An effective sales pipeline has several elements which help to move the sales process to the finish line. Among these are generating leads, scheduling calls and demos, presenting pricing and proposals, and closing the deal. A well-laid out and tracked pipeline will help you to establish your sales objectives and identify where improvements can be made in the process. In this article, we discuss how to build a strong sales pipeline.

Establish Who Your Leads Are

The first step is to establish the details for who you will consider to be leads. You may have more than one lead type within a niche. For example, within the lawyer niche, you might have personal injury lawyer and employment lawyer. Within each of these lead types, you will track the stages that the leads are in within the pipeline, such as scheduled calls, presenting proposals, etc. Remember that some types of leads may take more time to close than others, so take this into account as well.

Schedule a Call

Set up a call with the lead to learn about their business, goals, pain points, and how your product or service could help them. Some people prefer to have a short call first, of about 15 minutes, to qualify the prospect, and then have a second longer call if they find that the prospect is qualified. But, depending on the situation, you might also have a longer call on the first call in which you present what you offer.

Collect Important Data

In some cases, you may be able to make the sale during the first or second call. But in other cases, it may take longer to close the deal. Knowing how to build a strong sales pipeline includes collecting key information about potential customers to give yourself the best chance of closing. There are some important things that you should learn about the prospect such as: what is their procedure for coming to a decision, who makes the buying decision, and why they would or would not purchase. Also, find out if they are currently working with someone who does what you do or if they worked with someone like you in the past.

Demonstrate Your Value

Showing a demonstration of how your products or services work can be an important factor in helping the prospect to decide whether or not they need what you offer. In some cases, you may need to do more than one demonstration so that the prospect can learn more about what you offer.

The Decision Making Process

Sometimes, the prospect that you are speaking to wants to make the purchase but they are not the final decision maker. In this case, find out who has the final say, what their objections might be, and how you can address them. Once you have agreement from all the stakeholders to move forward with working together, you can come to a final decision on pricing and contractual details.

Negotiate the Deal

There may be times when you need to negotiate the deal before it can close. The business may even have a legal team that will get involved in the discussions. During this time, stay on top of your communications with the company to help ensure that the process goes smoothly. If the deal goes through, you can accept payment and start on-boarding the customer. If the deal does not go through, inquire about why this happened. Continue to follow up with the company from time to time. Circumstances change so they may need your help in the future.

A coach can show you how to build a strong sales pipeline for generating more sales. Get in touch today!