30 Mar The Importance of Pipeline Management
Pipeline management is vital for companies to keep deals moving forward in their efforts to convert potential customers into clients. If a company fails to manage its pipeline efficiently prospects may be stuck in one stage for a prolonged period which makes it difficult to achieve the goals of sales and revenue.
In the business sense pipelines are comparable to a supply chain in that they carry the products you’re selling, but instead of goods moving from the factory to the shipping point your sales pipeline is filled with leads that eventually will become customers. In order to maintain a healthy pipeline you must keep track of and analyze the appropriate metrics.
The first step in ensuring your pipeline is running at its best is defining and mapping out clear stages of the process. This allows your team to keep track of each prospect’s progress and determine which of these stages are causing problems or simply unable to handle the workload.
Pipeline management is also dependent on a well-defined sales process that your team adheres to. A planned routine will help your team meet their sales targets, growth targets, and profits goals by making sure that important sales activities, such as follow-ups and establishing relationships don’t slip through the cracks.
Another element of pipeline maintenance is using tools such as Close that allow you to keep contact information and sales activity as well as metrics up-to-date. This helps your sales team remain organized, and also allows other departments to access the data.