How to make a sales pipeline sales funnel excel chart

How-to Make a Sales
Pipeline or Sales
Funnel Excel Chart

How-to Make a Sales Pipeline Funnel
Excel Chart Template
• You probably have seen this type of Funnel
Chart in Business Intelligence (BI) software
packages and wondered how to make this type
of chart in Excel. In this presentation, I will
show you how to make a graphical view of a
Sales Pipeline for use in an Executive
Dashboard.
3/10/2014 How-to Make a Sales Pipeline Funnel Excel Chart Template 2

Problems with Funnel Charts
• First, we should discuss issues with this type of
chart.
• Many of the data visualization experts in the
industry dislike, sorry, I should have said HATE
funnel charts.
3/10/2014 3How-to Make a Sales Pipeline Funnel Excel Chart Template

Why Data Visualization Experts Don’t Like a
Funnel Graph?
• Data visualization experts do not like a Funnel Graph or
Funnel Chart because the chart may have the potential
to mislead readers.
• The area of each section may not represent the data
proportionally to other sections. For instance, if your
values for each section/category are the same, then the
size of the top section is not proportionally equal to the
bottom section even though they are the same value.

Why Data Visualization Experts Don’t Like a
Funnel Graph?
• In this graphic, it can be
deceiving to readers that the
Sales in the Prospecting phase
are much larger than those in
the Negotiation phase, when in
reality, they are exactly
equal. The graphic is basing the
height on the category value,
not the width or volume of the
section.
• So be careful when using this as
a representation of your data.

• Many organizations and companies use the funnel graphic
as a standard to convey a pipeline affect for the data.
• That means that it is started at the top category and it
moves to the bottom category, but not all of the entries at
the top makes it to the bottom.
• Even though this may be a bad graphic from all design
and data visualization perspectives, you may be asked to
create this type of graphic for your Executive Dashboard.
• Your first step should be to talk with the powers that be
about the issues with this type of chart. If your client or
executives or managers still want this as part of the
Company Dashboard, then give the people what they
want. That is why you will see this type of chart in many
well-known software packages like Salesforce.com.

Now lets say you are the Dashboard Designer for your
sales organization and this is your data in Excel:

• Lets say that your sample data has categories from your
sales organization on how the sales pipeline looks for the
company.
• Presently there are 652 sales opportunities in the
Prospecting stage worth $33.6M. This is the start of the
sales cycle for your company and each sales opportunity
may be at a different level in the sales cycle.
• Typically there are less and less at each progressive stage
of the sales cycle because deals are not always a done
deal. Some people in the prospecting stage may change
their mind and not purchase anything.
• Another potential sale that is in the Presentation stage may
not get closed because the buyer chose another company.

• However, not all sales fall out of the pipeline and your
organization may be able to calculate the likely
percentage that any given opportunity may close from
each stage of the sales cycle.
• This is why organizations like to see this data in a
pipeline or funnel format because each stage fills the
next stage in the cycle. And if you don’t have enough
sales in each part of the pipeline, your company will
have uneven cash flows as each sale will most likely
have an average closing time from start to finish.

I don’t see a Sales Funnel or Sales Pipeline
Chart or Graph in Excel
• Okay, that is enough about why organizations and
people love Funnel Charts and the dangers about what
they are showing you.
• Lets get to the nuts and bolts of How-to make a Sales
Funnel chart in Excel.
• Using the data points above for our pipeline, lets build
the chart. However, I don’t see a sales funnel chart or
pipeline chart as an option in Excel. That is the good
and bad about Excel.
• Not everything is there and built for you, but with the
standard tools, you can make a funnel or pipeline chart
on your own.

• So looking at the standard set of charts that are
available in Excel, the closest representation of what we
are looking for is a Stacked Pyramid chart.
• More specifically, a 100% Stacked Pyramid chart since
our data represents 100% of the sales pipeline data and
we are not trying to compare the data from one pyramid
to another.
• You will find the 100% Stacked Pyramid chart under the
Column Chart menu in the Insert Ribbon. This is what
we are going to base or Sales Funnel or Sales Pipeline
and here is how.

The Breakdown
1) Create a 100% Stacked Pyramid Chart
2) Flatten it to 2D
3) Flip it upside down
4) Label and Clean it up

STEP-BY-STEP TUTORIAL ON HOW-TO
MAKE A SALES FUNNEL OR SALES
PIPELINE CHART OR GRAPH IN EXCEL

1) Highlight the Data from A2:B6 (From “Prospecting” to
Negotiation Value of “45”) and from the Insert
Ribbon, choose the Column Menu from the Charts Group and
then select 100% Stacked Pyramid.

The resulting chart will look like this:

2) In the chart, select the data series for Series one by
clicking on the pyramids. Then from the “Design Ribbon”,
select “Switch Row/Column” from the Data Group.

The resulting chart will look like this:
3/10/2014 18
The funnel chart is starting to take shape.
How-to Make a Sales Pipeline Funnel Excel Chart Template

3) Right click on the chart and select “3D Rotation…” from
the menu or you can also see this as a choice from the
Layout Ribbon in the Background Group.

4) Change the Rotation Settings as follows:
• X=0

• Y=0
3/10/2014 21
Now we are getting really close to the Final Sales
Funnel Chart in Excel.
How-to Make a Sales Pipeline Funnel Excel Chart Template

5) Right click on the chart’s Vertical Axis and select “Format
Axis…” from the menu or you can also see this as the
Primary Vertical Axis choice from the Layout Ribbon in the
Axis Group.
• And choose “Values in reverse order” from the Axis
Options Dialog Box.

Looking like we want, now we just need to
clean up the Chart and give it some Data Labels.

6) Clean up:
a) Remove the Vertical Axis – Click on the Vertical Axis and
press your delete key.
b) Remove the Legend – Click on the Legend and press
your delete key.
c) Remove the Horizontal Gridlines – Click on the horizontal
Gridlines and press your delete key.
d) Remove the Category Label – Click on the #1 at the top
of the Sales Funnel and press your delete key.
e) Add Data Labels – Click anywhere in the chart and
change Data Labels to “Show” from the
Layout Ribbon in the Labels Group.

7) Admire your handy work:
Your Sales Funnel for Excel should now be completed
and should look like this:

Sample File & Video Tutorial
• You can watch a video demonstration and also get a
FREE sample download template for the sales pipeline
with instructions here:
• http://www.exceldashboardtemplates.com/SalesFunnelChart

How to make a sales pipeline sales funnel excel chart

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