Open Pipeline

The raw pool of potential bookings

Open pipeline is the total value of all active, unclosed opportunities, the raw pool from which future bookings come. It is the simplest pipeline measure: add up every deal still in play. That makes it a useful starting point, the full set of potential revenue, but also a dangerous number if taken at face value, because it counts every open deal equally regardless of whether it will actually close. Open pipeline is potential, not expectation.

Size without quality is misleading

The trap with open pipeline is treating its size as a signal of health:

- A large open pipeline padded with stalled or unqualified deals gives false confidence. - The raw number says nothing about how much will convert. - Two teams with identical open pipeline can have completely different real prospects depending on deal quality.

This is why open pipeline has to be read with pipeline quality and against a realistic conversion rate, rather than celebrated for its raw size. A big number full of weak deals is worse than a smaller number of real ones, because it invites complacency.

Open versus weighted

Open pipeline is the unweighted total; weighted pipeline discounts each deal by its probability of closing to estimate what the pool is realistically worth. Open pipeline shows the full potential; weighted pipeline shows the expected value. Both matter, open pipeline for understanding the total opportunity and coverage, weighted for forecasting, but confusing the two, treating the raw open number as if it were expected bookings, is a classic error that overstates what will close. Used correctly, open pipeline is the denominator behind pipeline coverage and the raw material a forecast refines, valuable as a measure of total opportunity as long as its quality is scrutinized rather than assumed. The number tells you how much is in play; only the quality of the deals inside it tells you how much of that is real.