What if there was a way for you to view and track the essential metrics about the current and future sales trajectory of your users and teams based on their real-life past performance?

How about if, in that same view, you could instantly see how many Opportunities a user needs to create to be able to achieve their Target with the number calculated using their own individual win rate based either on historical performance data or simulated metrics entered by you?

Would you be interested in being able to use evidence-based, clear and specific numbers to help manage the performance of your Sales and Business Development teams?

If you’re answering “Yes” (and who wouldn’t?!), you need to be using Targets.

Targets are designed to help you track the performance of users or teams (groups of users) using data from the Leads and Opportunities that they are currently working on in Pipeliner and those that they have worked on historically.

When you create a new Target, it will be pre-populated with data based on the historical performance of the selected user(s). Working within a draft Target, you can change values and see the immediate impact on predicted performance. “Activate” a Target to set it live within Pipeliner and then use it to monitor real-time performance.

You can also create Simulated Targets if you don't have sufficient historical data to inform your metrics - if you're setting up Targets for a new user or are new to using Pipeliner, for example.

Select the Target Type to focus on Revenue figures for Sales Users or Lead metrics for Business Development Reps.

Focus on individual performance with User Targets or team performance using Group Targets or create a Simulated Target based on manual values rather than historical performance.

For example:

NOTE: Targets is included by default for Unlimited Tier customers and is available as a paid-for add-on for customers on our other Tiers.

Each target consists of these essential parts:

Target Status

Once a Target is Activated, it cannot be put back to Draft.

Click on the Analytics menu and select “Targets”

Click on the User Targets tab and then on the “Create New” button to use the wizard to move through the steps of creating a new Target ⤵

Fill in the required name and an optional description in the Properties step and click on “Next” ⤵

In Step 2 - Period, select Period Type and select from “Calendar Year” or “Financial Year”, then select which Year you want the Target to apply. Finally pick the Period length from Yearly, Quarterly or Monthly and then select "Next" ⤵

NOTE: the Monthly period is not available if you choose Financial Year in Period Type

Step 3 - Values - select the Target Type you want to create. A Target can be based on one of the three Target Types:

Each type has its own predefined calculations.

If you use multiple currencies enabled, choose which Currency you want to use for the Target and then select the Opportunity Pipeline to be used.

NOTE: you can add a Filter that will apply over the User data - for example, if you track Opportunities that are New Business vs Renewals using a custom field, you could set a Filter to base your Target only on New Business Opportunities.

Click on "Next" again to move to the final step.

Step 4 - User - choose the User who the Target will be for.

After clicking “Create”, a draft Target will be created for you and will be pre-populated with data predicted by the historical performance of the user ⤵

Clicking on the “Why are some data prefilled” tooltip gives you an overview of how this data is collected and calculated ⤵

In addition, each “i” gives you further details and the definitions of each individual value ⤵

Once your User Target is created, you can change the Target user by clicking on the three dots icon and choosing “Edit” and click on “Save” to apply any changes.

The KPI metrics in the left hand panel are pre-filled by the system to help you with the set up of the Target ⤵

How are KPI values in the left hand panel calculated?

The system takes all the Assigned User(s) historical data from “today” for each KPI value and calculates their lifetime averages.

As you’re fine tuning the KPI values, you can instantly see the impact in the Target Summary values.

For example, if you increase your expectation for the Average Opportunity Size, the number of Won and New Opportunities Needed will decrease ⤵

NOTE: You can continue to tweak the values in the left hand panel, as well as the Target settings, as long as the Target is in the Draft state. As soon as you Activate the Target, the values are all set to read-only.

The colour-coded progress bar is displays the progress of the Target value and indicates if it is realistically achievable based on the calculated metrics and past performance.

You’ll see the Set Target value (as entered by you or as pre-calculated) and the Recommended Target (this is the pre-calculated value) as well as the ratio between them expressed as a percentage.

How is the Recommended Target calculated?

The system takes all the Assigned User(s) historical data from “today” and calculates their previous trends so it can predict values for a future Target Period.

In the image below, the Recommended Target is 89% of the Set Target ⤵

As you enter different Target amounts in the KPI panel on the left, the Target Progress bar will change to illustrate how achievable the value is ⤵

The colored background milestones on the progress bar indicate target achievability as you update the value.

You can reset the KPI values back to the predictions by using the Reset arrow for an individual KPI or by clicking “Reload Recommended Values” at the bottom of the panel ⤵

The Target Summary shows Target Revenues across the selected periods as well as additional metrics designed to give a complete overview allowing you to set an achievable and realistic Target.

For example, if you set the Target to $300,000 for the year, you’ll immediately see how many New Opportunities need to be created each week, month, quarter and year. This will help you evaluate whether the Target is achievable for the Assigned User ⤵

Every metric calculation is unique and is based on the KPI values from the left hand panel - either the pre-calculated values or values that you edited. All those values are calculated per period type - week, month, quarter and year - to enhance the value of the overview.

When you’ve finished editing the User Target and are happy with the values and associated metrics for the Period, you need to Activate it to switch it on and enable Tracking. Click on the “Activate” button on the menu at the top if you’re inside the Target. ⤵

Activating a Target sets it to read-only and you’ll only be able to change basic values such as the Target Name or Description.

Tracking will be enabled so you’ll now see the Target data vs actual data and comparisons between them ⤵

The Target Validation progress bar is now the Target Performance bar and shows the Target Value vs the user’s Achieved Value and the percentage ratio between them.

In the Target Summary, you can expand or collapse the column for each period.

When collapsed, each column shows the Target calculated data on the left and the actual achieved data on the right with a visual indicator (green tick or red cross) to show if the metric is tracking in the right direction or not ⤵

Click on the chevrons to expand a column to see the Target Value, the Relative Target (the value that should have been achieved from the start of the period until today), the Achieved Value and the Difference (Achieved Value - Relative Target) ⤵

Click on a value in the Target Summary, to click through to a List View of the underlying data ⤵

The Performance Chart is now also available for each time period in the Target Summary ⤵

The Performance Chart shows a comparison between Target Revenues and Achieved Values over the selected time period. Hover over a point in the chart to see more details ⤵

Click on the Analytics>Targets, click on the Group Targets tab and then on the “Create New” button ⤵

You can create your Group Target:

In Step 1 - Properties, Step 2 - Period and Step 3 - Values, complete the required information and click on “Next” to progress to Step 4 - Targets. The Targets that are listed will depend on how you chose to create your Group Target - i.e. draft user targets etc. Select Targets or Users as appropriate and click on "Create" to create a draft Group Target ⤵

The Group Target value is an aggregation of all the included User Targets, so changes made to the one User Target will be rolled up to the Group Target.

KPI values in the left hand panel at the group level cannot be modified - they are calculated as an average from all User Targets.

The Target value can be edited when it is Unlocked. When it is Locked, the Group Target value is synchronized with the included User Targets and vice versa.

Click on one of the included User Targets to modify the values including the KPIs ⤵

Click on “Save” to save any changes and when ready, “Activate” your Group Target.

Your active Target is now set as read-only and tracking is enabled. You can click at the Group level in the leftmost panel to get an overview of the whole Target or select an individual User Target from the list to see how the User is tracking against their individual Target. ⤵

You can click on the chevron to close the leftmost panel ⤵

In your Active Group Target, you can choose additional Performance Charts for a better overview of the whole Target and individual contributions to it ⤵

Creating a Simulated Target allows users to fill in input fields for Lead Indicators and/or Opportunity Indicators that simulate historical data to calculate target metrics. This is particularly useful when your organisation is new to using Pipeliner or you are setting up a Target for a new user and do not have sufficient historical data on Leads and Opportunities to populate the recommended Target values ⤵

Creating a Simulated Target uses the same four-step wizard as is used for User or Group Targets but the final step 4 “Simulation” is used to enter the simulated data rather than selecting a user or group.

Step 1: Properties - add the simulated target's name and (an optional) description ⤵

Step 2: Period - select from the Period Type options 'Calendar Year' (default) and 'Financial Year' and Period - 'Month', 'Quarter', and 'Year' (default) ⤵

Step 3: Values - choose from the Target Type options 'Leads Created', 'Leads Qualified', and 'Revenue' (default) and, if Revenue is selected, the currency for the Target from a dropdown list of enabled currencies ⤵

Step 4: Simulation

Features an "Auto-populate from Target" section, which allows filling indicator fields below with data from a compatible User or Simulated Target. Compatibility is based on settings in the Period and Values steps ⤵

If you don’t have an existing compatible Target that you want to use, you can fill in the input fields for Lead Indicators and Opportunity Indicators to simulate historical data to calculate target metrics. The visibility of fields depends on the selected `Target Type`. Click on “Create” to created the Simulated Target ⤵

The detail view for a simulated target does not display user or status information, as all simulated targets are considered drafts. The "Activate" button is replaced with a "Save as User Target" button. Clicking this button opens the "Create User Target" wizard, pre-filled with the data from the simulated target. This action creates a new copy of the target as a draft User Target; the original simulated target is not deleted. Data from the simulation step is carried over as "Recommended Values" in the new User Target ⤵

The User Targets tab shows all active and draft User Targets. Within the list will also be User Targets that are included in a Group Target.

The Group Targets tab shows all active and draft Group Targets. You can expand or contract the list to also show individual User Targets that are included in a Group Target ⤵

NOTE: you can sort the grid by clicking on each column header.

Once you have selected a Target, you can use the menu buttons or the options from the dropdown on the right hand side to Open, Edit, Activate/Finish, Copy or Delete the Target.

The actions available to you depend on:

NOTE: an Active target will be automatically finished when the Period ends, but can be manually finished at any point using the Finish option - e.g. when the Target is achieved earlier or it becomes apparent that it will not be achieved and a new Target is required. A manually finished Target can be reactivated again as long as the current date is within its Period.

Type into the Searchbar to search through the text fields within the grid or click on the Filter button to filter by Period, Owner, Target Type, Target Status, and for User Targets, also Group Target (find Group Targets that a User Target is included in) ⤵

From the main Opportunities menu, in the Pipeline View, click on the gears icon to open up the Power Panel and select the Target Tab. In Target Selection, the user can now select the user or group target ⤵

and see the Target values within the pipeline ⤵

NOTE: a user with disabled access to the Targets in the User role is still able to see their own Targets in the Target tab

From Analytics>Forecasts, when setting a Quota for an individual in Forecast Setup, you can now select “Quota from Target” to select a Target for that User and populate the Quota values based on that Target. ⤵

For more information on Forecasts, click here.

Unlimited Tier customers who have access to the Common Record tab within User Role set up, will be able to assign rights to Targets for each User Role ⤵

Admins can also allow Deleting of Targets allowing Users to delete Targets they own or deleting any Target.

If you don’t have access to Advanced Permissions, access to Targets can be switched off completely in the Features tab.

Targets is a paid for, on-demand module in the Automation Hub for customers who are not on our Unlimited Tier. Please contact your Account Manager to discuss adding to your subscription. ⤵

NOTE: Targets is enabled by default for all customers on our Unlimited Tier.