Anatomy of a sales pipeline

THE ANATOMY OF A SALES PIPELINE Sales Meeting

The Body:

• Sales Steps • The Brain: Probability of Closure • The Heart: Weighted Target

• Sales Pipeline – A Quick Guide to Understand Sales Pipeline Management

Easy right?

Sales Pipeline Management

• Definition - A Sales pipeline represents your sales process consisting of all your sales steps you need in order to sell your product to your customer.

• Definition - Each sales step represents a single or group of actions that need to be taken in order to complete that specific phase of the sales process and move to the next one within the sales pipeline.

• Funnel and Pipeline – Think of the funnel as the entry point to the end of the pipeline

The Sales Funnel

Big at the Top

Smaller at the bottom

You want the prospects that are not ready to buy to leave the funnel to make room for those that are ready to buy

Keep It Simple

• “ Having too many stages in the pipeline is counter-productive. Five is the optimum number stages in the pipeline. ” – DON DALY

• A typical sales pipeline could have the following steps within the sales process: • Discovery• Realization of Need• Consideration• Conversion• Retention

Why is the Funnel Wide At The Top

Is Your Pipeline like This?

Or This?

Or This?

• The probability of closure shows you the likelihood of selling your product during that particular sales step. • If you need to call 10 prospects in order

to close 1 at the end of the sales cycle, you have a 10 % probability of closure for that step

• A typical pipeline, as mentioned previously, could have the following probability of closures for each step: • Initial Contact – 0% • Qualification – 10% • Meeting – 30% • Proposal – 60% • Close – 100%

Probability of Closure (Brain)

Managing Your Pipeline

Managing Your Pipeline

• Consider your opportunity as a potential sale. In order to move into the sales pipeline you need to know three parameters. • Who are you selling to?• What is the value? • What is the potential closing date?

• Each sales opportunity has its own specific value

Weighted Target (Heart)

Weighted Target (Heart)

• “Weighted target is equal to the sum of the total opportunity value in each sales step multiplied by the probability of closure for that step. ” – DAVID BROCK

• If the probability of closure is 10% for a specific stage, and you add a value to an opportunity, then 10% of that value contributes to the weighted target

Example of Pipeline Management

• Let’s make a calculation (1 opportunity = $2,000)• Initial Contact – 0 % x 35 opportunities = $0• Qualification – 10 % x 20 opportunities = $4,000 • Meeting – 30 % x 10 opportunities = $6,000 • Proposal – 60 % x 5 opportunities = $6,000 • Close – 100 % x 2 opportunities = $4,000

• Weighted TARGET = $20,000 Sales Pipeline

• What happens if you start each month with these opportunities and keep moving them through your pipeline, while gaining more?

Or, Start With The Sales Goal

5 New Clients Each Month

5 New Clients

This is an example for a very modest 5 New sales in a month

Using The Power of FiveEach step is a multiplier of five

Hot Prospects - 25

Determine Hot Prospects…

5 New Clients

New Clients * 5 = Hot Prospects

Needed

This is an example for a very modest 5 New sales in a month

To get 5 New Sales you need 25 Hot Prospects

Hot Prospects - 25

Qualified Prospects - 125

Determine Qualified Prospects…

5 New Clients

Hot Prospects * 5 = Qualified Prospects

Needed

To get 25 Hot Prospects you will need 125 Qualified Prospects

Hot Prospects - 25

Qualified Prospects - 125

Determine Suspects…

Suspects - 625

5 New Clients

Qualified Prospects * 5 = Suspects

Needed

For 125 Qualified you will need 625 Suspects

Hot Prospects - 25

Qualified Prospects - 125

The Funnel…

Suspects - 625

New Clients - 5

625

125

25

5

Suspects in the top of the FunnelQualified Prospects in Middle of the FunnelHot Prospect in the Bottom of the Funnel

What is a Sales Pipeline ?

• A Sales pipeline is as a visual representation of your sales process where all your opportunities are displayed and neatly arranged according to their phase in your sales cycle.

• Behind each sales stage within the sales pipeline is a set of actions that need to be completed in order to successfully finish that stage and move the opportunity to the next stage.

What is a Sales Pipeline ?

• A Sales pipeline is your performance analyzer that keeps you focused on achieving your sales goals and keep track of the health of your sales pipeline

• It’s an enormous mistake to stop prospecting because your pipeline is healthy right now.

THE ANATOMY OF A SALES PIPELINE Sales Meeting