Most companies use a CRM to monitor the opportunities in their sales pipeline. Some of the metrics that we recommend sales managers consistently review with their salespeople include:

• Number of qualified leads
• Conversion rates for key sales process steps
• Close rates
• Average deal size
• Sales cycle length

Effective sales pipeline management involves setting specific times to review these key metrics with salespeople and coaching them for skill improvement. Ideally, a scorecard is established that allows a sales leader to track improvement as they review these metrics quarterly with their team. This discipline should not be overlooked and remains a key differentiator for highly successful coaches. If a sales manager does not know the quality of their pipeline, how can they help their people improve, and how can they forecast business for the company?

Assuming these metrics are available, here are some things to look out for in sales pipeline management sessions, with the end goal of improving pipeline quality and coaching the sales skills of your team.

Beware of Stuffed Pipelines

Having a “fat pipeline” can result from an overly optimistic advisor or relationship manager. They call on a prospect and come back thinking, “We really hit it off! They really liked what we can do... We have a LOT we can help them with.” Their deceptively full pipeline may give the salesperson comfort because it looks like they have plenty of opportunities, but in fact, it may be very misleading in terms of what will close. In other words, many of those deals in the pipeline are not properly qualified.

A sales leader plays a critical role in managing this problem with their coaching. The skill of asking great questions is essential. Tone and tonality are of paramount importance, and they must be firm and helpful. Questions like:

• What did you hear the customer say that leads you to believe they will be a great customer for us?
• When you asked them about the impact of not fixing this problem, what did they say?
• Who else in their organization will be impacted if they switch providers?
• What did they say when you asked about their decision-making criteria?
• When is the last time they chose a supplier that wasn’t the lowest cost?
• How much is in their budget to make this problem go away?
• When you asked them, “How do you envision working with us,” what was their response?
• How did they choose their current provider?

By asking great questions, sales managers coach their people by example. The questions listed above are the type of questions salespeople should be asking the prospect. Coaching sessions are similar to a sales call in nature. By asking great questions of their team, leaders find out where their people need to be coached. If they hear a salesperson say, “I didn’t ask that question” during their pipeline discussions, they need to find out if the salesperson is unable to ask those questions (they need more sales training) OR if they are unwilling to ask those questions.

During sales pipeline management sessions, as managers review and discuss the metrics, it becomes clear if the salesperson is prospecting enough and regularly finding opportunities. Sales managers will know if their team understands that prospecting is a consistent effort necessary for them to reach their sales goals. Coaches can guide them on how to consistently make calls, ask for introductions, and network among their target prospects.

It’s healthy to “flush” a pipeline regularly. Opportunities should move through or out of the pipeline continually. If a relationship manager wants to cling to an opportunity and defend keeping it in their pipeline, it is probably because they have nothing else to take its place. Coach them, encourage them, and challenge them.

The ability to understand a prospect or client’s industry and their market allows a B2B salesperson to understand the big picture. In order to have business acumen, salespeople must understand the forces and factors that impact their industry and it's impact on their clients and potential customers. This knowledge also helps them to differentiate their approach in the sales process. Salespeople with highly developed business acumen are not focused on the sale at hand, but on the broader goal of being a partner and advisor for the long-term.

For those in a producer’s role, whether it’s sales or business development, cultivating business acumen is essential. It allows salespeople the ability to uncover and articulate the challenges faced by the customer or client before they do. This skill involves understanding their problems, the impact of those problems or opportunities, and seeing the world from their perspective.

Business acumen is the key to perceiving the hindrances and challenges impeding their business growth. It’s about comprehending their aspirations to strive and thrive. Every company owner, CEO, or division manager is striving to overcome challenges, bring in new talent, and expand into new markets. Simultaneously, they are thriving by increasing revenue and optimizing costs to enhance the bottom line.

By demonstrating a deeper understanding or business acumen, a salesperson can position themselves as a trusted advisor who comprehends their world. One exercise to test business acumen is to see how long it takes for a salesperson engaged in a conversation with a prospect or customer to introduce their products, services, or company. Are they able to extend the conversation for two minutes, 20 minutes, or even two hours by focusing on the prospect’s needs and challenges before pushing their own solutions?

Developing Business Acumen

In addition to using every industry tool at hand, a well-thought-out pre-call plan can guide a salesperson to organize and articulate the relevant points during the conversation. Instead of entering a sales interaction with the sole aim of making a sale, a salesperson must shift their perspective to building a relationship. They should ask themselves, “How can I establish a meaningful connection with this person?” Developing and exercising their sales superpower – business acumen – is crucial for success in this endeavor.

We partner with Objective Management Group (OMG), the pioneer and industry leader in sales evaluations. According to OMG, these are some of the qualifying competencies that contribute to helping salespeople develop business acumen:

• Able to Stay in the Moment
• Self-Limiting Beliefs Won't be an Obstacle
• Knows Why a Prospect Would Buy
• Asks about Everything
• Not Vulnerable to Competition
• Meet with Decision Maker
• Uncovers Actual Budget
• Will Discuss Finances
• Knows Decision-Making Process
• Can Influence the Decision-Making Process
• Handles High-Ticket Pricing
• Need to Be Liked Doesn't Get in the Way

Salespeople who are successful at developing their business acumen superpower have a frame of reference of continual learning. This includes their desire to fully understand their client’s goals and objectives. In fact, according to Amazon CEO, Andy Jazzy, the second a person thinks they know it all -- or even just enough -- is the second their career generally starts to stall out. Those who continue to grow into greater and greater success, on the other hand, remain hungry for learning. "The biggest difference between the people I started with in the early stage of my career and what they're doing now has to do with how great they were at learning," states Jassy. 

Back in the early seventies there was a group called The Main Ingredient. At the time, they had a hit song and the lyrics went something like this… “ So you’re heart broken, you’re sitting around moping, crying and crying. You even feel like dyin’. Well, before you do something rash, dig this- everybody plays the fool!”

In our world of selling, maybe everybody doesn't play the fool, but we know this, dealing with rejection in sales is part of the job. Everybody gets rejected. So, the question is when that happens, what happens? Does it take you two minutes, two hours, two days, two weeks to recover, or are you able to get right back into the fight? When we find people have a hard time recovering from rejection, it’s probably one of two reasons. Number one: they're way too emotionally involved in this sale. “If I don't get this sale, I'm in trouble. If I do get this sale, my year is made!”

And the second reason is people don't have the pipeline that they should have. It's not as robust and filled with other good prospects as it could be. So, when those two things happen, maybe we take the rejection a little harder than we should.

Here's a formula that I believe you can use that'll help you get past your fear and help you deal with rejection. The formula is simply this; SW³ N. And that stands for this…

Some will. Some won't. So what. Next!

Keep that mantra chanting in your head! Some of the salespeople I work with even write it down on their desk and refer to it as they’re saying goodbye to one prospect and trying to find their next opportunity. Somebody needs what you do, go find them. And when you do, don't fear rejection.  Remember SW³ N.

If we don’t fully understand the reason for a prospect's statement, the purpose of their question, or dig deeper to find the real problem, we will waste time and miss opportunities.

In his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey has a quote… “Seek first to understand. Then to be understood.”  I think that statement is especially true for sales professionals.

When we coach our clients, we try to get them to understand and remember these three tips when in conversation with their prospects and clients:

So, as your prospects talk about their main concerns, your job is to determine the following: Is this a symptom or a problem?  Problems get solved, symptoms are tolerated.  I was working with a prospect and he kept saying he needed to fix his cash flow problem.  The more we talked, the more it became clear that cash flow wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was he missed out on an opportunity to purchase one of his competitors.  The symptom was cash flow, the problem was missing opportunities to acquire market share.  We focused on fixing his true problem.

One of the ways, and really the only way, to bring clarity to the conversation is by asking or saying the following when we hear prospects make statements or ask questions:

We also need to listen to emotionally charged words such as . . .

These are emotionally driven words and emotion drives sales.  Facts and figures justify sales, but emotion drives it.  If we don’t fully understand the reason for the statement, the purpose of the question, or dig deeper to find the real problem, we will waste time and miss opportunities. 

Do you block off time in your calendar specifically to perform the sales activities required to be successful? If not, why?

In this blog, we discuss the importance of creating systems and habits and how implementing them into your everyday life will help you obtain greater success.

The Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, said, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” I don’t remember reading any accounts of Aristotle conducting sales training, but I believe he would have been pretty good at it.

I have a statement and a question, that tie into Aristotle’s quote on habits:

• The systems you have in place are perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting.
• Do you own, and do you like, the outcome you produced?

Habits + systems = outcomes.  I think I can get agreement that, if both habits and systems are excellent and well-thought-out, the outcome will be what it needs to be.  The problem is, if either habits or systems are bad, the outcome will never be what it could be.  Here’s the good news: you are in control of both the habits you create and the systems you follow.

Let’s take a look at habits.  There are many you can create.  One of the best habits you can develop is setting aside an appointment, each week, to meet with your most important customer.  That most important customer is you and the habit you must form is to never, under any circumstances, break that appointment.  During that appointment with yourself, you plan and set goals for your week, read things to improve your skills and craft, or just spend time organizing yourself.  You will be shocked at how much better you can be by investing 30 minutes each week.

What systems do you have in place that will help you succeed? What are the key factors you need to achieve to succeed in sales?  Are they introductions?  Cold Calls?  Appointments? Presentations, etc.?  What’s your conversion ratio?  How many calls turn into appointments?  How many appointments turn into presentations?  Have a system, measure the activity, find the gaps, do the things necessary to fix them.

Finally, let’s look at outcomes.  Do you own the outcome you’ve created?  Another way to look at it is this: when something doesn’t happen the way you wanted or needed it to, do you look out the window for the reason or do you look in the mirror for the reason?

So, there you go.  A simple formula . . . Habits (good or bad) + Systems (good or bad) = Outcome . . .  If you own the outcome and don’t like it, fix the things on the left side of the equal sign.