Pipeline Management12% of the exam
Pipeline health and data integrity
How to read a pipeline's shape (healthy, top-heavy, bottom-heavy), keep stages, amounts and contact data accurate, and use insights such as lead source, industry and stage conversion to target the customers your solution fits.
Analyze pipeline health insights ensuring data integrity to improve customer relevance.
~8 min read · 6 practice questions ·
What the exam expects
- Diagnose a pipeline as healthy, top-heavy or bottom-heavy from its stage counts and ages, and name the fix for each.
- Keep opportunity data honest: the stage matches exit criteria the buyer has met, the amount reflects what the buyer has actually confirmed, and contact and account details are current.
- Choose the pipeline insights (lead source, industry, conversion rate) that make the next round of outreach more relevant to customers.
- Read a stage-to-stage conversion drop back to its real cause, often loose qualification upstream.
- Use pipeline reviews and Pipeline Inspection to spot stale or changed deals.
Key terms:
- Healthy pipeline: one that flows, with new opportunities entering and won opportunities exiting.
- Top-heavy pipeline: many opportunities coming in, not enough reaching the final stages.
- Bottom-heavy pipeline: plenty of deals closing, not enough new ones entering at the top.
- Dirty data: inaccurate or outdated records, such as a contact who left or a wrong industry.
- Exit criteria: what must be true before a deal leaves a stage.
Key facts
Healthy pipeline
- Detail
- Flows: deals move stage to stage in a set timeframe or are filtered out
Top-heavy
- Detail
- Many coming in, not enough reaching final stages
Bottom-heavy
- Detail
- Plenty closing, not enough new opportunities entering
Stagnant leads
- Detail
- Clog the pipeline and throw off the sales forecast
Data upkeep
- Detail
- Toss dirty data; update when a lead arrives or a prospect changes stage
Pipeline reviews
- Detail
- Accountability, action items with a timeline, confirmed exit criteria per stage
Pitch before qualifying
- Detail
- Dead end: little interest, insufficient budget or no buying authority
Pipeline Inspection
- Detail
- Weekly changes in close dates, amounts, stages, forecast categories; stale next steps
Path guidance
- Detail
- Up to five key fields and 1,000 characters of guidance per step
- Why does a top-heavy pipeline lose revenue even though it has many deals?
- When should a rep update a prospect's record?
- Which two metrics best show which prospects to target next?
- Why do "no budget" losses at Proposal point to qualification?
The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.
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- Core concepts
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The free Agentforce Sales Foundations pack includes:
- All 21 lessons of the Agentforce Sales Foundations guide, with reading progress
- Interactive decision walks and step-by-step sequence steppers
- Inline practice questions and one-click topic practice (6 questions for this lesson)
- An official source cited for every claim
- An AI tutor that answers from the guide (uses credits)
- Unlimited timed practice exams
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Sales Cloud implementation plus the Agentforce selling features, renamed from Sales Cloud Consultant in July 2026.