Pipeline is a word that represents a pipe through which a liquid passes?
But when inserted in the context of commerce, it has another meaning: that of representing a way to continue the sales conversion opportunities of your business.
Not surprisingly, this strategy is also called the sales funnel, as its map is shaped like one to illustrate the stage in which potential customers are.
Therefore, knowing how to manage the sales pipeline is essential to know what actions should be taken to close a contract and, thus, improve your results.
The luck of the day is that you won't even have to think about it too much, as we have gathered in this content 7 practical tips to help you increase your sales conversion.
Check out:
- What is pipeline management?
- Understand the importance of having a well-structured sales funnel
- Discover 7 tips to manage your pipeline
- Pipeline management right now!
What is pipeline management?
As we talked about in the introduction, the sales pipeline or sales funnel aims to track the stage of each lead in order to increase its sales conversion rate.
In this way, managing the pipeline makes it much easier to visualize and predict the results that will be achieved at each stage of the sales funnel.
Therefore, it is carried out with the identification of all stages of your company's sales cycle, as well as the tool used in this task.
This way, you can follow a lead from the moment it enters your sales funnel in order to see your needs to move it forward in the pipeline.
Now that we understand the goal of sales pipeline management, it is time to know why it is so important to take care of this strategy. Check out:
Understand the importance of having a well-structured sales funnel
A well-structured sales pipeline process is what makes your opportunities translate into new contracts.
To this end, the manager of your team must align the entire sales team together with the steps and criteria for passing through each one.
This is because by knowing the actions they should take, these professionals are able to take the necessary measures in order to increase the sales conversion rate.
It is worth mentioning that pipeline management varies from business to business, so always keep in mind what makes a sale and the market in which the brand is inserted.
That is, know where you are and where you want to go with this, and making the customer aware of this process helps the sale to be more objective.
With that in mind, you are ready to learn 7 practical tips for managing your sales pipeline. Come on?
Discover 7 tips to manage your pipeline
So that you can manage the perfect sales pipeline management, we decided to elaborate 7 simple and easy tips to be followed.
Check it out:
Tip 1: Qualify contacts
The first tip is focused on the qualification of your company's contacts, who must have a profile similar or equal to that of the brand persona.
That is, these users should get as close as possible to their ideal customers, who are really interested in the products and services of their business.
That's because a contact with this profile is worth more than having 10 out of that fit, since they are not really interested in what your company has to say.
So, to prevent this from happening, the suggestion is to create a pre-sales team, responsible for starting your company's relationship with these potential customers.
Thus, they are able to understand the needs of this lead to nurture him to the point that he is ready to talk to one of his salespeople.
Tip 2: Align your marketing and sales teams
In order to strategically qualify your leads, the marketing and sales teams need to align several details, ranging from the desired profile to the waypoints.
That's because the marketing department needs to know these details in order to efficiently educate each lead so that it moves forward in the sales funnel.
In addition, this sector also needs to know when a lead has read enough content and emails to be passed to the sales team in an assertive manner.
The sales department, in turn, needs to analyze its goals to define a number of prospects to be passed on to them in order to increase sales conversion.
As you can see, there are several details to be adjusted for an efficient sales pipeline management.
In this sense, the tip here is to carry out an SLA (Sales Level Agreement), where it is customary to establish and document all service agreements made for the good of your company.
With this, it is easier to monitor whether each team is fulfilling its role, optimizing strategies in order to be closer to hitting the goals.
Tip 3: Do not clog the pipeline mouth
If you think that the more leads that reach your sales funnel, the better it will be for increasing your sales conversion rate, then it’s good to get the horse out of the rain.
In spite of being qualified, it is necessary to establish a certain limit of potential clients' entries in your pipeline, in order to make your team able to meet all the demand.
This is because, in case the team becomes overloaded in qualifying possible buyers of its products and services, it will be more difficult to start other processes for the conversion of sales.
And we can say that it is terrible to have a pipeline management from which you cannot close any opportunity, so stay tuned to this point.
Tip 4: Define which triggers will be
Do you recognize the passage of a customer from one stage of the pipeline to another? Do you know the right time to approach him to present the proposal?
If not yet, our suggestion is that you count on the help of a marketing automation tool, from which you can define all of this and more.
For example, imagine that a potential consumer of your company was interested in 2 of your infographics and open a significant amount of emails from her.
With the help of such a tool, you can identify at the right time that you need to send him a message with a proposal.
Tip 5: Determine the life span of each potential customer
Determining the maximum lifespan that a lead should have within its sales funnel is essential to keep sales pipeline management flowing as desired.
To do this, check your sales history and other details in your tool to find out the average time it takes customers to buy your products and services.
And if that potential buyer goes beyond the estimated time, our suggestion is to leave it aside, even if that is difficult.
In order not to lose it completely, set a date in your calendar - recommended 6 months - to get in touch again.
Tip 6: Look for bottlenecks
It is extremely necessary to be aware of what happens to all sales opportunities in your company.
For this, it is recommended to make an analysis of the sales pipeline and understand if in any of the steps the leads are stopped.
If they are, it means that something is keeping them there and you need to quickly find the cause of the problem.
Therefore, review the entire process, train your salespeople and change the entire pricing policy.
In addition, seek to innovate products and services to meet the needs of your consumers to carry out an effective sales pipeline management.
Tip 7: Take your lead forward
When we talk about taking the lead forward, we mean that it is necessary to have meaningful conversations with all of them to increase the sales conversion rate.
This means that it is necessary to have a deadline for your potential consumers to give an answer on whether or not to accept the proposal for your seller.
Let's assume that Alita, your company's salesperson, calls Johnathon, a potential customer who accepts to receive the business proposal.
Probably, Alita will be so excited to create the proposal that, when sending it by email, she forgets to stipulate how long Johnathon should respond.
If it does not, it means that the conversion was not at all significant, and you will not know if the lead accepted your proposal or not.
Pipeline management right now!
With pipeline management, you are able to have the information you need to increase your sales conversion rate for your products and services.
That's because, both the manager and the sellers of your brand, know exactly what actions to take at each stage of the funnel.
In order for it to really work, feed it relevant and useful content for leads and don't forget to pre-sell!
In addition, our reading suggestion for you to continue gaining potential customers and converting them into sales is: learn how to have faster results in an Inbound Marketing strategy.