Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 80. The Keys to Successful Pipeline Management

Donal Daly

The TAS Group

During consultations, some common challenges in pipeline management have surfaced, in particular whether to focus on pipeline volume or pipeline velocity. Also, we've been asked frequently to explain the "secret sauce" that can identify pipeline risks or potential breakdown. Here are four of the best practices lessons that we've shared with our customers.

BEST PRACTICE #1: MAP THE PIPELINE STRUCTURE TO A SALES PROCESS

It is often difficult to decide how many stages you should have in your sales pipeline. We have seen different companies with their pipelines segmented into anything between 3 and 12 stages (we recommend no more than 5 or 6) in the pipeline. Every week, or month, sales managers then "manage" the sales force by working through each individual's sales pipeline to determine how many opportunities are at each stage, and what probability to apply to each opportunity. More often than not, this is a fruitless exercise for two main reasons.

First, subjectivity plays a large part. In most cases, the interpretation of how to categorize the opportunity is left to the salesperson's discretion. The buying cycle is often ignored, and there is usually little linkage between the key qualification questions used, and the stage of the process. One of the benefits of a standardized sales process is that everyone in the company involved in the sale adopts a common language.

Second, it is futile to determine the ...