sales-pipeline-hygiene

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: sales-pipeline-hygiene
description: Run a periodic, checklist-based hygiene audit over an active pipeline snapshot - stale deals (no stage, close date, or amount change, not logged touches) flagged against segment-specific stage medians, close-date push-count anomalies, and missing forecast-critical fields - producing an exception list with a disposition per flagged deal, a remediation plan, and a pass threshold. Use whenever the user mentions pipeline hygiene, a stale deal audit, pipeline cleanup before a QBR, deals that keep pushing, a close date that keeps slipping, missing fields on deals, or "our pipeline is full of junk" - even if they never say "hygiene". Covers B2B and B2C/high-velocity/PLG. Do NOT use for rewriting stage definitions - use mbfinotti/revops-skills@pipeline-stage-definition-audit instead.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Maya-Beth Finotti
  version: "1.2.4"
---

# Pipeline Hygiene

Audit the deals sitting in the active pipeline right now - stale deals, close-date push anomalies, missing forecast-critical fields - and turn the findings into an exception list with one disposition decision per flagged deal, a remediation and communication plan, and a measurable pass threshold. Ownership is split three ways, not shared (ORM):

- RevOps owns the definitions, the snapshot, the automation, and the pre-published data package.
- The front-line manager owns the per-deal disposition and the coaching conversation.
- The rep owns the update and the evidence.

The split is what removes the argument - the manager arrives holding specific records that failed specific rules, not a general complaint. Splitting it the other way produces meetings that run on time and change nothing.

The audit's load-bearing definitional choice comes first: **meaningful activity means a change to Stage, Close Date, or Amount - not logged calls or emails** (ORM). Logged touches are activity in the CRM sense, but they do not indicate the deal moved, so a rule built on them can be satisfied without any progression - which is exactly how stale pipeline survives review after review. This is a live practitioner disagreement (many tools key on last-activity date); default to the field-change definition and use last-activity as a second, independent trigger - together, never interchangeably.

## Scope Boundaries

State these in the deliverable so the audit does not drift:

- This is a periodic audit of the deals in the pipeline today. Designing the standing automated reminder/nudge system that prevents staleness is a different job: the audit may recommend automating a recurring check and describe what it hands off to, but must not design alert timing, channels, or notification-fatigue policy.
- It does not audit or rewrite stage definitions or exit criteria - that is `mbfinotti/revops-skills@pipeline-stage-definition-audit`. Hygiene takes the existing stage set as given and inspects the deals inside it.
- It does not diagnose overall forecast reliability - that is `mbfinotti/revops-skills@sales-forecast-diagnostic`. Hygiene feeds it clean data; it does not fix the forecast method.
- It does not set org-wide field ownership or source-of-truth policy - that is `mbfinotti/revops-skills@crm-data-governance`. Hygiene checks completeness of the fields that already exist.
- It does not trace funnel revenue leakage - that is `mbfinotti/revops-skills@revenue-leakage`.

## Interview

Ask before auditing. One question per message; multiple-choice where possible; skip anything already answered.

- What can you export or query from the system of record: open deals with stage, amount, close date, owner, last activity date, created date, next step? Stage-change history? Close-date change history? As-of snapshots?
- Which motion and segments feed this pipeline: SMB/high-velocity, mid-market, enterprise, B2C/transactional, PLG sales-assisted, mixed? Typical cycle length and deal size per segment?
- Which recurring rituals already exist - weekly forecast c