A sales pipeline is designed to provide a business with a summary of its current and potential sales opportunities.

It does so by mapping potential buyers and what stage they are at in the buying process, and identifying where there might be any bottlenecks. The name ‘pipeline’ also reflects the fact that sales is a fluid process that is always moving, never static.

Sales pipelines consist of a series of key stages from the start to the finish of the sales process. Creating a strong sales pipeline is beneficial in that it allows you to identify and track opportunities to convert prospects into customers and to better forecast future revenue and predict cash flow.

Here are the essential steps to creating a strong sales pipeline.

1. Define your pipeline stages

While this will differ from one business to the next, the stages of a pipeline are likely to follow along the lines of prospecting, lead qualification, contact, proposal, negotiation, closing and post-purchase.

2. Calculate opportunities for targeting

A pipeline allows you to calculate the number of opportunities required to achieve your targets at each stage.

For example, let’s say you need to win 100 deals to achieve your revenue goals, and your past record shows you typically close deals at the rate of 80% at the proposal stage. In this case you would need 125 (100/80%) opportunities to reach that stage if you are to hit your targets.

These types of metrics are also great for internal decision-making – such as determining what how much time sales staff should spend on specific activities.

3. Build a robust database

A database of your leads, prospects and customers is much more than a mere filing system. Rather, the information held within it can be extremely valuable for decision-making.

For example, your database can give you valuable insights about your customers that become especially useful when developing communication and sales strategies and building customer relationships.

4. Create or refine your sales process​

Within you pipeline you should create and document a clear sales process, which is a series of actionable, repeatable steps to convert a prospect to a customer. Having a clear process helps to create order and consistency in meeting customer needs and sales targets.

A typical sales process usually includes the following steps: reaching out/approaching, defining customer needs, creating solutions, closing deals and post-sale follow up. However, when you build a new pipeline, you may need to refine your process somewhat, such as by determining which activities are required at each stage.

5. Refine your sales presentation and pitch

Communication is key when it comes to getting your message to target audiences and moving your prospects through from one stage to the next in your pipeline. For this you may need to train or retrain your sales staff to ensure they are delivering the right messages at each stage.

At Virtual Solutions we can help you with sales support and business development. Contact us to find out how!