5 Mistakes to Avoid in Sales Pipeline Management

Take control of your pipeline management by avoiding these common mistakes that hurt business success.

Sales pipelines represent a company’s sales process based on the amount of business that is projected for a given time period. Managing a pipeline is important for growing and keeping track of your business, however, many businesses fail to see this as a priority.

If this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone– almost half of executives in a recent study believe that their organization is ineffective at managing their pipeline. Look for these five warning signs that may hint at a poor pipeline management practices.

1. Fuzzy Goals

The first step in a pipeline management is outlining specific goals for sales in the upcoming period. This is how progress through the pipeline is tracked and monitored. If you aren’t setting clear goals, progress through the pipeline can’t be tracked.

• Take control of your sales through clear and measurable goals.
• Set short term and long term objectives that your team can work to achieve.
• Evaluate progress through the pipeline and change goals when necessary.

2. Failure to Track Opportunities

You may be missing out on promising customers simply because you aren’t prioritizing and tracking open sales. All stages of the sales funnel are important, but you should give first priority to the customers who are near the end. “The largest driver of lead-to-sale conversion is the time it takes to respond to a customer.”

• Switching the focus to customers who are ready to buy will help your sales process stay organized and flowing.
• Attend to the customers who are in the middle of the sales pipeline, or almost ready to buy because they can be easily converted into buying customers.
• Follow up with customers who are still at the funnel of your pipeline making sure to stay current on leads.

3. Long Sales Cycle

A long sales cycle is a top indicator of ineffectiveness in the pipeline. If cycles are too long, customers can fall away before making it through the whole pipeline. Every lead must be developed in a timely manner in order to effectively move through the whole pipeline. This can be as simple as making sure to follow-up more frequently with customers.

• Make sure there are no gaps in your sales pipeline to help shorten the cycle.
• Know your customer history
• Monitor and establish the average time it takes to convert prospective clients into customers. This will help you to stay in control of your sales process while improving it in the future.

4. Uninformed Team

Chaos will ensue without communication between team members. You may waste time on a task that has already been completed by another member of your team, but don’t know it because of poor communication.

This becomes particularly problematic when it comes to working with customers. If you call a customer only to find out they’ve already been contacted by another member of the team, that customer is annoyed that they have to repeat information.

• Make sure everyone working on the sale has the most up-to-date information. This can greatly improve your pipeline management.
• Give your sales team adequate training on pipeline management strategies and techniques.

5. Cookie-Cutter Customer Care

Treating all customers the same and expecting each one to move through the pipeline at the same rate is unrealistic. You may find common patterns during the sales process, but every customer should be treated as a unique individual. A certain strategy that works to move one customer through the pipeline quickly may slow another customer down.

• Identify why customers are purchasing, and what stage of the pipeline they fit into.
• Modify your process based on where customers are located in the sales pipeline to best get them moving through the cycle.

If your company is struggling with these areas, you might want to consider making changes to your sales process strategies. Strong revenue growth is directly correlated to an effective pipeline management. In companies that have a strong pipeline management practices in place see a 28% higher revenue growth than companies that do not.

A good way to control your sales funnel management is through the use of customer relationship management (CRM) software. These applications provide a clear picture of your sales pipeline by tracking prospects through the different stages of the pipeline. With this kind of information available, you can easily identify areas where you’re succeeding and where you can improve in the sales process.

A tool that may be used in conjunction with your CRM is Ving. Communicate more effectively with your sales team with engaging and interactive messages. Copy and resend vings to educate new team members on the process used in your pipeline management.