Sales teams live and die by pipeline creation. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: not all activity is equal, and more activity doesn’t always mean more pipeline. On the flip side, too little activity all but guarantees your book won’t convert.
This is where activity thresholds come in; understanding the “minimum effective dose” of activity required to turn accounts into opportunities, and spotting when reps are either underworking or overworking their books. It’s one of the most practical (and frankly overlooked) applications of pipeline creation analytics.
If you haven’t read it yet, check out our overview of pipeline creation analytics for the bigger picture. But today, let’s zoom in on thresholds and rep behavior.
Why activity thresholds matter
Every account has a point where activity moves the needle and a point where it doesn’t. The difference between the two can mean hundreds of thousands in pipeline. Underworked accounts never hit the minimum threshold of touches needed to generate a response or meeting. These opportunities die before they ever had a chance. Overworked accounts, on the other hand, get hammered with outreach long past the point of diminishing returns. The rep is spinning their wheels, and the account starts tuning them out. Both scenarios waste effort and distort the data managers use to coach.
Spotting an underworked book
Most underworked books look the same: wide coverage, low intensity. A rep has too many accounts and too few touches per account. Pipeline is flat, and conversion rates lag behind team averages.
Common signals include:
- High percentage of accounts with <2 touches in a 30-day period
- Long “time to first touch” after assignment
- Large number of untouched accounts sitting in the book
- Reps spread thin across too many accounts at once
Spotting an overworked book
The opposite problem happens when reps go too deep, too long, with no payoff. Pipeline stalls, but activity numbers look great on the surface.
Signals of overwork:
- Dozens of touches logged with no engagement
- Same contact hammered across multiple channels with little variety
- Reps holding onto stale accounts instead of recycling them back into the pool
- Diminishing returns in conversion rate compared to team benchmarks
Calibrate the thresholds
The art is in setting realistic thresholds. Start by looking at your historical data: how many touches did it take, on average, for an account to turn into a meeting or opportunity? Break it down by segment, deal size, and channel. From there, define the floor: the minimum activity per account per time period (for example, three to five quality touches in 30 days) before an account is considered underworked. Then, define the ceiling: beyond a certain point, say twelve or more touches without engagement, the probability of conversion drops. That’s the overwork line.
The coaching sweet spot lies in the middle. Reps should focus on hitting the floor consistently across their book, then reallocating effort once accounts cross the ceiling. Managers can use these insights to coach more effectively, and RevOps can use them to refine account allocation models. If reps consistently underwork, they probably have too many accounts. If they consistently overwork, maybe they don’t have enough.
Final thoughts
Pipeline creation analytics isn’t about drowning in dashboards, it’s about seeing where effort actually turns into results. Activity thresholds are one of the cleanest ways to spot when reps are under-investing or over-investing in their books.
Get the thresholds right, and you’ll drive more consistent pipeline creation, free up rep time to focus on higher-value accounts, and build a healthier feedback loop between reps, managers, and RevOps.
For the full context on how thresholds fit into the bigger picture check out pipeline creation analytics.
When reps overwork or underwork their books
