How To Develop A Sales Pipeline

• Developing and managing a sales pipeline is crucial for every small business. Without a sales pipeline then the company will struggle to find and win new business.

• Here is a simple guide on how to develop and manage a sales pipeline.

Developing A Sales Forecast

• Once you have identified which sectors you want to target, finding the companies in the sector and who the key contacts are in each company is essential to developing a sales pipeline. If you do not have a list of prospects, how will you develop a pipeline?

• You should aim to gather information such as names and contact email addresses, so you can email your prospect directly with information that is highly targeted and relevant to them. When developing the list, you need to ensure that you are finding the most relevant person for your product or service. For example, if you are offering a marketing service, then finding a contact in the finance department isn’t really going to help.

• You need to ensure that you build a list of relevant contacts in each company to ensure you have the best chance of reaching the right contact.

Develop a targeted prospect list

• The best way to contact customers in the B2B sector is via email. This way you can ensure that you are reaching the best contact and you can relay the relevant information that you need to. Then once you have a made an initial contact via email, you can follow up a telephone call a week later.

Contacting Potential Customers

• One of the biggest mistake that sales people and business owners make in trying to generate new business from prospect list is that they simply do not follow up with the prospects they have contacted.

• Its vital important that once you have sent that initial email, that you follow up each prospect over the phone, to find out their thoughts on the information you sent across and how you can help them. By doing this you also start the process of developing a relationship with your prospect.

Follow Up On Prospects

• Sales pipeline management is one of the most important aspects of winning new business. You need to have a process in place to keep track of all the leads you are developing, so that you can nurture them into sales or disregard them as lost leads.

• There are a number of different tools that you can use for sales pipeline management from CRM systems to simple spreadsheets. Which one you choose will be determined by the size of your business and its sales team.

• If you have a large sales team that needs to be integrated, then choosing a CRM system would be best. However, if you are a small business owner then managing and tracking leads via a spreadsheet will probably work best.

• However, if you have a long lead time with a lot of communication and follow up, then using a software such as ACT, may also help to manage your pipeline. Furthermore, managing and maintaining a sales pipeline will also help you to develop a more accurate sales forecast.

Sales Pipeline Management