2/1/2024-Pipeline Management: February

You look at some of your opps and know inherently they’re dead. So….cut bait. It’ll clear your head and allow you to focus on closing the opportunities in your pipeline that have a real chance.

Day one of the month means it’s time to bury your face in your CRM. (SOOO much fun!)

Remember, surprises are only good for birthdays – your manager doesn’t like ’em too much either.

So….focus today’s fun on determining what opps have a strong chance to close in February and March.

Projecting revenue requires heavy detective work: who is telling the truth amongst your prospects, and who is not?

You don’t get any prizes for a bloated, fictional pipeline, so pushing your prospects for the truth is important.

Today, dig inside your CRM and identify the opps facing the least resistance to closing.

Once you have narrowed your February and March prospects, develop a specific task and strategy plan for each account to direct your actions. Next, get meetings – or at least get a KDM on the phone – so you can learn the truth about what’s gonna close.

Studying your pipeline and rearranging data inside cells will not lead you to the truth…only convos with your buyers will yield the truth!

Your revenue projection accuracy reveals a lot about your sales competencies. Your sales manager cares more about whether your data is true than if you have 100 opportunities versus 10. And what’s true or not is a big indicator of your ability to work an account.

Your activities can be measured through your CRM house’s contact management side, but the opportunity section reveals the only thing your manager cares about. Sure, if the ratio of meetings to opportunity dollars is way off with you versus other reps on the floor, your manager should help you with that, but those ratios are rarely far off.

There are three questions you should keep in mind when working to create a true opportunity pipeline:
1. When is the buyer going to buy?
2. How much are they planning on buying?
3. What are the obstacles that stand in the way of them buying?

If you ask your customer those questions – and get honest answers – your pipeline will be true.

You think your pipeline management is important? It is! But check out a glimpse of what it would be like to manage the most famous US pipe in this YT short about the Alaskan pipeline.

Take a break for a moment to learn some quick facts about this beast that carries 1.8 million barrels a day… just so that you can drive your car to get to the office and bury your head in your opps.

Your pipe may not have oil in it, but it has commissions! Don’t cheat it the respect – and time – it deserves.