Sales process, pipeline & forecasting

What you’ll learn

• The end-to-end sales funnel — lead → MQL → SQL → opportunity → closed — and what each conversion point actually means.
• The standard sales stages, what "exit criteria" are, and why stage discipline is the difference between a pipeline and a wish list.
• Pipeline mathematics: coverage ratios, win rates, ACV/ARR/TCV, sales cycle length, and how to work backwards from a quota to required pipeline and required weekly activity — with four fully worked examples, including the funnel numbers one NHS-facing startup published in its adverts.
• Forecasting: commit / best case / pipeline categories, why a VP of Sales lives or dies by forecast accuracy, and the twin sins of sandbagging and happy ears.
• CRM discipline: what Salesforce and HubSpot actually store, why hygiene matters, and how to talk about a deal in a pipeline review without embarrassing yourself.
• The sales velocity formula and its four levers.