Pipeline Health & Deal Risk

Clear deal health. Clear next steps.

Backstory reads every email, meeting, and call behind your deals. It shows what's healthy, what's slipping, and what to do about it - before the forecast call.

Trusted by sales leaders at NVIDIA, OpenAI, Red Hat, HPE, Zscaler, and Rubrik - and 100,000+ sellers daily.

Backstory is an important tool for sales moving forward. Information lives in many places, meeting transcripts, emails, etc. Having information in one place via AI will be a game changer.
Quiara Neam
Account Manager
AMD
For a company our size, multiply those time savings across every rep and manager globally - Backstory basically pays for itself before you even count the deals caught earlier.
Reagan Lucas
Sales Process Coach
OpenAI
Red Hat
Visibility into activity, pipeline, and execution fuels better decisions, faster corrections, and more predictable outcomes - without requiring reps to change their workflow.
Andrew Brown
Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer
Zscaler
Elastic
Cyberark
Five9
With Backstory, we removed the guesswork from our sales process. The data is clean, insights are actionable, and our team finally has a shared view of every deal in pipeline.
Esther Friend
Former VP of Sales Efficiency and Transformation
Seismic
If reps aren't in a multi-threaded deal, Backstory flags it. That lets us act fast - asking who we need to get in front of before the gap becomes the reason we lost the deal.
Toby Carrington
Chief Business Officer
Pluralsight
With Backstory, you see if reps are single-threaded and the quality of their interactions. It's one thing to diagnose a pipeline problem. Backstory helps you actually fix it.
Mitch Beck
Head of Digital Sales at Pluralsight
TTEC
We started thinking about automation and deal tracking. We quickly learned Backstory supports the entire revenue cycle. That shift - and that partnership - changed how we sell.
Jonathan Gray
Senior VP at TTEC
Hexagon
With Backstory, we can see what's actually happening in the field - and we know exactly what to work on, whether that's coverage gaps or finding the right people for key roles.
Eric Chapman
Vice President Sales Operations and Enablement
Ping Identity
What matters is adoption, enforceability, and CRM compliance. Backstory integrated in a few clicks and guarantees high usage of our chosen sales methodology. Simple as that.
Spencer Hodson
Vice President of Global Sales Operations and Development
Lily.ai
When you step into a new leadership role, you wonder if you can trust the existing data. Because of Backstory, I know I can - and I run my entire sales org confidently off it.
Julian Dimery
Sr. Director of Sales
Forcepoint
Every customer-facing activity is captured in Salesforce automatically - contact created, tied to the right opportunity, no extra effort from the team. CRM hygiene solved.
Clark Green
VP, Global Revenue Operations
Dataiku

Backstory gives sellers and managers a clear view of pipeline with actionable insights. It changed how we plan and execute - our forecast finally feels like something we own.

Greg Milosovic
Greg Milosovic
Senior Director, Product Management

See the full picture before the quarter gets away from you.

  • See total pipeline coverage by rep, segment, and stage - know where you're thin before it shows up in the forecast.
  • Know which reps are carrying the most risk and where coverage needs to be built right now.
  • "Where do I focus my team?" Prioritize based on what's actually happening in each deal.
Why it matters

A strong quarter doesn't start with the forecast call. It starts with knowing what you're working with.

See risk before it becomes 
a miss.

  • Know which deals have real gaps: missing executive sponsor, no business case, a competitor that just showed up
  • See which deals are actually qualified - based on what's happening in emails, meetings, and calls.
  • Drill into any deal. See engagement history, what's missing, and what to do next.
Why it matters

When you see the problem early, you still have time to fix it.

Get straight answers. Act on them.

  • "Is this deal actually committed?" See if the engagement matches the call.
  • "Which deals close this quarter?" Know based on stakeholder coverage and buying signals.
  • "Where do I focus my team?" Prioritize based on what's actually happening in each deal.
Why it matters

From uncertainty to confident action - before it's too late to change the outcome.

Know what moved. Own the call.

  • See exactly what changed: what slipped, what closed-lost, what decreased in value - broken down automatically
  • See which deals drove each movement, who owns them, and what shifted in the last 30 days.
  • Walk into the board meeting with facts, not a narrative
Why it matters

Know the answer before anyone asks the question.

Get the full Backstory on your pipeline. Take the tour.

Questions & Answers

How does Backstory catch deal risk that other forecasting tools miss?

Legacy forecasting tools predict risk based on CRM data - which is whatever reps remembered to log. Backstory surfaces risk based on what's actually happening: engagement dropping, a champion going dark, a competitor showing up in conversation. The difference is the data underneath the signal.

How does Backstory know which deals are at risk before they slip?

Backstory captures every email, meeting, call, and chat automatically and matches it to the right opportunity. Risk surfaces when:

  • Engagement drops or a key stakeholder goes dark
  • A deal is single-threaded with no executive involvement
  • A competitor shows up in conversation
  • The economic buyer has low buying power or low win rates
  • Activity patterns diverge from deals that historically close in your business

You see the problem while there's still time to fix it - not after the deal dies.

What pipeline questions can Backstory answer?
  • Which deals are at risk of slipping?
  • Which deals have stalled and why?
  • What changed in this deal since last week?
  • Is my commit defensible?
  • Which commits are backed by actual activity?
Does Backstory replace forecast review meetings?

It changes them. Instead of spending the first 40 minutes of a forecast call figuring out what happened, you walk in knowing which deals moved, why the number changed, and what needs attention. The meeting becomes a decision about what to do, not a discovery exercise.

Where does the risk data come from? Is it based on CRM entries?

Backstory captures activity directly from email, calendar, calls, and chat - not from what reps entered in the CRM. The risk flags reflect what's actually happening in deals, not what someone remembered to log.

Can I see deal risk across my full pipeline at once?

Yes. Backstory surfaces your top risk categories ranked by revenue impact - engagement gaps, missing stakeholders, stalled progression - so you see where to focus across the full pipeline in one view, not deal by deal.

What if a deal looks fine in the CRM but has problems underneath?

That's exactly what Backstory is built to catch. When rep-reported status and actual engagement data diverge, Backstory surfaces it. A deal marked commit with no buyer engagement in 21 days shows up as a problem before it becomes a surprise.

Does Backstory capture partner and co-sell activity?

Yes. Backstory captures activity across your full revenue motion - including partner and co-sell engagements - and matches it to the right accounts and opportunities. You can see how partners are influencing deals: which contacts they're engaged with, where they're adding momentum, and where gaps exist. You get the complete picture of every deal, not just what your direct team touched.

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Not sure if your forecasting process is broken?

Pressure test your forecast process against Susan’s five red flags.