7/25/2024-Pipeline mgmt, or dry toast?

You can mess up at a sales meeting with a big prospect or say something stupid in an internal meeting with your manager’s manager …but whatever you do, always nail your revenue estimate! Always.

Admit it, hearing the term "pipeline management" triggers thoughts of hot fudge sundaes, sunset walks on the beach, and puppies.

No?

Whadya mean you’d rather visit your dentist than spend time inside your CRM??

Pipeline management is as dry as it gets for a seller. Slinking around inside the guts of your database makes you feel like a plumber (with all due respect, etc.)

It might help if you look at your CRM work through the eyes of a detective, not a plumber. There’s money in your pipeline. Be like Sherlock Holmes and go find it!

Today, craft questions you will ask your customers that qualify the when.

Try this… "Hey Joe, we’ve been working toward a deal for a few <weeks/months>…by your estimation, when will this deal happen?"

Following up with a question that qualifies the how much is a good move, too.

"…are you still appropriating $500,000 for this initiative?"

Your pipeline loves the answers to "when" and "how much" questions. Feed it what it craves. Buyers will appreciate you asking these types of questions because they, too, don’t have time for BS.

When you think about your conversations with your prospects and clients, hold yourself accountable to ask direct and specific questions.

Give yourself a 10 if you’re really direct and specific and a 1 if, well…not so much. You will catapult to a 10 if you’re direct and specific asking "when" and "how much" questions.

There are two ways to get from a 1 to a 10:

1. Catch yourself when using generic closed-ended questions…and replace them with strategic open-ended queries (…a fancy word for "questions").

2. Write a script of the questions you want to ask (but never do because you can’t pull them down from the far reaches in your brain). Practice asking your "when" questions aloud – you’re more apt to ask a customer if the question is written down and features words you commonly use.

Projecting accurate revenue is the single biggest thing you can do to gain credibility inside your org…besides repeatedly hitting your numbers.

"When" and "how much" questions will get you there. Write ’em down, and then, use ’em.

If you could only have Sherlock Holmes sit beside you when staring inside your CRM, you’d be done with this pipeline management stuff in no time.

Who’s your favorite Sherlock…? Is it Robert Downey Jr. or Benedict Cumberbatch?

It’s Benedict’s turn today to impress you with his deductive reasoning powers in this hilarious Short. But do NOT use his questioning techniques on your customers…