Sales Pipeline Management: 7 Tips to Closing More Deals
You used the best marketing strategies, ran successful campaigns and did all that you could to load your sales pipeline with maximum deals.
But what’s next? Are the deals converting or slipping out through the cracks? A sales pipeline isn’t just a space to collect opportunities but a key to understanding the pattern and trends in a sales process.
If you want to increase your conversions, you need to manage your sales pipeline efficiently. Companies that master pipeline management see 28% higher revenue growth.
To help you out, we have stated below seven tips to effectively manage your sales pipeline for closing more deals in less time.
1. Target the right prospect
The only way to increase the velocity of your sales cycle is by concentrating on the right deals. Focus on quality rather than quantity to move an opportunity at a faster pace. Plan and determine the right companies and decision makers you need to approach.
- Reflect on your historical sales data and identify your ideal customers
- Find out from which channel are the best deals coming from
- Check out your competitor’s client testimonials and case studies to see what kind of companies they are targeting
2. Collect information about the deal
It is easier to move a deal through various stages of the sales pipeline when you know what the prospect wants. Contact information alone won’t help in closing a deal, so you need to have an in-depth understanding of their business challenges and goals.
- Don’t hesitate in questioning your prospects for diagnosing their needs
- Listen to your prospects attentively for collecting crucial business details
- Find out what is their budget, who is the decisions maker and what is the timeline for implementing the solution
3. Manage your time efficiently
Sometimes it becomes difficult to focus on the sales process when you have too many things on your plate. Mostly sales reports and administrative tasks consume your precious hours. You can maximize your efficiency by eliminating such time-consuming task with a sales CRM software, such as Salesmate.
- Seamlessly set workflow and automate most of the redundant tasks
- Create customized reports in seconds
- Get notified about each activity to stay on the right track
4. Focus on each deal
Don’t ignore any opportunity in your pipeline; ensure you follow-up and reply to each prospect’s inquiry on time. Keep your deals organized to nurture and convert them quickly. Try to spot those of them that are more likely to close and handle them at once.
- Use the right tool to track the movement of each deal
- Evaluate your sales pipeline to spot the cold deals that need your immediate attention
- Determine the attributes of valuable deals
5. Reduce the length of your sales cycle
The longer the sales cycle, the less likely are the chances of a deal to close. Set a timeline to close a deal and create a plan for having a clear direction to take the necessary steps. Measure different stages of the sales pipeline and understand how much time you need to give a deal at each stage.
- Scrutinize and find out the effective strategies you have used earlier to push the deal through various stages of the sales pipeline
- Update your sales strategies periodically and explore new techniques to shorten your sales cycle
- If you are not able to close a deal in a stipulated time-frame, then don’t avoid but find the reason for it
6. Flush the pipeline regularly
Your pipeline has a wide variety of deals, but not all are going to convert into sales. Quit wasting time on the prospects that don’t need your solution and keep your sales pipeline clean and healthy by weeding-out low-quality deals on a regular basis. Create categories like hot deals, cold deals and dead deals to figure which sales prospects need to go.
- Keep an eye on the sluggish prospects and remove them if they don’t show any buying signs
- Don’t blindly abandon all the low-quality deals. See if the prospect can be added to the future-call list.
- Many CRM software have a deal rotting feature, so you can easily use it and address the dead deals in real-time
7. Conduct pipeline review meetings
Sales pipeline review meeting is the best way to keep the deals in motion and focus on opportunities that have a high possibility of closing. Invest time in a one-on-one meeting with the sales rep for evaluating the sales pipeline. Using detailed sales reports dig deeper into insights to find out what’s working and where do you need to improve.
- Get an overview of the overall health of your sales rep’s pipeline
- Provide feedback at an early stage to shorten the sales cycle
- Identify risks on-time and address them immediately
Final thoughts
Creating and maintaining a healthy pipeline is crucial for meeting and exceeding your sales targets. Regularly examine the sales pipeline to understand how the deals are progressing and where should you be spending your time. Focus on the right opportunities and pay more attention to the pipeline management tactics to boost your conversion rate.
