Sales Pipelines a Little Blocked?

Sales pipelines are often ineffective, filled with opportunities that aren’t going anywhere, no clear follow-ups in place and no real indication of when opportunities will come to fruition. Reviewing sales pipelines is an important task, but what are the steps that need to be taken?

1. Define Clear Stages: First of all, make sure you have clear and distinct stages that reflect the progression of leads through the pipeline, from initial contact to closing the deal. How will you know when an opportunity is ready to move from one stage to another? What criteria will it have to meet?
2. Qualify Leads: Given the risk of rubbish in, rubbish out, do you have a robust lead qualification process to ensure that only promising leads enter the pipeline? Do you want it? Can you win it?
3. Regular Review Meetings: Schedule regular pipeline review meetings with sales teams to evaluate the status of each opportunity, address concerns, and agree next steps.
4. Document and Track Progress: Use the CRM! Ensure that all interactions with pipeline leads are documented and tracked. This will help provide visibility into the history and status of each opportunity.
5. Set Clear Next Steps: Clearly define, agree and document the next steps for each opportunity with the client. If you come out of a meeting with no agreed next steps in place it has NOT been a good meeting.
6. Assign Ownership: Assign ownership of each opportunity to specific salespeople/account managers, empowering them to take responsibility for moving the opportunity forward and ensuring accountability.
7. Provide Training and Support: Training, coaching and support is essential. Deal review meetings provide an ideal opportunity to do both.

Pipeline management plays a critical role in effective sales forecasting. Accurate forecasting depends heavily on the quality and management of the sales pipeline. By ensuring that the pipeline is well-managed, up-to-date, and accurately reflects the current status of all opportunities, you can create more reliable and effective sales forecasts. Forecasts that are based on real evidence rather than wishful thinking!

For more information about how to run effective Deal Review Meetings, and improve your sales forecasts, get in touch. Pipeline velocity is crucial and that comes down to proactive management of every opportunity. If you have opportunities that aren’t moving or that have no clear next steps, it’s time for some unblocking. I have the tools!