Committing to Your Pipeline
Doyle Slayton | Nov 22, 2009 | Comments 9
This is Part 2 of a three part series dedicated to building a championship pipeline. Today we will talk about the core requirement. It is the same for everyone. The key to a great pipeline is… Commitment!
- Selling Like a Rookie
- Committing to Your Pipeline
- Chasing Mice, Elephants, and Ghosts
Sales people get pulled in many different directions. From lead generation on the front end, to closing the deal on the back end, there is a lot to do!
Throughout the process, you must be committed to adding new opportunities to your pipeline. The following is a list of things I do to continue feeding the funnel…
Deliberate – I’ve always been very systematic in my approach to sales. I have two primary goals in being deliberate about developing prospective accounts in my CRM.
- 3 per Day – I try to add a minimum of 3 new qualified leads to my database every day. These are prospects that have either expressed an interest in my product, and/or I know they are doing business with one of my competitors. Of course, I also add prospects that are “a name” account that I would like to win.
- Current Status and Future Action – I am also very deliberate about the notes I keep. With every prospect, I keep detailed notes describing the prospect’s current status, needs, interests, challenges, etc., and then I make note of the next action describing what to do when I follow-up. If my boss or a teammate has a question about this prospect, it’s easy to look at the history of notes and have a clear picture of where we stand.
Measured – The goal of finding 3 qualified leads to add to my pipeline might require that I make between 30-50 prospecting calls in a day. I often have multiple appointments and demos that prevent me from being able to produce that type of call volume every day. It is important to maintain a big picture view. Ultimately, I want to add a minimum of 300 new prospects to my pipeline every year. Being consistent requires that I always keep an eye on that number. I need to add about 25 new prospects per month to stay on pace.
Consistent – My day always begins with the list of scheduled actions in my CRM. I don’t go to my prospecting spreadsheets and paper lists. My CRM is my to do list. The tasks I have scheduled for today are there for a reason. They are scheduled on purpose. I strive to have at least 20 scheduled actions and call backs waiting for me every day.
This volume of scheduled actions happens organically. Once I run through my to do list, I get to work on my prospecting spreadsheets and paper lists. Remember the goal… I push to make enough prospecting calls to add a minimum of 3 qualified leads to my CRM.
Balanced – The final point requires that I maintain a balanced attack on my territory. I’ll explain this point next week when I cover Part 3 of this series for building a championship pipeline!
So, now that you know my systematic approach for prospecting, qualifying leads, and following up… what process do you follow when building your pipeline?
Great Post!
One of the best sources for new contacts is your existing clients…yet most salespeople fail to ask.
Market leaders in sales understand this and are always asking their fans for additional contacts.
Thanks and I will be sharing this post.
Mark Allen Roberts
Spot on! Your post highlights the fact that the best sales work is unglamorous hard work.
One twist on this is the scale of the deal. It gets harder when you’re harpooning whales, and the prospecting process is more narrow, so a lot of homework on your target goes a long way toward warming up the cold call. This is very true when you’re dealing with referrals and especially when you’re dealing with existing clients. Do you really know what is going on, and where their priorities are since your last interaction?
20 minutes of research can turn a sputtering client into a fountain of new revenue, plus referrals.
Great stuff Dolye!
Gunter said it – its hard work and discipline that win the race. Using a CRM in the way you’ve described can help sales people stay disciplined. For most though, they need help setting these goals in the first place.
Outstanding post, Doyle!
What I do is different from many because my creative business writing services have a very limited resource: me.
So the best thing I can do is to never settle for anything less than getting spectacular results with every effort I make because thrilled customers talk (though some need a nudge!) and that talk sells me and my services all by itself!
Someone happy with website content recently hired me to write a business plan. One of the investors in the business liked what I did and now has commissioned me to write a book.
The thing is I never stop writing website content because that is like Liquid Plumber in my pipeline!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving all!
Best – Hal
Good conversation Doyle.
Building pipelines are nice (what I do all day) but if they are not resulting in new business (what our outside sales team do) they are useless. A lot of us get too excited about having a certain amount of qualified leads in our pipeline and the stages they’re in between cold call and close. I want to see leads that become closed deals and the dollar amount of those deals. That’s the most important metric for me.
Why is 15 leads per week important? How many on average become closed deals?
On the other end of the pipeline, your lead sources are equally important. Are you using your own website to capture leads? What about event attendance, Webinars, joining associations and calling on fellow members, or referrals as it was mentioned in an earlier comment?
I love the thought of having your CRM as your to do list. Wake up, grab coffee, get to your CRM’s dashboard. Working from within a CRM for years has helped me to organize, track, and measure like I never could before I used the tool. Great ideas, thank you. Looking forward to part 3.
Leah Rust
Editor, EyesOnsales.com
Hey Doyle,
You know I am a big fan of Touch-Contact-Engage approach, but the method you describe is great. It is hard work, but done right, you can always answer my favourite question: What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor
Great Post Doyle! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
[...] Throughout the process, you must be committed to adding new opportunities to your pipeline. Here is a link to the list of things Doyle Slayton suggests to continue feeding the funnel. [...]