What a Pipeline Scrub Is
A pipeline scrub is a working session where a manager and a rep go deal by deal through open opportunities and correct the record. Amounts get adjusted to what the buyer has actually seen. Close dates get reset to what the buyer has actually agreed to. Deals with no live buying process get closed out. The output is a smaller, truer pipeline.A scrub is not a forecast call and not a coaching session. Forecast calls ask what will close. Coaching asks how to win. A scrub asks whether the record is true, and that narrowness is the point.
The scrub test
Every deal gets the same short set of questions.
- What changed on this deal since the last scrub? If nothing moved in stage, close date, or amount, the deal is a removal candidate. - Who on the buying side confirmed this close date? A rep estimate is not a confirmation. - Does the amount match a number the buyer has seen in writing? - If we lost this deal today, would anything about it surprise us?
The first question is the one that decides most records, because ORM treats a change in stage, close date, or amount as the meaningful activity on an opportunity, and the absence of any signal is the earliest warning a deal produces.
Cadence and incentives
Weekly beats quarterly. A scrub run at quarter end corrects a forecast that has already been reported, which is administration rather than management.
The incentive design decides whether a scrub works at all. If closing a deal lost hurts a rep's win rate, no rep will volunteer a removal, and the session becomes a negotiation over which deals survive on paper. Judge reps on the accuracy of what they keep. A rep carrying 15 real deals is worth more than a rep carrying 40 records, and the second rep looks better on every dashboard that counts volume.
Give removed deals somewhere to go. A nurture bucket outside the active forecast lets a rep release a deal without treating it as a loss, which removes most of the resistance.
What scrubbing does to the forecast
Removing pipeline feels like losing ground. It is the opposite. Coverage calculated on scrubbed pipeline is comparable from quarter to quarter, and comparability is what makes a forecast improve instead of merely change.
Manual forecast processes on new and expansion business typically land near 90% accuracy, at heavy cost in analyst time, and they degrade as market conditions shift because the assumptions underneath them are fixed. ORM targets 95% and holds it from day 1 to day 90 of the quarter without manual adjustment. Clean, consistently scrubbed inputs are what make that stable. For the surrounding discipline, see sales forecasting best practices and forecast accuracy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a pipeline scrub and a pipeline review?
A pipeline review asks what will close and how to win it. A scrub asks a narrower question: is this record true? The scrub corrects amounts, close dates, and stages, and removes deals with no live buying process. Mixing the two turns the scrub into a coaching session and the corrections never get made.
How often should you run a pipeline scrub?
Weekly, built into the standing cadence. Quarter-end scrubs arrive after stale pipeline has already corrupted the forecast for the whole quarter, and they produce a large painful cleanup instead of small routine corrections.
How do you get reps to remove deals?
Change what they are measured on. If closing a deal lost damages a rep's win rate or activity numbers, no rep will volunteer a removal. Judge reps on the accuracy of the pipeline they keep rather than the volume they carry, and give removed deals a nurture destination so nothing feels wasted.
What questions should a pipeline scrub ask?
Start with what changed on the deal since the last scrub. If nothing moved in stage, close date, or amount, the deal is a removal candidate. Then confirm who on the buying side agreed to the close date and whether the amount matches a number the buyer has actually seen in writing.
Put these metrics to work
ORM builds custom revenue forecast models that turn concepts like pipeline scrub into prescriptive action for your team.
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