Keeping Your Sales Pipeline Full is Just the Start

I was reading an article titled “Pipeline Will Always Be King in Sales.” It started on the right track until I realized it was written by a company selling customer relationship management (CRM) software and quickly changed direction.

The authors stated that “there is one universal, understandable and crucial-to-know truth in sales–the pipeline will always be king. Whether you are in sales or running a company, future opportunities are critical to keep your company growing.”

I have seen many salespeople and companies focus too much time on collecting opportunities to put in their CRM programs and not enough time on identifying the leads that are real opportunities, when they will become sales, and who will follow up to complete the sale.

When I read some of the notes salespeople enter in their CRM programs, I often find them repeated. For instance:

• I spoke with the customer; they have not followed up on the job and will follow up and get back to me;
• Still open with the following update; or
• The customer hasn’t heard back yet from the contractor and doesn’t have a timeline for the sale.

Tracking opportunities are important, but they don’t pay the bills, like letters of intent and backlogs. It is important that you train your staff that filling the pipeline with opportunities is just a start. This is when the real work starts.

Successful companies and salespeople know how to qualify leads and quotes, determine if they are real opportunities, and set up a timeline and a plan to close the sale. The article mentioned above also discussed statistics determining closing rates and how many leads are needed in the pipeline to reach your sales goals.

These are all great statistics to track, but the top performers spend their time improving their closing rate, working with their customers as partners to follow up on their leads and understanding how to qualify their opportunities to improve productivity. Collecting data and tracking follow-ups in your CRM program will not help you get better at closing the sale.

I believe there is one universal, understandable and crucial-to-know truth in sales:

Completing sales and getting paid will always be king.