Five Pipeline Questions Every Sales Leader Needs on Repeat in 2025

Sales leaders aren’t short on dashboards or data. What’s missing is sharper visibility, the kind that cuts through status updates and exposes deal friction before it shows up in the forecast. Most pipeline reviews sound productive but surface little that moves revenue. These five questions are what high-performing managers rely on to get real signal, reduce risk, and make every review worth the time.

1. Where are you seeing real momentum and where are deals stuck?

It’s easy for reps to fill a pipeline with “in play” opportunities, but real progress is what counts. Effective leaders push for clarity on what’s truly moving versus what’s quietly going cold. If it isn’t moving forward, call it out.

How Hive Perform helps:
Signal-based pipeline views flag drops in buyer engagement before the CRM catches up, so managers can spot risk before it’s too late.

2. What’s changed in the deal or buyer context since last week?

Deals don’t stall out of nowhere. The shifts are often subtle: a new stakeholder shows up, your champion’s replies slow, or priorities change. Asking about change surfaces risk that status updates miss.

How Hive Perform helps:
Live deal feeds surface changes instantly, new contacts, silence, shifting buyer sentiment, so you see pattern, not just progress.

3. What support or cross-functional help do you need to progress this deal?

Top reps escalate early, not late. Great sales managers make it normal to ask for help whether that’s executive air cover, custom terms, or a technical deep dive. It keeps deals moving and avoids “silent stuck.”

How Hive Perform helps:
Managers and reps can flag action for support or exec sponsorship directly for each deal, so the right internal resources get looped in fast.

4. Which deals show risk signals that aren’t obvious on paper?

Forecasts slip when managers trust only “gut feel” or rely on CRM stages alone. Real risk shows up as stalled buyer activity, a sudden drop in replies, or negative signals long before the end-of-quarter scramble.

How Hive Perform helps:
AI flags at-risk deals by tracking engagement, stalled stages, and negative sentiment, no more surprises at quarter close.

5. What’s the one thing we learned this week that we’ll use on every deal next week?

Pipeline reviews aren’t just for reporting, they’re for learning. Every week should reveal one lesson: an objection that landed, a playbook step that made the difference, or a red flag that was caught in time. Teams that make learning explicit outperform those that don’t.

How Hive Perform helps:
Playbook analytics show which moves lead to closed deals and where best practice is being ignored, so your team gets smarter every week.

Camille Kempell, Hive Perform’s Global Sales Director, anchors every review with these:
Where’s the momentum? What’s changed? Who needs help?
Building on this, our customers add risk signals and learning loops to close the gap between reporting and revenue.

Q&A

1. What pipeline questions move deals forward? The five above: momentum, change, support, risk, and learning, each one targets a real-world friction.
2. How do I know if my deal is stuck, not just slow? Watch for silence, stalled next steps, and buyer signals dropping, preferably tracked automatically, not guessed at.
3. What data should I look at in a pipeline review? Go beyond stage and forecast: focus on buyer engagement, signal change, and flagged risks.
4. When should I bring in cross-functional help? The moment a deal shows signs of stall or needs a unique solution, don’t wait for the fire drill.
5. How can I use Hive Perform to flag risk deals earlier? Hive Perform tracks risk signals, like slow replies, long idle stages, or sentiment shifts so sales leaders act before forecast risk becomes a lost deal.

Teams that anchor pipeline reviews in these five questions spot trouble early, coach with purpose, and drive consistent deal movement. It’s the difference between “hoping for forecast accuracy” and actually getting it.

Want to see how Perform Intelligence makes this approach possible? 
Preview Perform Intelligence and see what sharper pipeline visibility looks like.