Sales Pipeline Automation Playbook
CommunicationMall Team
Estimated time: 10-21 days
SalesAutomationPipelineCRMAI
Increase speed-to-lead, enforce pipeline hygiene, and automate follow-ups while keeping human control over critical deal stages.
Who this is for
- Sales leaders
- RevOps
- SDR/BDR managers
Prerequisites
- CRM access and stage definitions
- Lead sources tracked with UTM/attribution strategy
- Email domain authentication configured (SPF/DKIM/DMARC)
Steps
1. Define stages and entry/exit criteria
stage-definitionsMake your pipeline measurable and automatable.
Checklist
- Define required fields for each stage (ICP fit, timeline, authority, budget).
- Define stage transitions and who can move a deal.
- Define SLA for first response and follow-up cadence.
- Define reasons for disqualification and a consistent disposition taxonomy.
Outputs
- Stage contract
- Disposition taxonomy
- Cadence policy
2. Automate follow-ups with guardrails
automation-and-guardrailsAutomate without harming deliverability or customer trust.
Checklist
- Set channel rules (email vs SMS vs phone) and consent requirements.
- Implement throttling per domain and mailbox health monitoring.
- Add human approval gates for high-value accounts and late-stage deals.
- Log every automated action to the CRM as an activity with a correlation ID.
Outputs
- Automation matrix
- Approval gates
- Deliverability guardrails
3. Instrument pipeline analytics
analyticsContinuously improve conversion and cycle time.
Checklist
- Track conversion by source, stage, and owner.
- Measure cycle time per stage and identify bottlenecks.
- Alert on stale deals and missing required fields.
- Create a weekly ops review dashboard and action list.
Outputs
- Pipeline dashboards
- Alert rules
- Ops review checklist
Related Solutions
Explore solutions that commonly pair with this playbook:
Relevant Industries
This playbook is most commonly used in: