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Glossary:
Sales Pipeline
Master the essential revenue and financial metrics that drive B2B SaaS success. From ARR and MRR to retention metrics and customer economics, these terms are critical for understanding pipeline health, forecasting growth, and making data-driven decisions.
Open Opportunity
Short Definition
Active opportunities in the pipeline that aren’t Closed-Won or Closed-Lost yet.
Definition
An open opportunity exists in any sales stage that hasn't reached Closed-Won or Closed-Lost status. Open opps form the current pipeline used for coverage ratios, forecasting, and capacity planning across B2B sales teams.
"Open" emphasizes active progression vs. stalled or disqualified deals.
Why Open Opportunities Matter
- Drive pipeline coverage calculations.
- Reveal sales capacity and execution risks.
- Enable rep performance benchmarking.
- Support territory and quota planning.
- Flag aging deals needing attention.
How to Manage Open Opportunities
- Weekly pipeline review: age, stage, next steps.
- Flag opps >60 days in stage for coaching.
- Maintain 10-15 quality opps per rep (varies by ACV).
- Enforce stage gates on progression.
- Balance pipeline across early/mid/late stages.
Open Opp Health Signals
Key Metrics
- Number of open opps per rep.
- Average age of open opps.
- Open opps by stage distribution.
- Open-to-close conversion rate.
Common Mistakes
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the max open opps a rep should have?
10-15 for $50K ACV; scales inversely with deal size.
When should we close open opps?
No next steps + buyer ghosting >14 days.
How many early vs. late stage open opps should we have?
A typical healthy pipeline is a 60/25/15 split (early/mid/late).