Fundamentals are the most important part in any field. If you’re good at it, you’ll go places. If not, you’d feel like you’re in the wrong profession.

To those stepping into the world of sales, this article will help you to make your fundamentals strong so that you can build a career in sales.

“ Sales Pipeline” is defined as one of the sales terms that is used a lot. If you spend some time with your sales circles, you can hear about getting more prospects into the pipeline, growing your pipeline and filling the pipeline with more and more hot leads”.

Just follow this & develop good sales habits, that’ll help you close deals more often.

The Basic Concept Of Selling

Someone wants to overcome a problem or fulfill a need. Your job is to convince that person how your product/service can best fulfill the demand.

Easy enough, isn’t it? Only if we humans keep things this simple.

The problem is that humans are too good at creating complications in decision making. It’s only fair in case of lengthy sales cycles which require multiple touches with the prospects.

It is an important factor for any Sales Management operations and it can create many significant difference in the bottom line.

It’s a sales guy’s responsibility to guide a buyer through the complex process of decision making.

This is where a ‘Sales Pipeline’ grows in importance.

The Sales Pipeline

A sales pipeline is an organised, visual way of tracking multiple prospects as they move through different stages in your sales cycle.

(Source: Smartsheet)

If used properly, a well defined sales pipeline can do wonders to your business sales, by giving you an idea of what’s happening with your business at any particular time & allowing you to forecast sales/revenues.

Already A CRM User?

A CRM we believe should always help you sell better. As simple as that. Just fancy effects & vibrant colors aren’t enough to make it click.

Hence, ensure the followings:

• Your CRM helps the sales team focus on their core activities
• The sales team is able to track everything that’s going on with a deal
• Your CRM is helping the sales team stay organized

Where To Start?

At the start, all you have is a list of people you think would be your ideal customers. If it’s a long list, you might want to start with something like a Google Sheet (only to start with, if CRMs are intimidating to you).

Contacts, Check. What Next?

One thing you just have to accept is that you don’t have any control over your actions. What you can do is to give your best on the day-to-day actions.

Here’re a few actions that can help you achieve success:

• Reach out to the prospects
• Start a conversation
• Show them how you can help (don’t always just advertise your product/service)
• Send the Proposal
• Close the Deal
• Be in Touch

Build A Structure For Your Pipeline

Once you get rolling with the initial list of prospects, it’s equally necessary to keep an eye on the future. Keep the pipeline filled with new prospects. That’s the key!

key factors to identify while building your sales Pipeline:

• Know your ideal customers and target market
• Know your competitors
• Do research and find internal contacts
• Segment your work pipeline
• Move the SQL more downward the funnel/ book demos

It’s vital to know what is the next activity of a prospect is going to be. Till the point he decides that he’s going to buy (or not), you should plan & perform the next activity without failure.

Also, activities that give you new prospects, need to be given more importance in your sales pipeline.

Wrapping Up…

There’s no secret recipe that guarantees sure shot success. What’s in our hands is to dare to be aggressive, with a touch of professionalism. If you follow the above discussed points… it’ll surely help you in doing your sales better.

However, by building sales pipeline, it is important in closing more sales deals and generating revenue. The sales managers always make sure their representatives run a sales pipeline that helps to target, identify the issue that needs urgent help.

 You can also, use effective CRM tools like Wakeupales to better handle your sales and generate more leads.

Did I miss anything? Please leave your comments below.