Implementing the right sales pipeline strategy is an essential element of business development for any company. Without a proper process in place to build sales, prospects and leads will go cold, valuable insights will be missed, conversions will be limited, and your business will lose out on revenue.

But what is a pipeline in business development terms, and how do you create and manage one that will be effective for your organization? In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know, including the various sales pipeline stages, how to build and maintain an effective strategy, and which metrics to watch. 

What is a sales pipeline? 

A sales pipeline is a visual representation of your sales process, providing a bird’s eye view of every stage a prospect moves through—from initial discovery to becoming a loyal customer. An effective pipeline drives conversions while simultaneously ensuring no opportunities are missed, because at every stage you can incorporate accountability for action that pushes prospects on to the next phase.

The exact sales process will vary from company to company. When it comes to building a pipeline, business models and unique needs will dictate the process. However, the primary goals remain constant across all industries and organizations when it comes to designing an effective pipeline: 

1. Business health can be determined at a glance.
2. Revenue is more consistent and predictable. 

Sales pipelines are usually visualized as a horizontal chart broken down into various stages, providing total visibility, control and the opportunity to analyze the (Read more...)

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The adage that time is money is perhaps most true for salespeople, whose job productivity is arguably most directly tied to revenue. 

That makes it all the more perplexing when salespeople find themselves mired in trivial tasks during the workweek. Modern tools have made some of those tasks more efficient, but they’re still time-consuming. Research varies, especially depending on industry, but the constant is that less than half the week is spent on revenue-generating activities.

Account leaders and company officials have considerable interest in the sum of a sales representative’s total workweek experience, especially ways to maximize how much time they spend actually selling products. Let’s look at the typical day and new tools that help every salesperson find more time in their day to close sales. 

Daily tasks that subtract from sales

Here’s what the daily activities of the average sales professional look like:

• Planning their day: Sales reps switch between various schedule planning systems like email applications, traditional pen and paper, manager reports for task (Read more...)

Small and medium-sized businesses are the lifeblood of the economy. In the U.S., more than 30 million SMB companies employ more than 60% of the workforce and account for about 40% of U.S. GDP. 

From this foundation, we’ve seen the rise of the SMBTech ecosystem, which includes a range of companies that support and enable SMBs in the digital era. This was not always the case—SMBs were slower to adopt technology, infrastructure costs were high, and the unit economics proved to be difficult in courting SMBs as customers.

The tech landscape

Four major changes in the tech landscape have contributed to building scalable solutions for SMBs:

1. Cloud: Spurred on by Amazon’s AWS and Salesforce, the advent of cloud services significantly lowered infrastructure costs and saw a huge transition to cloud adoption.
2. Mobile: The creation and popularization of the smartphone fundamentally changed the way everyday consumers interact with technology on a daily basis.
3. Digital: Social media and telecommunications encouraged businesses to go online and leverage advertising tools and customer interaction opportunities.
4. Payments: The digitization of payments made it easy for people to send and receive money around the world, and SMBs could integrate payments in their offerings.

Over the past few decades, increased accessibility to technology has created a friendlier environment for starting a business. While it may have previously been cost-prohibitive to create a product and sell it from a shop, open a salon, or build a restaurant, today’s landscape looks different. 

With everyday consumers adopting (Read more...)