The 3V Pipeline Health Check: Exact Metrics to Spot Imbalance

Why most teams miss pipeline imbalance (until it’s too late)

On paper, the numbers look fine. You have “enough” pipeline coverage, the forecast circles the right number, and everyone nods along in the sales meeting.

Then the quarter closes, and the gap between forecast and reality is suddenly very real.

Most of the time, this isn’t because you have no pipeline. It’s because you have an imbalanced pipeline – distorted at certain stages in ways that traditional dashboards don’t show.

A simple, repeatable way to catch this early is to run a 3V Pipeline Health Check: looking at Value, Volume and Velocity for every stage, not just the pipeline overall.

This blog walks through exactly how to do that – the metrics to use, what “healthy” looks like, and the red flags that tell you imbalance is creeping in.

This blog is also an offshoot of our main pillar guide on how spot and address pipeline imbalance across your sales stages, which you can read here.

What is a 3V Pipeline Health Check?

A 3V check is a structured review of your pipeline by stage, using three lenses:

• Value – how much revenue is sitting in each stage.
• Volume – how many opportunities sit in each stage.
• Velocity – how quickly deals move from one stage to the next.

Instead of asking, “Do we have 3x coverage for the quarter?”, you’re asking:

• Is Value distributed sensibly across stages?
• Is Volume dropping in a logical way as we qualify?
• Is Velocity broadly consistent, with sensible differences where stages genuinely take longer?

When one of those three is out of line at a given stage, you’ve found pipeline imbalance.

Step 1: Define your stages clearly

Before any metrics, you need clarity on what each stage actually means. If your stages are fuzzy, your 3V check will be too.

For each stage, write down:

• A one-line description: what must be true for a deal to enter this stage.
• Exit criteria: what must be true for a deal to leave this stage.
• Typical activities: the key things that usually happen here (e.g. discovery call, proposal issued, demo completed).

If your leadership team and sales managers can’t agree on those definitions, that’s your first sign of imbalance. You’re measuring stages that people use differently.

Step 2: Measuring Value by stage

Value is usually the simplest V to calculate – but it’s often the most misleading when taken at face value.

Key Value metrics by stage:

• Total Value per stage
  • Sum of the expected revenue of all opportunities in the stage.
    
    
  • Look at both the absolute number and the percentage of total pipeline in each stage.
• Average deal size per stage
  • Total Value in stage ÷ Number of opportunities in stage.
    
    
  • Watch for big jumps or drops in average deal size between stages.
• Coverage vs target by stage
  • For the current or upcoming period, compare stage Value to revenue target.
    
    
  • Early stages typically need higher multiples; late stages should be closer to 1–1.5x.

What healthy Value looks like:

• Value is heavier in earlier stages, but not absurdly so.
• As you move towards closing stages, Value reduces but becomes more reliable.

Value red flags that indicate imbalance:

• A single stage holds a disproportionate share of total pipeline.
• A late stage (e.g. “Commit”) contains far more Value than earlier stages, but your win rate doesn’t justify it.
• Average deal size suddenly balloons at mid or late stages – often a sign that reps are only “updating” big deals.

Step 3: Measuring Volume by stage

Volume is about the count of opportunities at each stage and how they progress.

Key Volume metrics by stage:

• Number of opportunities per stage
  • A simple count gives you the shape of the funnel at a glance.
• Conversion rate stage-to-stage
  • Opportunities that progress from Stage X to Stage Y ÷ Total opportunities that entered Stage X.
    
    
  • Measure this over a defined period (e.g. last 90 days) to remove historic noise.
• No-decision and loss rates by stage
  • Percentage of opportunities that exit the pipeline from each stage as “closed lost” or “no decision”.

What healthy Volume looks like:

• You see a gradual, logical drop in Volume as deals progress.
• Some stages (e.g. qualification) will rightly shed more deals – that’s the system doing its job.

Volume red flags that indicate imbalance:

• Early-stage overcrowding – very high Volume at Stage 1/2 with weak conversion to Stage 3. This often signals logging everything as an “opportunity” rather than applying any filter.
• Mid-funnel cliff – a sudden drop in Volume from one stage to the next, without a clear reason. This can point to poor qualification, weak discovery or misaligned criteria.
• Late-stage hoarding – many opportunities lingering in “Proposal” or “Commit” that never close.

Step 4: Measuring Velocity by stage

Velocity is where imbalance becomes most obvious – and yet it’s the least measured V in many organisations.

Key Velocity metrics by stage:

• Average days in stage
  • Total days opportunities spent in a stage ÷ Number of opportunities that passed through it (over a defined period).
• Stage ageing
  • Number of opportunities currently in a stage that have been there longer than an agreed threshold (e.g. 2x the average).
• Overall cycle length
  • Average number of days from Stage 1 to Closed Won, broken down by deal type or segment where relevant.

What healthy Velocity looks like:

• Most opportunities move through each stage within a predictable range.
• You can explain naturally slower stages (e.g. security review, legal) and have a plan to manage them.

Velocity red flags that indicate imbalance:

• A stage where average days and ageing are dramatically higher than others.
• Opportunities sitting 2–3x longer than the norm in a single stage without progressing or being closed out.
• Cycle length quietly extending over time, particularly through the same stage or two.

Step 5: Recognising imbalance patterns with 3V

Once you have Value, Volume and Velocity by stage, the patterns tend to jump out.

Some classic imbalance patterns to watch for:

1. The Illusion of Abundance (early-stage imbalance)
   - High Volume and Value at Stage 1/2.
   - Very low conversion into Stage 3.
   - Velocity looks fine initially, but many early-stage opportunities simply age out or vanish.

This usually means anything and everything is being logged as an opportunity, whether or not it should be.

2. The Mid-Funnel Drop-Off (qualification imbalance)
   - Reasonable early-stage Volume and Value.
   - Sharp drop in conversion between discovery/qualification stages.
   - Velocity slows dramatically here, with many “stuck” deals.

This often signals poor qualification, unclear criteria, or “happy ears” – reps mistaking interest for intent.

3. The Phantom Commit Pile-Up (late-stage imbalance)
   - Large Value stacked in proposal/commit stages.
   - Poor win rates from those stages.
   - Velocity collapses: deals stay in late stages far longer than the supposed norm, with many pushed close dates.

This is the classic forecast problem: a pipeline that looks rich at the back end but consistently under-delivers.

Step 6: Building your 3V dashboard

To make the 3V health check repeatable, bake it into your dashboards rather than treating it as a one-off exercise.

For leadership (CRO, CFO, COO):

• Stage-level charts for Value, Volume and Velocity.
• Trend views comparing this quarter to the previous one.
• Forecast accuracy by stage (how reliable late-stage Value really is).

For sales managers:

• A view of conversion and stage duration by rep and by team.
• Lists of aged opportunities by stage that need action (progress or close).
• Funnel shape reports showing where each team’s pipeline is overweight or underweight.

For reps:

• A simple view of their own funnel with alerts for over-aged opportunities.
• Historical view of their own cycle times and conversion rates to support self-coaching.

The goal is not more data for its own sake – it’s a shared, reliable picture of where imbalance is forming, so you can talk about it early.

Step 7: How often to run the 3V health check – and what to do with it

You don’t need a huge project to use this approach. A practical rhythm might look like:

• Weekly – Sales managers review 3V metrics for their team, focusing on aged opportunities and stage conversion.
• Monthly – Leadership reviews 3V patterns by region/segment, looking for emerging imbalance.
• Quarterly – A deeper pipeline health review that looks at trends over time, not just snapshots.

Each review should end with clear next actions, for example:

• Tightening entry criteria for an overcrowded stage.
• Cleaning out obviously dead or over-aged opportunities.
• Triggering targeted coaching or enablement efforts where imbalance is persistent.

The point of a 3V health check is not to catch people out. It’s to make sure your pipeline is telling the truth – and to give everyone from CRO to rep a common language for spotting imbalance before it wrecks your quarter.

Where to go next

If your dashboards currently stop at “total pipeline” and “forecast”, the 3V Pipeline Health Check is a simple, powerful next step.

Start by:

• Defining your stages clearly.
• Pulling Value, Volume and Velocity metrics by stage for the last 90 days.
• Looking for the imbalance patterns outlined above.

From there, you can decide where to investigate more deeply – and where partners like Mentor Group can help you build the skills, behaviours and coaching needed to keep your pipeline clean, healthy and sufficient.

FAQ summary: 3V Pipeline Health Check

1. What is a 3V Pipeline Health Check?
   A 3V Pipeline Health Check is a structured way of assessing your sales pipeline by stage, using three key lenses: Value (how much revenue sits in each stage), Volume (how many opportunities sit in each stage) and Velocity (how quickly deals move between stages). It helps you spot where the pipeline is distorted or imbalanced, rather than just looking at total coverage.
2. How does the 3V check help me spot pipeline imbalance?
   By comparing Value, Volume and Velocity across stages, you can see where the funnel shape stops making sense. Overcrowded early stages, sudden mid-funnel drop-offs, or slow-moving late stages all show up clearly when you look at the 3Vs side by side, making it easier to pinpoint where deals are getting stuck or misclassified.
3. What data do I need to run a 3V Pipeline Health Check?
   You primarily need stage-level CRM data: opportunity values, stage dates, stage history, win/loss outcomes and close dates. From this, you can calculate total Value, opportunity Volume, conversion rates and stage duration for each stage over a defined period (for example, the last 90 days).
4. How often should I run a 3V check on my pipeline?
   Weekly checks work well for sales managers who want to stay close to team performance and identify stuck deals early. Monthly and quarterly reviews are better for leadership teams that want to track broader trends, understand how imbalance is developing and tie it to forecasting and strategy decisions.
5. Who should own the 3V Pipeline Health Check in the business?
   Ownership is shared. RevOps or Sales Operations typically builds the views and maintains data quality; sales managers use the metrics for coaching and pipeline reviews; the CRO and wider leadership team use 3V insights to challenge the forecast and decide where to focus attention and support.
6. What should I do if the 3V check reveals serious imbalance?
   First, validate that your stage definitions and data are being used consistently. Then use the patterns you see – overcrowded early stages, mid-funnel cliffs or phantom commits – to guide targeted actions: tightening stage criteria, cleaning the pipeline, and commissioning focused coaching or enablement in the specific stages where deals are failing to progress.