An effective sales pipeline should not look like an EKG.
If you track the quantity and quality of prospects within a typical sales pipeline for a sales professional, you will find most look like an EKG. They have significant peaks and valleys, which is not efficient and makes forecasting difficult. An efficient sales pipeline is relatively flat without large peaks and valleys, which means for each new sale, the sales professional is quickly replacing the new customer with new quality prospects.
Unfortunately, most sales professionals are unable to sustain an efficient sales pipeline and instead have EKG pipelines. The reason so many sales professionals have an EKG pipeline is due to the nature of the sales process.
When a sales professional starts at an organization and has no pipeline, the sole focus of the new sales professional is pipeline development, which means they are actively connecting on social media, attending conferences and networking events, actively engaging former customers, and consistently following up with high potential prospects. However, once the sales professional begins to close a new customer, many of the pipeline generating activities stop.
Instead of prospecting, the sales professional’s time is allocated to developing proposals, reviewing pricing, and negotiating final terms with potential customers. Once the sale is closed, the sales process still continues with many sales professionals having the responsibility of supporting operations with the on-boarding process. It is not until a new customers is fully on-boarded that a sales professional is able to find the time to once again focus on pipeline building activities. This is why so many sales professionals have an EKG pipeline.
This feast or famine approach to pipeline building creates a lot of stress within organizations.
The irony in this is the pipeline building activities are simple tasks and do not consume a great deal of time to do. However, when compared to a potential commission check and the pressures of on-boarding new customers, the pipeline building tasks fall to the wayside every time.
This is a well known issue many sales organizations face everyday; yet it continues to persist because the traditional forms of support are ineffective.
- Marketing Teams are focused on developing marketing strategies and executing campaigns. They are not responsible for or interested in doing the mundane tasks it takes to support a sales pipeline.
- Sales Administrators will always be pulled into the proposal and on-boarding process and are not an effective solution.
- Account Managers are a great resource but are responsible for supporting the post sales process and do not have the time or incentive to support pipeline building activities.
In order to address the pipeline building support gap, Accelerant Innovations developed a simple, effective, and affordable pipeline protection services that uses technology and content to sustain sales professionals’ pipelines and minimize the peaks and valleys in the quality and quantity of viable prospects.
If you are interested in learning more about how Accelerant Innovations designs pipeline protection services or are interested in designing your own pipeline protection team, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to answer any question and share case studies.