Most Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems offer pipeline management, which is the process of overseeing and directing future sales. Pipeline management allows your business to predict future sales, analyse sales process and measure conversions. The more control you have of your sales pipeline, the more conversions you will make, and the more money you will earn. In this article we’ll look at how properly managing your sales pipeline can transform your business.
What is a sales pipeline?
A sales pipeline is a visual representation of where prospects are in the sales process. A prospect moves through the stages of your pipeline by completing specific actions, which are depicted by your CRM. There are various CRM systems out there, but at Free Range we recommend HubSpot, which is free to use and has impressive tools and functionality. Your sales pipeline is unique to your company, as sales processes and buyer’s journeys are different for every company. By analysing and managing your pipeline you can identify improvements. This will help you move more prospects from one stage to another, which lead to more conversions and more revenue. The following tips will help you maintain and manage your pipeline:
Follow up
For your pipeline to be working properly, you need to be persistently following up on leads. It may sound like an obvious point, but research has shown that only 27% of sales leads are followed up, meaning you could be losing out on a large amount of revenue.
Focus on the best leads
Some leads are better than others, so it’s important to focus your resources on the most promising ones. There are many marketing tools available that can be used to identify important prospects through lead scoring. An important part of pipeline maintenance is knowing when to give up on leads that aren’t going anywhere. By cleaning dead leads from your pipeline on a regular basis, you avoid wasting time.
Create content
A good content strategy is another cornerstone of proper pipeline management. Interesting, useful content is a great way to gather leads and keep them interested, which moves them along the sales pipeline.
Update your pipeline
If you don’t update your pipeline, it becomes useless, so make a regular habit of it. You should update your leads every time they move to a new stage, when they convert to a sales, or when you gain a new lead. Not only does this keep your pipeline organised, but it enables you to make predictions about future sales.
Monitor pipeline metrics
As your pipeline is changing so often, it’s important to monitor the key sales metrics that it produces, which includes the number of deals in your pipeline, the average size of your deals, the average percentage of deals that convert, the average lifetime of a deal before it converts (also known as sales velocity). Regularly reviewing these metrics will keep you aware of the health of your pipeline and business.
