The 9 Sales Pipeline Management Tips Every Manager Should Know
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Sales is a job where you continuously improve and finesse your performance based on your experiences. If one lead doesn’t convert, a good rep tries to understand why and takes that knowledge into their next pitch. Currently, 44% of reps say they also look to their managers for advice on how to improve their performance.?
The top sales teams also understand the importance of managing their sales pipelines in order to create a robust and effective process for turning leads into sales. However, VantagePoint found that 63% of sales reps thought their company did a bad job of managing their pipeline. Although this is a shocking statistic, it means that there is a great commercial advantage to be gained by teams that double down and concentrate on their pipeline management strategy.?
We hope that, with these sales pipeline management tips, you can help your sales team reach stellar new heights.?
What is sales pipeline management?
Pipeline management involves using the data generated by the pipeline to gain insights into the effectiveness of your sales processes and future performance. With this information, you can streamline the customer journey and spot potential bottlenecks with clients becoming stuck and not progressing to the next stage.??
With pipeline management, a sales manager can:?
Your pipeline management processes should include regular tracking and evaluation of the sales team’s deals.??
Sales pipeline vs. sales funnel?
Sales pipelines and sales funnels are both important for the success of your sales team, but they are different entities with different purposes. Here is a quick guide to the differences between the two:
You use the pipeline to understand where to go next with the potential customer, including knowing whether you need something to nudge them along. With the funnel, you can spot trends relating to when leads drop out, and can then work out what might cause that to happen.?
The best sales pipeline management tips
Monitor the right sales pipeline metrics
Sales metrics are essential to success. In this data-driven world, there are a huge number of different key metrics that a sales manager could call upon, but knowing which are actually useful is more of a challenge. Here are some B2B sales pipeline metrics that will add value to your management strategy and help create a healthy pipeline:
You can also look into sales velocity to ensure you are making the most amount of money in the shortest possible time. Retention rates are important, too, as they ensure that, once you have the deal, you are serving customers well.?
Track progress at each stage
Taking a lead from one stage of the sales pipeline to another brings them one step closer to becoming a customer. As well as knowing who goes into the pipeline and who comes out the other side, it is essential to know what is happening at each stage.?
By analysing the individual sales pipeline stages, you can understand why some leads drop out and formulate ideas on how to get these prospects to the next stage. A successful pipeline depends on the flow of traffic, so monitoring the entire sales process is a good way to keep everything moving.??
Classify your prospects
One size does not fit all when it comes to prospects. If you try to sell to everyone in the same way, you will soon see a drop in your conversions. This is why it makes sense to classify prospects at the start of the process so that you can give your sales team a steer on how to approach them to give them the best chance of converting.
?Here are some factors that can help your team understand more about your leads:?
This helps you create a healthy sales pipeline.?
Remember to follow up
Gartner found that it takes 18 sales calls to make a connection with a buyer. This shows the persistence needed to make a sale in many circumstances and why you should always check in with leads as often as you can.??
If you don’t receive an answer that helps move them through the sales pipeline stages, follow up with them and make sure they don’t have a chance to forget about your business or to flirt with your competitors.??
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Sometimes people are busy and intended actions slip their minds, so ensure you keep in contact with them.??
Keep your sales cycle short
The longer that a sales process takes, the more chance there is for the prospect to lose interest, find something else or simply change their mind about making a purchase. This is why you need to make sure you wrap up the process in the least possible time.??
When hot leads turn to cold leads, the length of the sales cycle is often the reason behind it. There are a number of steps you can take to shorten the sales process. These might include decreasing the amount of time between calling and following up with a lead, or increasing the information you provide early on in the pipeline, so the prospect is fully informed and in a better position to make a decision.??
Create Additional Information Sources
In addition to speeding up the sales process, having more information on the uses, benefits and specifications of the product or service you are selling will help persuade a lead to become a customer. If they have to continually ask questions of your sales rep, it suggests that your current strategy is not clear or helpful enough.??
Ask your reps about the most common queries they receive relating to what you are selling and work out how to address this in the future. You could create an explainer video to share at the start of the process or develop your information pack so that it includes frequently asked questions.??
Engage in social selling
Social media has caused a number of issues in society, but also brought a host of possibilities. The statistics are certainly telling:??
Utilising the power of social media puts you in front of these people who are already social buying. The way we communicate is changing and your pipeline can only benefit from you embracing this.??
Create effective cold calling scripts
Although cold calling can be daunting even for experienced salespeople, it can be effective. In January 2020, it was found that 69% of buyers accepted a call from new salespeople in the previous 12 months, with 75% of prospects from various industries saying they have attended an event or scheduled a meeting based on unexpected cold calls.??
With this in mind, crafting cold calling scripts and cold emails that work could lead to a large number of warm leads entering your pipeline, with a real possibility of conversion into sales.???
You should create scripts that introduce the rep and tackle the issue that you solve straight away. Then you can lead on to the ask and start the buyer journey through the pipeline.??
Automate
There are a number of systems you can put in place to automate sections of your pipeline processes. This allows you to concentrate on perfecting the rest of your strategy and bring in more business.??
There are programs to automate your sales emails, customised to target individual leads, for example. You can also use FullInfo to discover contact information about prospects at different companies.??
FAQs
How do you prioritise a sales pipeline?
To prioritise your sales pipeline, you and your reps need to realistically grade the likelihood of converting each lead. Using historical data, you can get a good idea of the conversion potential of a lead and that information helps you choose which types of leads to chase and which to allow to fester.??
What is sales pipeline analysis?
Sales pipeline analysis is the process of looking at the data that you generate from your pipeline and using it to inform your decision-making in the future. Using the metrics discussed above, you can finesse the sales cycle, increase sales velocity and hopefully increase your win rate too.??
What are the most important pipeline metrics?
The most important pipeline metrics are those that help you shape the stages and methods you use in your pipeline. Not only should you measure how many sales you make, but you should also look into how many leads it took you to achieve those sales. Improving these metrics makes you a more efficient and successful team.??
Conclusion
In order to take advantage of the potential power of your sales team, you need to ensure they have the best and most efficient pipeline to work with. Using these sales pipeline management tips, you can make sure your processes are working to help sales reps bring in the customers that you need to meet your sales quota and target.?
Make sure you try out FullInfo to uncover the contact details of the leads that could bring in crucial business for your company.?
?Resources and Further Reading
Great article. The most anti-garbage metric I’ve seen marketers in the ‘Pipeline Explainer’ role use is the ‘Day 47 compare.’ Since TODAY is Day 47 (or 13, or 68, or whatever), show where the pipeline stood at this point last quarter (or last year)—and compare it with today. For example: ‘On Day 47 last quarter, you can see {point} we had $18.4M in pipeline, and ultimately closed $3.9M {point}. Here’s where we are today at Day 47 {point}.’ Then shut up and watch what happens :-) Every time I help a Pipeline Explainer set this up, the conversations with executives get so dang good.