8/23/2023-Pipeline Management

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.

There are only two numbers that really count when it comes to pipeline management: accuracy and gross revenue."

Disciplined pipeline hygiene helps you strategically move a deal from the top of the funnel to a close… whether it’s a win or a loss*.

Today, do some pipeline pruning.

That means today is also the day to get over your obsession with close rate. Instead, focus on opportunities with high closing probabilities this quarter and don’t worry about close rate.

This means you’ll have to mark some pipeline opportunities as "closed lost."

Easy does it…catch your breath…..! Yes, mark them as CLOSED. You can do it. You’re paid on quota attainment, not win rate percentages.

Instead of wasting time defending walking dead opps to your manager, talk about what you should be doing to speed up sales cycles on your open opps.

Inarguably, you’d rather be stuck in traffic versus working inside of your CRM’s pipeline section. What’s fun about looking at rows of data?

But the accuracy of your data, and your total revenue haul for a quarter, reveals a lot about your sales competencies. Your sales manager doesn’t care if you have 100 opportunities versus 10. What your sales manager cares about is whether your data is true. And what’s true or not is a big indicator of your ability to work an account.

Your activities can be measured through the contact management side of your CRM house, 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.

The next time you feel completely uninterested in pipeline maintenance, channel your inner Shaun White to help raise your game. (You can always raise your game.)

After watching Shaun’s snowboarding performance in this X-Games SuperPipe event, you’ll want to match his genius and be a super-piper with your revenue-projecting capabilities. Yeah, his event looks more fun, but hey you chose your event!

Rise up…just like he does.