the operator asks for something other than the default. Rank stalled deals by a combination of dollar value and days since last activity — a $60,000 deal stalled for 10 days deserves more attention than a $2,000 deal stalled for 30. ### Pipeline coverage ratio Coverage = total open pipeline value ÷ revenue target for the period. A target may come from a documented quota (if the CRM or a connected source exposes one) or a user-supplied figure; if neither is available, report raw pipeline value and state plainly that a coverage ratio couldn't be computed without a target. Raw coverage overstates health because it counts stale deals at full value. Report a **quality-adjusted coverage** figure alongside raw coverage, discounting stalled deals (per the detection above) by 50% — a pipeline that looks like 3x coverage but is half stalled deals is not actually 3x covered. ### Degrading gracefully with no CRM connected If `conduit__search_tools` returns no CRM connector, do not attempt a degraded pipeline report from other tool families (a PSA is not a substitute for a CRM here) — state plainly that pipeline health cannot be assessed without a connected CRM, and stop. This differs from optional-signal degradation elsewhere in this pack (e.g. warm-lead-routing falling back to CRM-only signals when intent tools aren't connected) — a CRM is the one required input for this skill specifically, not an optional enrichment. ## Common Workflows ### Full pipeline sweep 1. Discover the connected CRM via `conduit__search_tools` (see above). 2. Pull all open deals: name, amount, stage, pipeline, close date, creation date, associated company, and owner. 3. Pull the most recent logged activity date per deal (note/call/meeting/ email) and any scheduled future task. 4. Establish the stage-velocity baseline from closed-won deals in the last 90 days (or fall back to the generic rule of thumb — see above). 5. Flag stalled deals (14+ days no activity, no future task). 6. Compute raw and quality-adjusted pipeline coverage if a target is available; otherwise report raw value only and note the missing target. 7. Return the sweep: coverage summary first, then stalled deals ranked by value and staleness, then any deals with a past-due close date (a forecast integrity problem worth flagging alongside stalls). ### Single-deal health check 1. Discover the connected CRM. 2. Pull the specific deal's stage, amount, age-in-stage, and last activity. 3. Compare age-in-stage against the stage-velocity baseline for that stage. 4. Report: on-pace / slow / stalled, with the evidence (days in stage vs. baseline, days since last activity) shown, not just the verdict. ## Error Handling ### No CRM connector discovered Say so explicitly: "No CRM connector is available through the gateway, so there's no pipeline to assess." Do not fabricate deals or a coverage figure. ### CRM connected but no revenue target available Report raw pipeline value and stalled-deal findings normally; state plainly that a coverage ratio could not be computed without a target, rather than inventing or assuming one. ### Too few closed-won deals to establish a stage-velocity baseline Say so, and fall back to the generic MSP rule-of-thumb thresholds stated above rather than presenting a thin-sample average as if it were reliable. ### Multiple CRMs connected Ask which one (or whether to run and merge both) rather than silently picking one. ## Best Practices - Treat "no activity" and "long time in stage" as related but distinct signals — report both, don't collapse them into one number. - Always show the threshold or baseline actually used, so a sales manager can sanity-check or override the read. ## Related Skills - [Quote-to-Close Tracking](../quote-to-close-tracking/SKILL.md) — follows a stalled or healthy deal's proposal/quote artifacts outside the CRM to find exactly where in the handoff chain it's stuck - [Warm Lead Routing](../warm-lead-routing/SKILL.md) — upstream of this skill, for deals that haven't yet been created in the CRM