The sales pipeline is the most important sales management tool there is. Everything happens in the pipeline, or at least it should. The sales pipeline is like the hard drive of a computer. Everything runs on it. Like your hard drive, if the pipeline gets messed up or filled with crap, everything slows down and in the case of sales that means revenue.
The key to fast and efficient sales pipeline is preventing crap from clogging it up.
Getting pipelines to be efficient is not that difficult, yet based on my thumb in the air experience, less than 2 out 5 actually are efficient.
Why?
- Shitty data in the system
- No data at all or critical data missing
- Inaccurate close dates or no close dates
- Bad sales stages or poor sales process
- Inaccurate data
- Sales rep “feelings”
- Poor reporting and dashboard(s)
- Poor sales leadership and management
To keep things moving in the pipeline remove these barriers. As a sales leader, it’s our job to make sure the pipeline doesn’t become bogged down and slow. It’s our job to make it an efficient tool to driving revenue quickly. Over the next few days, I’ll break down each of the reasons your pipeline ISN’T the effective tool you need it to be and what you can do about it.
Until then, take a look at your pipeline. How many of these things are bogging your pipeline down?
This was the first post in my Pipeline Movement Series. Check out the rest of the series:
Pipeline Movement – [Bad Data]
Pipeline Movement – [Close Dates and Sales Reps Feelings]
Pipeline Movement – [Increase Sales with a Good Sales Process]