Everyone sits around, thumbing through their smartphones, puts the call on mute and checks their Facebook page, or for the unlucky few who have to sit in the room for the entire event, pretend they’re engaged until it’s their turn to go through the pipeline. We’ve all sat through them, the dreaded pipeline meeting, usually happening 8:00 sharp on Monday mornings.
Here’s the funny part. Most manager don’t like them either. It’s gets tiring listening to sales people say: “Oh yeah, I forgot to update that opportunity. It’s not going to close. I’ll fix it after the meeting.” or “The close date is wrong, it’s not going to close till q3” and it’s been in the q1 pipeline for the last 3 weeks.
Most pipeline meetings suck. They suck for the sales people and they suck for the sales managers. The reason, they aren’t delivering the two things they should;
- Information for sales management that allows them to determine if the pipeline is healthy and can support quota
- Support and coaching for the sales people that allows them to improve their chances of closing the deal
That’s it, anything else is a distraction and takes too long.
I’ve partnered with Townsend Wardlaw on an ebook, How to Run a Killer Pipeline Meetings,to help avoid running bad pipeline meetings. No one wants to waste valuable selling time in one and two hour meetings every week. So stop.
See how Townsend and I help clients get more out of their pipeline meetings here.
Check it out, EVERYONE will thank you.