My journey to building a predictable pipeline

My B2C experience at CouponDunia , a Times Internet property similar to Coupons.com , had me thinking B2B would be a breeze. Acquiring and retaining users in the consumer space was a constant battle. Surely, B2B would be more predictable, right?

Wrong.

Joining SmartReach.io , a leading cold outreach tool, opened my eyes. Building a sales, marketing, and customer success engine from scratch in B2B was a whole new ball game. The key, I soon discovered (thanks in part to Aaron Ross 's "Predictive Revenue"), was a predictable sales pipeline.

Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount and Inbound Selling by Brian Signorelli, are must read for marketing folks tempted to switch to B2B.

Over the past two years at SmartReach, I've learned some valuable lessons the hard way when building a pipeline ground up. Let's dive in:

1. Break down the process

A clear pipeline is your roadmap. We divided ours at SmartReach into distinct stages:

• Lead Generation: Attract prospects through marketing and cold outreach.
• Qualification: Assess leads for fit and interest.
• Proposal: Present a tailored solution addressing their needs.
• Negotiation: Discuss terms, pricing, and contracts.
• Closing: Secure the sale and onboard the new customer.
• Retention: Build long-term relationships and provide ongoing support.

This structure keeps focus and ensures a smooth customer journey.

2. Identify your channels and audience

Reaching your target market requires the right channels. By measuring the performance of both inbound and outbound efforts, you can gain valuable insights into which strategies are driving the best results.

?We used a mix of inbound and outbound:

• Inbound: Content marketing, social media, SEO, referral marketing, email marketing.
• Outbound: Cold calling, cold emailing, LinkedIn outreach, WhatsApp outreach.
• Growth Hacks: Free tools, Product Hunt , cross-promotional webinars, building a community etc.?

Bonus Tip: Google Ads wont give you the ROI. Analyze signups from Google Ads to see if they convert. We have been spending hours watching screen recording on how users navigate our marketing website and our app. Consider tools like Heap | by Contentsquare , VWO , and Inspectlet to analyse behaviour.?

Outbound Tip: Prospect for accounts based on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator and ProspectDaddy.com for prospecting and SmartReach for outreach (not just because it's ours, but because it delivers high reply rates).

We use SmartReach for cold outreach related to sales, backlinks, biz dev, partnerships, influencers, and affiliates.

3. Scale strategically for growth

With a defined pipeline, scaling becomes manageable. We didn't have specialized research, prospecting, and outreach teams. We allocated time slots for each activity and used multiple tools to maximize output with a smaller team.

If needed you could implement a tiered sales structure, with dedicated teams focused on different customer segments or geographic regions.

4. Master the Inbound vs. Outbound balance

Both strategies have value. Inbound leads are more qualified but less predictable. Outbound requires persistence and structure but can yield significant results (plus you have more control over deal size).

We started with content marketing (SEO takes time). We defined our ICP and using Ahrefs , we churned out relevant content with a small team of 3 writers, growing our Domain Rating (DR) from 23 to 72.

Today, our content drives as many signups as SEM efforts, at a fraction of the cost and with better conversion rates.

Outbound strategy takes time to build. You need to keep experimenting, testing, and making changes to your communication. This cold email masterclass should help. We currently generate ~ 6 meetings per day from cold outreach running across 15 odd campaigns.

5. Assign clear roles and KPIs

Define specific roles and responsibilities for each pipeline stage to avoid overlap and ensure accountability. In addition to content marketing, we added the following roles?

• Sales Development Reps (SDRs): Research prospects, schedule meetings, and position our value proposition. They also handle initial inquiries, qualify leads, and provide basic information.
• Customer Success Managers: Onboard new customers, provide ongoing support, and ensure customer satisfaction. They also close deals and manage relationships – true superstars.

6. Qualify leads efficiently by focusing on fit

Qualifying leads is crucial. By ensuring prospects match your ICP, you prioritize efforts and increase closing rates. At SmartReach.io , we set up an internal lead scoring system – a manual but essential process. Missed opportunities lurk with a flawed system.

7. Focus on closing skills

Closing deals requires a different skillset than qualifying leads. Train your sales reps (or customer success team in our case) in negotiation, objection handling, and persuasive communication.

Bonus Tip: Leverage free YouTube videos or hire a sales consultant like Josh Braun , Marcus Chan , Dan Martell

We didn't take the consultant route.?

We created specialized onboarding processes with online courses, video tutorials, recommended reading, and documentation on cold outreach, our ICP, and the industry. New team members were given a month to go through the entire material.

8. Prioritize retention

Building lasting customer relationships is vital. Invest in account and customer success teams to provide exceptional support, address needs, and drive loyalty.

We started offering on-call onboarding assistance and "defining success" calls with all subscribers. We then have periodic calls to review and analyze goals. Our customers know their success managers by name and connect with them on WhatsApp and Slack.?

Our success team is instrumental in getting back ~20% of the customers that stopped paying

An internal survey to existing customers showed that 65% of our accounts have been retained due to the prompt and timely support.

Bonus Tip: If you have a monthly subscription plan, keep a check on the reasons for payment failure. Many times its a system issue and customers aren't aware of subscriptions ending

9. Measure everything

Numbers don't lie. You can spot trends, identify bottlenecks, and make smarter decisions.

We use HubSpot for marketing leads and our own SmartReach CRM for outbound leads. Thanks to our internal tool, we can dive deep into campaigns and get AI-powered tips for optimization.

We're still working on tracking leads throughout the pipeline, but it's a priority.

A nifty hack: Stripe and FastSpring give you detailed reports on acquisition and churn. It's like having a revenue dashboard. Keep you constantly on edge.

10. Keep evolving: B2B is always changing

B2B marketing isn't a one-time thing. It's an ongoing game. Keep evaluating your pipeline and making adjustments. Stay ahead of the curve by identifying areas for improvement and implementing new strategies.

We're always on the lookout for new tools and tactics. Right now, we're using RB2B to learn about website users, Clay (and soon Persana AI AI) to enrich data, BuiltWith to spy on competitors' customers, and Ahrefs en Espa?ol to understand their content strategies.

These are just few of the numerous tools you will need to learn and update yourself

This might sound like gyan but remember - building a predictable pipeline is a journey, not a destination. Keep experimenting, keep learning, and keep growing.

And if you are looking for a detailed strategy for building a predictable revenue pipeline using sales engagement platform s like SmartReach then give this a read.