Aside from keeping track of each deal and the stage it’s in, what is effective pipeline management?
The answer is in the details.
One company that isn’t afraid to get into the nitty-gritty is Productive Edge, a software development startup that builds custom web and mobile applications for enterprise clients. Sales Director Matthew Adams said his team is able to dig deeper into each deal by asking a series of questions that help determine its validity and accuracy.
Adams also said that effective pipeline management is being able to recognize when a deal is dead and then removing it from the pipeline.
Built In Chicago sat down with Adams to discuss his team’s best practices for pipeline management.
What’s the single most important best practice you follow when it comes to pipeline management? Why is this practice so important?
The single best practice I follow when it comes to pipeline management is asking a set of basic questions in order to form a more detailed idea of the information. Examples include:
- When is the opportunity going to close?
- Is there enough budget to support the opportunity?
- What is the business challenge?
- How long have we been pursuing the opportunity?
- How have we demonstrated value?
- Are we talking to someone who is in a position of power?
Getting these questions answered determines the validity and accuracy of the pipeline. Knowing or not knowing these answers drives the next action and gives us visibility into the overall health of the pipeline.
What’s one improvement you’ve made to your pipeline processes over time?
One improvement that I have made over time is removing deals that truly are dead from the pipeline by being critical and asking if the deal is legitimate or not. Being critical of the deal status and removing it if there’s not going to be further development takes away pipeline bloat. It represents the true state of the business. It has an impact on work in the sense that it drives one to focus where the pipeline needs to be built and impacts where customer relationships need to be identified, developed and managed.
Getting these basic questions answered determines the validity and accuracy of the pipeline.”
What’s a best practice you follow for monitoring your sales pipeline over time and keeping it clean and up to date?
The best practice for monitoring the pipeline and keeping it clean and up to date is to make sure each opportunity has correct hygiene, such as stage and details. The stage and details have to be updated weekly. The detail, such as a note, must include the date, next steps and who the next steps are with. This has to occur weekly — on a Monday or Friday — so there is accurate visibility on the next steps for the upcoming work period. This drives seller accountability and also reduces the amount of “reaching out” one does with the team. There should be a 30-minute placeholder in the individual’s calendar to perform this exercise. It’s a simple task to remove unnecessary questions and enable efficiency.
