Business Truth No.3 - Keep One Eye On The Pipeline.

This is the second of my "business truths" that I've discovered after having the amazing opportunity to interview 10 more inspirational business owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs.

To listen to the full episode, and many jam-packed business interviews, search for "The Truth About Business" in all good podcasting apps.

Or you can see them all at my blog at www.benjaminbrain.co.uk.

So, let's dive in to truth No.3....

Business Truth No.3 – Keep One Eye On The Pipeline.

When you’ve just started out in business, every new client you secure and customer you win means so much more.

It’s validation in not just your business idea, but in YOU and this could just be the beginning of all your dreams coming true.

Now you’ve got one or, if you’re lucky enough, some customers you’ve got to prove your worth and you’re probably going to be focused on delivering insane amounts of value to blow the socks off your new customer and start building a rock-solid reputation.

The problem here lies in that it’s all too easy to become so immersed in over-delivering to your customers, that you take your eye off new business that’s coming into the pipeline.

You finish your piece of work, deliver it to the client and they’re delighted.

They’re really pleased that they chose to work with you and they pay their fees promptly.

For a moment, everything feels great.

In fact, that couldn’t have gone better.

Then, after you’ve given yourself a little pat on the back you decide to get back to work and see what’s next.

And then it hits you.

There’s nothing there.

Nada.

You then realise that you became so zoned in on completing the order that you’d totally taken your eye off locating and bringing on board new business.

This can be a big issue for service-based businesses, and especially those in the coaching and consulting field as Andrew Deighton from AWD Development Solutions and Jim Thorp from JT Ethos both talked about in their interviews.

Even Susan Hallam, owner of the internationally renowned Hallam digital marketing agency talked about struggles with keeping business levels consistent in the early days and how you’d have to go through peaks and troughs of income.

So, whilst it’s extremely important to deliver outstanding work to your customers, don’t forget to make sure that the pipeline of new business isn’t drying up and you have a constant stream of leads to convert into new customers.

That way, you won’t have to experience inconsistent months of abundance followed by drought, which greatly affects cashflow.

There are all kinds of ways that you can automate your lead generation process now, regardless of what type of business you’re in, so that it’s working for your 24/7 and you have a constant pool of quality leads to dip into – even if you’re spending most of your time on delivering your product or service.

And so, to summarise business truth number three, keep one eye on the pipeline, I’m going to use a quote from the great business and personal development master, Brian Tracey, who says;

“Keep your sales pipeline full by prospecting continuously. Always have more people to see than you have time to see them”

I hope you enjoyed reading this article.

If you have any questions, suggestions or stories of your experiences with these concepts, I'd love to know.

Message me on LinkedIn or just get in touch!

Make it a great day and here's to your business success!

Benjamin :)

Host Of "The Truth About Business" Podcast

#business #podcast #leadership