You don’t have to live by the peaks and valleys most salespeople experience in their sales pipeline.
Are you looking to see more progress in your own workflow–from prospecting, to closing the sale and creating a customer?
Check out these 10 tips for filling the sales pipeline.
Video – Filling the Sales Pipeline
1. Simplify the process
Don’t make it difficult for your customers to do business with you.
I am amazed at the number of salespeople who focus on landing the big sale. It’s a great idea, but can also cause the customer to slow down. Or, they might not make a decision if you are asking for too much.
Instead, make it easy and focus on getting an order first. Then, once you’ve landed the order, move toward expanding business with that customer.
2. Set Goals
When setting goals, you may ask yourself: “How many prospecting calls will I make this week? How many sales calls will I make this week?”
Alternatively, the measurements you really should be concerned with are:
What is the percentage of customers I can create out of qualified prospects?
For example, let’s say you have ten qualified prospects. Are you able to close five? Converting 50% of your prospects into customers would be a great goal.
And what is the speed? Or rather, what is the length of time it takes?
Those are the two measurements that are the most important. In other words, think about the number of people you want to be contacting each week, or the number of conversations you want to have each week. In addition, consider your optimal timeline for those prospects.
Looking to convert more prospects and close more sales via email? Look out for my Email Prospecting Masterclass going LIVE on June 10th via The Sales Hunter University.
3. Review Customer Outcomes
Yes, I’m selling a product or a service, but I’m also helping customers achieve an outcome. It’s so important to consider the outcomes I’ve helped existing customers to achieve.
Then, what are the outcomes I’m helping current customers to achieve? Once I’ve determined this, I can focus my time on a clear set of outcomes.
4. Target your prospects
When I understand what those outcomes are, I’m not going to spend time with people who just don’t fit with what I can sell.
Besides, I don’t want to spend time with people who aren’t capable of buying. Certainly, I don’t want to spend my time with people who are not in a position to buy for two or three years.
Instead, I target my prospects.
Aim for prospects who can do business with you right now.
Read more for tips on How to Make Prospecting Work.
5. Use simple messaging
It isn’t rocket science, don’t overcomplicate it.
I see too many people send out emails inundating people with volumes of information. However, simple messaging is what people want to see.
When I send out a prospecting email, I want it to be one single swipe on a smartphone.
In other words, if I can’t read it in one swipe, it’s too much.
6. Manage your time.
You’re not going to fill the sales pipeline in one fell swoop. It’s going to take time.
Consider the amount of time you have to spend truly prospecting, or qualifying prospects. How much time do you need to really get people close to buying and closing deals? It is important to understand each of these elements.
When I manage my time, I create a smooth flow, not like most salespeople who experience peaks and valleys.
7. Follow up
The sale happens in the follow-up.
It doesn’t happen with just one call.
It’s one of the key reasons why I talk a lot about the bottle of shampoo. Rinse and repeat.
The process is not complete if you don’t reconnect with your prospects.
8. Send clear messages
In addition to being concise, I want my messages to be clear.
In clear messages, I’m posing one question, or one statement.
Also, I’m very straightforward on what my CTA (Call to Action) is, and I direct them toward that next step.
I have clear messages in every phase of my sales process.
9. Stay focused
When I am absolutely focused on filling the sales pipeline, I don’t allow myself to get distracted by shiny objects.
Many times, people are working it, but they get some inbound business and think, “Oh, now my pipeline’s full.”
That’s not the case at all. In reality, you just benefited from some inbound business. That’s the rain barrel–simply accepting what comes to you.
When I talk about filling the sales pipeline, it’s about being a rainmaker. Meaning, I strive for so much more than just the business that comes my way.
Of course, I’m going to take business that comes in, but I’m also going to be focused on making things happen by being a rainmaker.
Read more about How to Be a Rainmaker.
10. Check your attitude and your motivation
Your attitude is going to affect your ability to fill the sales pipeline dramatically.
When you have the right attitude, you see opportunities that other people don’t. It’s amazing how your conversation changes.
What is motivation? Motivation means you’re organized, focused, and ready to make it happen.
I know people who are very motivated to get something done, but they’ve got a very poor attitude. It takes both.
Great selling.
Are you or your sales team looking to reach higher and gain a decisive competitive advantage? I’m personally inviting you to this year’s OutBound conference in Atlanta.
We’re safely filling the Georgia World Congress Center with 1,000+ attendees from around the world, who are all pumped to dive deeper into their sales career.
OutBound is the only conference focused exclusively on sales prospecting, pipeline, and productivity.
There is nothing like it. I’d love to meet you in person, but it will be offered online, too.
Use my code, mark100, to save $100 off your ticket.
Head on over to get your tickets, check out the speakers, and learn about the conference.
Copyright 2021, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
