How Can Effective Sales Management Processes Help Your Business Grow?

We recently had a discussion with a client about what a pipeline is and is not. Looking online only added to the confusion for the client. Sales Pipelines have become increasingly important because they lead to a visual representation of your sales process – one that can be captured in your CRM (customer relationship management) software. Your sales pipeline will chart the process from a contact to a client or customer. Not all pipelines will be the same and they should be very specific to each organization. 

With many of our clients, we use the analogy of a section of PVC pipe – empty at the start. Representing sales activity, we insert balled-up athletic socks. When the first pair is inserted, nothing comes out the other end. We must keep inserting the balled athletic socks into the pipe, until the pipe is full and the first set of socks, representing closed-won business, comes through the other end. With this simple analogy, we represent the most basic elements in sales – activity, pipeline state, and results. Said another way, results will follow a healthy pipeline that is well supported by activity that is based on a solid strategy with great execution. 

Sales Management and a Sales Coach for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

In the day-to-day operation of a small business, it’s easy to become short sighted. You begin to take for granted that the way things are is the way they have to be, or always will be. It often takes an experienced outsider to remind us that we really can change things for the better.

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales efforts on track. If you’re not happy with how your organization’s sales function is doing, coaching can be a great option. 

In some cases, we operate as a Fractional Sales Leader and other times we coach with an existing Sales Manager and sales team. We often work at all levels of the organization to help build a Sales Focused Organization - leadership, strategic direction, systems, sales management, departments, and individual contributors. We also assist in the recruiting and evaluation of “Qualified, New Business” Sales representatives.

Read the full article about sales management here!

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? 

Whether you’re satisfied with the effort, focus, and results of your sales team, many people we speak with have been hesitant to act – simply because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re open to a brief call, let us know and we can take the first step together.

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact us form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

What is a ‘Healthy’ Pipeline?

Your pipeline will consist of discrete stages, each with goals, activities/tasks and/or milestones that must be met before the next stage or step can be pursued. Each transition from one stage of the pipeline is considered a ‘conversion’. These transitions become critical to sales success because they can be analyzed numerically, and they provide important data and feedback to sales management. 

Let’s say your pipeline looks like this: Contact > Lead/Opportunity > Sales Qualification > Decision > Closed Won/Lost. If we analyze the conversions at each stage, we’ll gain insight into what is and isn’t working. Our analysis will be dramatically enhanced when we add specific goals and milestones that must be met before transitioning from one stage to the next. Many organizations will have multiple pipelines that represent different scenarios in sales – maybe the existing customer pipeline is different from that of a prospective one or there may be stages that are different for an inbound inquiry as compared to an outbound cold call.

Whatever your pipeline and criteria needed to transition from one stage to the next is, the labels and sales-specific language within your organization must be clear to the entire sales team and everyone in the organization. No plan is a plan to fail. A great plan that’s launched without clear communication will struggle to be as successful as intended. 

What is your pipeline, and how well understood and effective is it? What CRM are you using and how well does it reflect your pipeline and support analysis of your sales efforts? With today’s CRMs, Sales Managers/Leaders rely heavily on reports that can help bring to light training possibilities for their team, and to enhance the performance of individual sales team members.  

We’ve heard from many organizations that their biggest current issues are supply chain and staffing levels. These current challenges overshadow sales as a concern. This may be the perfect time to examine or re-examine your sales efforts, the process, stages, and pipeline(s). So don’t wait - proactively evaluating your sales will lead to stronger conversion rates and results. 

Read more about sales management here!

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? 

Whether you’re satisfied with the effort, focus, and results of your sales team, many people we speak with have been hesitant to act – simply because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re open to a brief call, let us know and we can take the first step together.

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.