Tips On Growing A Sales Pipeline
The Digital Sales Institute
A sales pipeline is a representation of the steps a prospect goes through from initial contact to closing the deal. It helps any salesperson to track the progress of deals, quotes, and potential customers and manage all the sales steps effectively. Too often, salespeople have all of their customer information spread out across different channels. This practice not only is inefficient but also interferes with a consistent customer experience.
So, the sales pipeline will allow salespeople to monitor deals and track customer interactions alongside comments, feedback, and next steps. A steady pipeline of new business opportunities can be the secret to nurturing leads into clients. But where will they come from, and how do you go about converting them?
Here is a breakdown of the typical stages in a sales pipeline:
- Prospecting: Identifying potential customers or leads.
- Contact: Reaching out to the leads through calls, emails, or meetings.
- Needs Uncovering: determining if the prospects have a need that the company can fulfil based on certain criteria.
- Qualification: Understanding the needs and pain points of the prospects to qualify in or out.
- Proposal: Presenting solutions to meet the prospect’s needs, including value, proof, pricing, and terms.
- Negotiation: discussing terms, addressing objections, and working towards an agreement.
- Closing: finalizing the deal, getting contracts signed, and securing the sale.
- Post-Sale: Providing customer support and maintaining the relationship for future sales opportunities.
sales Prospecting is the process of researching, identifying, and contacting potential customers based on profile criteria to develop new business opportunities. The end goal is to get them through the sales funnel until they eventually convert into paying customers. Prospecting takes persistence, as it can take 5–7.5 hours of cold calling to get a qualified appointment. Salespeople who use a blend of inbound (replies to emails, social selling, or web leads) and outbound sales techniques (cold calling) are better positioned for success in this new digital era of buyer awareness. So sales prospecting is about finding opportunities to develop a connection with a buyer through personalization, rapport building, and credibility development.
Thoroughly researching potential prospects allows salespeople to prioritize their list and allocate their time and efforts more efficiently. Remember -ROSE. Return on sales effort.
Needs uncovering requires the salesperson to ask discovery and needs building questions. They should pose questions that will elicit the prospect’s feelings, thoughts, and emotions about their challenges or current situation. Uncovering and getting agreement on the prospect’s pain points, challenges, objectives, and desired outcomes allows salespeople to position their product or service as the ideal solution to the prospect’s specific situation.
Once potential leads are contacted by the salesperson and need discovering completed, they need to be qualified to determine if they are a good fit for the business and its products or services. A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead who has been qualified as a potential customer based on their need, budget, authority, and timing to purchase. This stage is critical, as it is the point at which the prospect will either become an opportunity or disqualified as not being a good fit for your offering. Lead qualification may take repeated interactions or meetings.
The most common sales qualification frameworks are:
BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, Timing.
CHAMP: Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritization.
MEDDIC: Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion.
SPICED: Situation, Pain, Impact, Critical Event, Decision.
Active listening and questioning are the two main ways to discover what, why, and under what conditions your prospect will buy.
At this stage in the sales pipeline, salespeople will create a compelling sales proposal that clarifies they understand the prospects needs and pain relief. They will tailor the proposal to address all the specific needs, provide proof, and paint a picture of the future outcome plus how to get there. It should start with a concise summary that highlights the key points of the proposal and condenses the main benefits of your solution to the client’s problem.
Then the proposal should include features, benefits, case studies, ROI, plus the unique value proposition that sets the company apart from competitors. Remember that at the proposal stage, salespeople still need to convince the prospect to leave their preferred option of doing nothing. The biggest competitor is the status quo, so salespeople need to demonstrate credibility and work to reduce any perceived risk in the minds or minds of the prospects. Tactfully provide convincing proof that this solution is the best answer to their problem and that the proposal in front of them is the most effective implementation for that solution.
Obviously, pricing has to be explained. This entails providing an itemized breakdown that will help the buyers understand the value of each component of the offering and reassure them that they are getting the best deal possible by including ROI (cost reduction, performance improvement calculations).
Sales negotiation is like trying to get from point A to B. You know where you want to end up, but you might encounter adventures on your way. You need to be flexible and adapt to the situational context and the behavior of your negotiation partner.
It is easy to say you should be well prepared, but what does it really look like to prepare well for a negotiation? There are three key steps to get ready to negotiate:
- You are clear on the customer’s business needs and what you are offering.
- Analyze your goal, best outside option, and bottom line.
- Have a plan for the discussions.
These points define a straightforward method of sales negotiation in the sales pipeline that can fall under any sales situation. Each point deals with a basic element of negotiation and suggests what you should do about it.
- People: Separate the people from the problem. (avoiding I am right, you are wrong)
- Interests: Focus on interests, needs, and outcomes, not positions.
- Options: Generate a package of options before entering the negotiation.
- Criteria: Insist that the decision/result be based on objective criteria.
Be sure that everyone involved in a negotiation has thorough knowledge of the decision-making process—who is involved and how they are involved—at the outset of any negotiation process. A common strategy of customers is to have someone “pre-negotiate” without revealing that is what they are doing. It is a fair question to ask who will be involved in approving the negotiated contract/price.
The final sales stage in the sales pipeline is closing the sale. This refers to the process of finalizing the agreement or deal. The salesperson now makes “The Ask” for the business, which is polite yet considerate of creating a win-win situation. They may need to create genuine urgency (but not manufactured or false) including time lines, offers, or availability. This involves ensuring that all terms and conditions have agreement by all concerned, plus any additional resources or requirements clarified. All the parties then sign the detailed agreement. This crucial step marks the culmination of sales negotiations and relationship building. Closing is more about confirmation, so salespeople should be continually closing the gaps and gaining commitments in all stages of the sales pipeline. The sales mindset should not be about closing the sale, but rather thinking about opening or improving the customer’s relationship.
Effective post-sales communication is about ensuring no obstacles get in the way of implementation or delivery. It builds brand recognition, referrals, case studies, and loyal customers. So, it is a strategic approach to nurturing and enhancing relationships. In the sales pipeline, there should be a section on post-sale tactics, communication, and who owns it.
Ensure that all salespeople update the sales pipeline to accurately reflect the stage where each opportunity sits. A large pipeline is vanity, sales in sanity. Remove any lost or dead leads to keep the pipeline clean. Keep an eye on KPI’s or metrics such as conversion rates, average deal size, stalls, lost reasons, and sales cycle length. These metrics can help salespeople identify areas for improvement.
Have regular sales meetings and sales training to review the sales pipeline, discuss any obstacles or movements, and identify areas for improvement. Then, based on the insights from pipeline reviews, adjust the sales tactics or steps to better align with current market trends and customer needs.