9 Essential Stages for Every B2B Pipeline

For the modern salesperson, a B2B sales pipeline is your scorecard to achievement and can identify critical conversion ratio information, identify specific skills improvement opportunities, and benchmark individual performance to industry standards and against best in class. Let's take a look on the modern B2B Sales Pipeline :

1. Identify lead and lead type :

Firstly you have to identify if they are ready for Sales. Here are different kind of contacts which you will encounter during the sales process.

• Suspect — a company in your database that fits your ideal customer profile and has the potential to buy your product or service.
• Prospect — a contact at a suspect company who has a need and may be searching for a solution sometime in the next 12-24 months.
• Lead — a prospect that has taken an action or responded to a marketing or sales campaign and shows some level of interest in your product. There are multiple types of leads:
• INBOUND leads — leads that convert on your website.
• MQL or SQL leads — Marketing Qualified Leads or Sales Qualified Leads; typically have certain characteristics that would define additional sales follow up.
• Warm call or prospective leads — leads that are a good fit but have not taken action on your website or other inbound channels.
• Target account leads — leads in specific targeted accounts.
• Friends and family leads — leads you encounter from within your network.
• Event leads — leads you meet during a trade show or industry event.
• Referral leads — leads from current customers.
• Closed-lost or ghosted leads — previous customers or opportunities that have gone cold.

2. Connect call :

Once you identify a lead and a lead type. it's time to setup a connect call where a sales person ask different basic questions for better understanding of client's requirements and the problem what he is looking to solve.

3. Discovery call :

Next time you talk to your prospect, hop on a discovery call. A discovery call is a 25 to 50-minute question and answer period where the salesperson where you can dive deeper with your prospect.

During this call, you should aim to discuss your prospect’s goals, challenges, timeline, authority level, market landscape, and sense of urgency. This information will help you understand exactly what they’re facing in their business and to determine if there is an opportunity to work together

4. Opportunity stage :

This is usually the first time a do money can be ascribed to a deal stage based on the information discussed in the discovery call. Where the previous stages are important for tracking, the opportunity stage is where you begin forming the deal.

Through the opportunity stage, you should learn the following information: who the prospect is currently buying from (if they have a vendor), three solid reasons they would buy from you, three reasons they may choose not to buy from you, and who the economic decision maker is for this sale.

5. Conduct a demo :

Most prospects like to see the product in action before purchasing, so scheduling a demo may improve the odds of closing a deal and is an appropriate deal stage. After conducting your demo, you can have a variety of outcomes including:

• Demo complete — refers to a situation where the demo was given and the prospect decides not to continue the sales process.
• Second demo — the prospect has expressed interest after seeing the product and would like to review more features. In many enterprise opportunities, multiple product demonstrations are required.

6. Influencer buy-in :

During this stage, the prospect recognizes the value and expects their company to purchase the product in the future, but may not be the economic decision maker who signs off on the purchase.

In this case, buy-in from the decision maker is needed to proceed. Ask your contact who they are, what their stake is, where they have pain points, and prepare to proactively address those matters.

7. Negotiation :

While a deal is under negotiation, the prospective company’s legal team typically steps in to assist with contractual obligations. This is when the final price and terms are agreed upon and signed off from all parties involved.

Don’t let your contact go dark during negotiation. Check in at regular intervals to find out which direction things are headed in so any turn towards a "no" doesn’t head too far in that negative direction without a chance for you to turn it around.

8. Closed-lost or closed-won :

If the deal is set to go through, the prospect can then fulfill payment indicating a closed-won deal. They can then begin the onboarding process to begin using the product. With business won you need to deliver on your promises — excellent products, great customer service, and ongoing support. Whatever was in your proposal, do that and more, and your one new customer will multiply as they refer business your way.

In a closed-lost deal, the prospect can decline the final offer and either opt for a competitor or decide to not purchase the product. However, if a deal is closed-lost, don’t write a lost opportunity off for good.