8 Rules to Create a Worldclass Sales Pipeline

There are salespeople that always seem to have a full pipeline.

And then you have other salespeople that seems to struggle to have any lead at all, any opportunity at all in the pipeline.

Today we're going to look at the eight rules to create a world-class pipeline, based on interviews with other sales leaders, and my experience.

Before we go further, these 8 rules and much you can find in my free e-book here: Expert Advice on Building and Managing Pipelines.

I admit it all might seem pretty straightforward.

And you know what, you are right.

It is no mumboo jumbo or high tech, but proven principles that, if you combine all 8 that will make you tremendously successful in building a sales pipeline.

It all starts with fate.

Not the word fate, but the acronym FATE, which stands for F as in having a Focus, Assessment, Time and Execution.

And they all impact each other and are the foundation of the 8 rules.

The 8 rules:

1. Look at what works

The first rule is that you look at what works.

When you want to build up that world class pipeline, no need to throw away everything.

There are things that you do right today.

At the same time look at what are your colleagues and your peers doing and what works for them, and see how can you integrate it in your day-to-day work.

2. Focus your activity on the right customers

What does this mean?

It's crucial that you build a list of core prospects that you will target, based on the ICPs that you have, based on the successes that you have.

For example, if you have five huge references in insurance, build a list consisting of the major insurance companies.

Then you start working them, spend the right amount of time on them.

It also means that you have more than one contact inside of them.

Activity then means building that network within those prospects.

Your activity is in building that network, building up your champions building up everything that you can do to make your case with that prospect.

That also means you spend the right amount of time to the right amount of prospects, not just in the number of prospect, but also even with small opportunities.

When I take an example from my experience, one of the territories that we were working on, 40% of the revenue came from the health sector.

Once we realized this, we started to build campaigns around that health sector in other territories.

And within six months, our revenue from healthcare doubled in the other territories as well.

3. Be Consistent

Rule number three is to be consistent.

It might sound simple, but build a cadence and stick to that cadence.

Focus on closing when the end of quarter is there, and even then also stay focused on constantly building that prospecting.

You're in charge of your time, something which, in my experience, the best sellers know.

Some of them don't even look at their email until noon.

You might wonder: “hey, what if the mail is important?”

The reality is that they manage their own time and schedule.

They avoid distractions, even by emails or pings.

4. Stick to the process.

Don't start cutting corners.

Under the umbrella doing the right things right, it is important that you don't rush to a close.

For example, when you're not ready with a discovery and your prospect is asking for pricing, then stick to the process.

Unless you work in a very transactional business, then very often when you're not ready with your discovery, you don't have the right information anyways to build a valid proposal within a scope that you have identified.

5. Be honest with yourself.

What does this mean?

Understand how you're spending your time in creating and progressing the pipeline.

Start mapping the time you spent, how much time you're spending on administration, on filling on the other details, and so forth.

6. Be a trusted advisor.

In my opinion, this is one that will push the needle the most.

Don't be a seller just to sell and to close.

These days, buyers are in general very well informed.

At least they have an opinion about the role, about where the market is going.

They read research reports and so forth.

Real top salespeople, they can position their solutions, their products, and themselves and become a trusted advisor.

They talk from a point of view from unique insights where they know the market, where they know the trends, and...

how to position their solution within this.

In that sense they become a real subject matter expert.

You need to understand, and definitely your prospect need to understand, why you matter.

Why they should listen to you.

7. Use your tools.

Sales roles have become extremely intense:

We do growth marketing stuff, project management, we are a coordinator to get the resources internally, we need to be that subject matter expert.

We still need to be the closer.

And data and tech have become crucial in this.

Let those tools work for you.

When you have that administration task of putting the stuff in the CRM, do it because it will help you building up those insights that you need to do the right things right.

Then you can learn from that data and the insights.

8. Do the reps.

You have got to do the reps to become a better seller.

Unfortunately I meet quite some salespeople that intellectually understand what they need to do, but then they don't do it.

Then obviously they miss the quarter, and then… there's a sad face, lamenting: ”Yes, I know what I need to do,” but unfortunately they don't do it.

If you want to be successful in selling, if you want to become a better salesperson, then you need to do the reps.

And that was it for this week.

Let me know how useful it was in building up that world-class pipeline.

And as always, give me a thumbs up, share it if you think somebody else can use this information, and best of luck!

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