pipeline

Like this article? PLEASE +1 it!

pipeline Tagged Articles

Talent Development and The Wheel of Becoming

In the Buddhist belief, the Wheel of Becoming is a representation of life, death, and rebirth. The energy produced by one’s past actions (karma) are paid forward into future outcomes. Practitioners can determine their place within the concentric circles of the wheel, which delineate the various realms of being (see the graphic above). In talent management terms, think of the Wheel of Becoming as transitioning from one level of personal development to rebirth at a higher level. There are many models of human development (see Jane Lovinger’s “Stages of Ego Development”, or Robert Kegans “The Evolving Self” to name but two). One that fits neatly with the concept of Wheel of Becoming, however, is “The Leadership Pipeline” by Charan, Drodder, and Noel.

Building the Perfect Board Package
Some companies do a great job of putting together package for board meetings -- it's empirical, concise, and focused on measures that matter and that can be influenced -- while other companies leave their boards more confused after the meeting than before.

10 Warning Signs That Prospective Client Is Not Right For You
In difficult economic times it is easy to let go of standards and take on a client who does not fit your vision of your ideal client. When few clients are in the pipeline it often looks attractive to take the ones that show up. When you do this you run the risk of having an angry client or worse one who is out a real energy drainer. Here are ten warning signs that tell you to avoid the client.

Ready to Return to Robust Growth! Thoughts on Jack Daly’s six principles
Jack Daly is a sales trainer/speaker/coach whose energy knows no limits. I enjoyed his positive, can do perspective and wanted to share with all of you. To Robust Growth for all of us!

How Can Anyone Spend That Much Time on Sales Coaching?
If you aren't the low price leader or one of the two or three best-known brands in your industry, and if buying from you does NOT represent the safe choice for your customers, then you are an underdog. And if you are an underdog, you had better be providing comprehensive sales and sales management training and coaching because you can't compete on price or reputation.

Stop a Sales Slump in its Tracks
I know a few salespeople who are in the middle of some incredible sales slumps. They are suddenly not finding new opportunities, having trouble moving existing opportunities in their pipeline, not getting the opportunities that are closable, closed, and starting to feel down about the whole turn of events. Where to start!

5 Frustrations that Derail the Sales Force
I write a lot about the things that frustrate Presidents, CEO's, Sales VP's and Salespeople. Yesterday, somebody asked what frustrates me so I attempted to tackle that question here. I'm very steady and what you see on Monday, you'll probably get on Tuesday and Wednesday too. That said, there are things that will make me eat faster or more often, and here you can read my top 5:

Is Your Law Firm Anything Like Your Sales Consulting Firm?

Did you ever stop to think about how much or how little you rely on your advisers? Not your board, not your board of advisers, but your business advisers. These are the individuals from outside of your company that you trust to direct, recommend, advise, consult and help with decisions, strategies, options and solutions to put your business in the best possible position to succeed. Take a look at the portfolio of advisers to the left.

Great Sales Opportunities That Don't Close
If getting opportunities into the pipeline is the most universal sales challenge, then getting opportunities closed comes in a close second. I'm talking about prospects who aren't ready to say, "yes" but are still "very interested". These calls pose problems for salespeople for several reasons:

The Top 5 Factors That Predict Sales Turnover

Our data shows that only 16% of the A players with experience stick for more than two years. And that brings us back to the original question. What do you think - A's or Longevity? Should the answer be a direct relation to the length of your sales cycle? Should you go for longevity when you have a long sales cycle and for A's when you have a short sales cycle? We're interested in what you have to say!

Why Was the Sales Forecast So Unreliable?
When you identify the reasons, the next step is to identify the hidden cause for those reasons. Failure to identify both the reasons and the causes are why most managers have difficulty getting things to change. And if you can't change the behaviors, you can't change the results.

Sales Management - Eagerness vs. Resistance
For one, Frank Belzer, my guest, is known for his ability to keep his pipeline filled and he discussed the things that motivate him to consistently do that.

Why You Should be Scared When Your Salespeople are Closing Lots of Business
Sales managers get caught up in the excitement of a closing frenzy when they should be taking a step back and asking themselves, what's wrong with this picture?

A Chinese puzzle: the battle between sales and marketing
Sales and marketing should be working together – but all too often they don’t. The author explains why – and suggests a training solution

8th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
Systems and processes are your sales infrastructure - everything that is not your people. A lot of us use the two words interchangeably. So what is the difference between systems and processes?

A Forgotten Secret of Sales Success

Brad learned early in his career that left to his own devices, he would find ways to avoid picking up the phone and making calls. Like so many salespeople, he suffered from call reluctance, fear of rejection, fear of failure, and more. Over time, he learned to trick himself, play games and, most importantly use purpose, motivation and fear to assure that he was consistently filling his pipeline. Listen to the show to hear more about this compelling topic.

Happy Ears or an Empty Pipeline?
Very often, when an opportunity dies, salespeople will ask their managers or me for help. After debriefing, when it's clear that the opportunity is hopeless, and the salesperson continues to ask for help, still wants to schedule another meeting, and still wants to reach out and get it moving again, there are usually three factors at play. The salesperson either...

Why a Top Sales Manager Must Always "Tune Into the Right Frequency"

It's definitely clichéd, but I think this is one of the most critical elements to successful sales management and that is to make sure you are tuned into the right radio frequency with your salespeople. There's only one radio station that your sales executives like to listen to and that radio station is: WIFM. (You might say WIIFM, but let's not get too technical here...). This is the "What's-In-It-For-Me" radio frequency. This is the only station they pay any attention to and if you're not broadcasting on it all the time, 24-7, then your sales reps are gonna switch you over to some other station on XM or Sirius radio...or worse yet, turn off the radio completely!

Why A Top Sales Manager Needs To Be On All His Reps’ “Pre-sets”

You have to be more popular than Howard Stern. You also have to be cooler than Opie and Anthony too. Why? Because one of the most critical elements to successful sales management is to always make sure you are tuned into the radio frequency of your salespeople. Here's why. There's only one radio station that your sales executives like to listen to and that radio station is: WIFM. (You might say WIIFM, but let's not get too technical here...). This is the "What's-In-It-For-Me" radio frequency. This is the only station they pay any attention to and if you're not broadcasting on it all the time, 24-7, then your sales reps are gonna switch you over to some other station on XM or Sirius radio...or worse yet, turn off the radio completely!

Referrals: The Path to Increased Sales
The main reason most salespeople do not get the number of referrals necessary to properly elevate their sales is simple. They don’t ask for them. Swept up in the euphoric high that salespeople experience when making a sale, they forget or do not feel it is important to pursue referrals.

Need More Sales? Upgrade Your Sales Team
What do good sales people look like. Here are the Top 10 characteristics for them.

Are Sales Tools the Solution?
When your salespeople focus and play with the tools instead of using the tools to support their selling efforts, the tools become part of the problem. Am I suggesting a 15-hour work day? No. You need balance, you should spend time with your family. But salespeople must do the work that doesn't involve interacting with their prospects, at times when they can't reach their prospects.

When Sales Training Isn’t Working
Nothing is more frustrating than investing the time to identify the need, design, develop, and deliver great sales training and then discover that sellers aren’t implementing what they learned when they get back to the field.

The Weapon
There is always a danger in focusing on the tools used to get a job done. (We all know the cliché about the six-year old with a chain saw...) That said however, a robust CRM system just might be the most powerful tool a sales team can have.

The Flaw In Calculating Inbound v. Outbound Marketing
Mike Damphousse of Green Leads wrote a great post on Inbound v. Outbound Marketing and really got me thinking. But, even though the debate rages around inbound v. outbound and the cost/budgets associated with each, good old fashioned personal/professional networking is the lead source that will drive the most business.

Does Your Client Pay Slow?
If your clients pay slowly, here's how to collect client pay faster and with less effort.

The Secret to Staying Booked Solid
Tired of feast or famine? Wish you had a long waiting list of new clients? If you provide a service like consulting, graphic design, Web design, Interior Design, copywriting, etc. you can book yourself out weeks or even months in advance. All you have to do is follow the airlines’ lead…

Internet Marketing Optimization Factors; Turn Your Blues Into Gold!
Launching a new online business is exciting. You have an opportunity to live the life of your dreams, be your own boss, have more time to spend with your family, travel. The dream becomes a nightmare, however, for a lot of us who invest our time and money into a new home based business, only to learn we have to be experts at online marketing.

A-Z of sales
C is for Confidence!

Revenue is Down, Let's Fire Sales
Cutting back on your source of revenues is something that needs to be done with a precision scalpel - not a chainsaw.

The Problem With Plans
You'd change course rather than fly into a thunderstorm, wouldn't you? Even if that storm wasn't in your flight plan? Markets change, customers change, people change - plans should change too.

Why Most Sales Training Doesn't Work
If you invest in sales training, especially now, you also need it to work now, not in 12 months. Why does it take so long for most sales training to make a difference and why does most sales training fail to make the difference you expect? There are a lot of possible reasons and I'll attempt to explain them here.

How to Hold The Sales Team Accountable Under the New Rules of Sales Engagement
If you read yesterday's post, there was a comment from Teicko who asked how you can hold the sales team accountable under these new rules of sales engagement where you must work three times harder, three times longer, be three times more effective and have three times more opportunities in the pipeline to get the same results as you used to.

Filling the Sales Pipeline?
The bottom line is that if you want to be able to sell consistently, if you want to have those million dollar and beyond sales careers, if you want to avoid major frustration and wheel spinning, blanketing the earth with emails, voice mails or even phone calls is not the answer.

Sales Assessment Says He's Weak but He Made President's Club
Yesterday a well meaning Sales Manager, in defense of his salesperson, asked me how a salesperson who made "Club" could possibly assess so poorly. It's a great question with a dozen or more possible explanations. Here are some:

Fill Your Pipeline by Refining Your Referral Requests

Lately I’ve heard a lot of people talking about how to get referrals. No doubt about it, they’re one of the quickest ways to fill your pipeline. They’re definitely easier and less stressful than cold calling. They’re more accessible, and there’s less competition to close the deal. Knowing this, more and more sellers are asking for referrals as a primary approach to filling their pipelines.

Salespeople Should be More Like Children

Our son wrote a book today. He illlustrated it too. No big deal? He just turned 7. He loves to read and apparently, he must have felt that there weren't enough new books arriving in his room so he decided to create a Pokeman book to read instead. I can't wait until he's old enough to sell something because this behavior translates! When there aren't enough new leads coming in he will simply create his own.

Sales Experts Disagree on the Right Way to Train Salespeople

I was involved in a nearly week long, on line discussion with about a half dozen other sales experts in the Top Sales Experts Group at LinkedIn that to date has included about 41 volleys. The original question, raised by the UK publisher of modernselling.com, asked whether there was a right way or a wrong way to train salespeople. While there was some agreement on some points, there was much disagreement on many points.

Secrets of Top New Business Developers
What exactly do the top rainmakers do that makes them so successful? Learn what separates the top business developers from the rest.

Are You Giving Away Your Profit?
Protect your profit. Protect your sales motivation. Both are too valuable to toss aside, all in the name of making a sale.

The Sales Force with Over Achievers Who Don't
I think that many CEO's are in denial. Despite the struggles of their sales force, they continue to look at the pipeline and say to themselves, we'll be okay as soon as these deals close. But the deals aren't closing and with each passing day companies are less okay then they were the day before.

Business Development by the Numbers
Perhaps it seems like you have plenty of "good" leads to follow up. But maybe you are not feeling any heat from any of them. What other suspects and propects do you have in your pipeline? How many active proposals do you have out there?

Define Your Sales Process by Analyzing your Customer’s Buying Process
A good sales process is structured around the way your customers prefer to purchase your product/service. At each step, you should deliver the information that your prospect needs in order to move that prospect at least one step closer to purchase.

How to Turn Around Flat or Declining Sales Revenue

I don't care how many years your people have been in sales. They weren't trained to sell in an economic environment like the one we have today. Retaining accounts is as important as ever, but right now, most companies need their salespeople to bring in new business. Unfortunately, most of your salespeople weren't trained to hunt and close either, only to manage accounts. So it's a complex situatio.

10 Steps to Make 2009 Your Most Successful Year Ever
It's the first week of January and you have goals, a plan, some anxiety over the economy and good intentions. As you go about your work this week, what will you do that will not only make 2009 better than 2008, but make 2009 your best year ever?

Selling in the Recession

It's been advertised. It's all the media wants to talk about. It's had an impact on the company you run or work for. Your customers and clients have been affected. Your home and investments have lost value. The recession is here, in full force, and there isn't a single sign that it's going to improve soon. So what must you do to not only survive this down-turn, but thrive in it as well? Here are my top 10:

How to Sell More Effectively in a Recession
How can you sell more effectively in this economy? You'll need to perform some self-diagnostics. If you use Sales Force Automation of some kind, perhaps a report like the one in figure 1.0 below is available to you.

Top 6 Factors for Killing an Opportunity or Prospect
How can you tell if an opportunity is dead? It's dependent on a number of internal and external factors...

Why Salespeople Fail and How You Could Have Predicted It
The companies at which this salesperson had prior success were with brands you know well, that everyone in the world already carried, with established distribution. All he had to do was grow what had already been established by others before him. After all, how much new distribution had to be created for Oscar-Mayer Wieners?

Salespeople and the Momentum Factor
Momentum seems to be a force when it comes to sales performance. When Bob gets on a roll, new opportunities fill the pipeline, move along fairly quickly and close at the first opportunity...until the momentum changes. When Bob goes on vacation, gets distracted, becomes busy with deliverables or gets sick, it's a whole different Bob.

Keep Your Pipeline Full!
It’s not uncommon to lose focus on your pipeline – or funnel – and consistently filling it with new opportunities. Reps often spend too much time on a few opportunities that are on the verge of closing at the bottom of the funnel, and don’t seek out new leads to fill the funnel.

Filling the Sales Pipeline Whos to Blame
What happens when your salespeople don't do what they're supposed to do?

Sales Force Motivation - Learn from the Red Sox' Miraculous Comeback
If you observed the Tampa Bay fans during game 1 in St. Petersburg and game five in Boston, you would have observed some very tense, anxious people. Yet if you paid any mind to the Red Sox fans in the three games they lost and prior to their comeback in game 5, they didn't seem very upset at all...

Activity Based Planning
Selling is both an art and a science. To put it another way, a sales person’s skills determine their level of artistry at selling and their strategic planning provides a scientific platform for their sales activities.

Focus on Revenue
The first item on the list was "Focus on revenue, not the economy". You'll get what you pay attention to. If you pay attention to how bad things might become, you'll get lots of bad results. If you pay attention to how well you must do, you'll get good results.

Sales Statistics That Reveal Sales Effectiveness

You have salespeople like this! They have plenty of opportunities in the pipeline but very few of them get closed. Some of these salespeople are actually thought to be good closers because they close more new business than anyone else on your team. But are they closing more new business because they're effective closers, effective salespeople or because they simply have more opportunities than anyone else?

Prioritizing Your Week

It's the beginning of the week and as you review your calendar for the next five days you have a wide variety of events scheduled. You have some leads to follow up, some important calls to move existing opportunities along in the sales process, and a closing opportunity. In addition, you have some time scheduled with existing clients to make sure that they are getting what they need and you have your daily cold calls to make. How would you prioritize your week?

Your Sales Force - Who is Playing on Your Team?
Your worst salespeople lost the only opportunity they had. Devestation, depression, excuse making and inaction. They fail to rebuild their pipeline. Who do you have playing for you?

Simple Steps to Better Recruiting
This Article helps recruiters and hiring managers improve their recruiting practices by implementing a few simple tools.

Signs That The Economy Will Soon Improve
We saw it again. It happened this summer, the tell tale tip off that things are turning around, that CEO's are feeling confident enough to...

How to Go From Dud to Stud in 30 Days

Last Saturday, in blizzard-like conditions, we left Boston for a much needed family vacation. We arrived in the Bahamas three hours later to find sunny, tropical, 90 degree temperatures. Blizzard to Tropical in three hours got me to thinking, as usual, about selling which, for a lot of salespeople, has become more difficult in the past 90 days. Learn how to go from Ice Cold to Red Hot - Blizzard to Tropical - Dud to Stud in 30 Days.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR SHORTENING YOUR SALES CYCLE OVER TIME

By John Doerr It usually takes a long time to find a shorter way. ~Anonymous I spend a good percentage of my time selling. I also teach selling to professional service providers. And one issue that comes up time after time is, "How do I get prospects to buy faster? Why don't people respond to my proposals, my calls, my emails, or me? How do I shorten the sales cycle?" My flip answer, "Have more in the pipeline at all times, so the sales cycle just seems shorter." Of course, that rarely makes anyone feel better. So based on our research and experience, here are my Ten Commandments to Making the Sales Process Move More Quickly.

THE DUMBBELLS CUT BACK THE SMART PEOPLE DONT THE UPSIDE OF RECESSION

By Robert Croston and Patrick Cahill The market drops 370 points in a single day, corporate earnings disappoint and housing prices continue to sink. We are in uncertain economic times. We may be in a recession right now, or could slip into one next week... or next month. As optimists, we don't like forecasting difficult economic times. But, even optimists have to come to grips with the realities of our uncertain marketplace. With economic anxiety looming, many of our clients are asking: how should I position and market my firm in the year to come? Assuming yours is a healthy company, here are our general recommendations.

When Marketing Your Coaching Business Becomes Fun
Have you ever felt that you're all over the place with your coaching business? Within a few months of making these four changes in your approach to getting clients, you'll see the results you want and you'll actually enjoy marketing.

Sell More and Work Less: A Strategic Approach to Sales

The secret to great selling is that less is more. Less confusion creates more clarity. Less activity produces more results. Less indiscriminate effort produces more targeted effort. Selling is the most strategic business function there is, and it ought to receive the thoughtful, purposeful attention you give to the other aspects of your business. Concentrate on fewer deals that are worth more to your company – more revenue, more profit, more long-term repeat purchases. If the market or the economy forces you to rely on small deals, don’t spend a fortune to win each one. Keep your eye on productivity. It pays off. Read on for more insights...

How to find your next customer
Every sales person, no matter how successful, has this basic problem of whom to sell to each month. Anyone whoever worked in sales knows how one month you can be the best sales person in the company and then the calendar turns to a new month and you are starting from zero again.

Discounting to Create Cash Flow? Be Careful.
Before you consider discounting your price, make sure that the customer fully understands the value proposition you offer and that you fully understand the customer's needs and wants...

Action is All
Think about it: How badly do you want to double your sales? What are you prepared to do? By your FRUIT you will be known.

Do Your Salespeople Really Understand Pipeline Requirements?
I've found that there can be some confusion about how to satisfy pipeline requirements...

As in the Movies, in Sales, the Closing Isn’t Everything
A good movie has a number of elements similar to good sales. As the director, you have to plan, manage, and execute the sale in a way that builds to a mutually satistfying ending.

Understand Pipeline Management for Stronger Forecasts
Having clear definitions around your sales, and sales stages help one sell better, organizations plan and use resources more efficiently, and most importantly win more sales and happy customers. Taking the time to define and understand the difference between forecasts, pipeline, prospects and more, pays continuous dividends.

Develop an Efficient Sales Team
How do you determine if your sales team's efforts to develop a selling opportunity are a wise investment of their time or a waste of their time?

The Sales Pipeline
Maintaining a healthy sales pipeline is the key to consistent and predictable sales performance. Everybody feels better when there are enough qualified opportunities "in the works" to forecast strong sales in the future. The best way to ensure an increase in future revenue is to focus on building your sales pipeline today.

Improve Sales Performance with More Effective Pipeline Management
I have written extensively about the sales pipeline. Here are a few examples:

Sales Training – How Top Salespeople Can Stuff Their Sales Funnel
Stuffing a turkey is optional; you can always cook stuffing on the side. Stuffing a sales professional’s sales pipeline is mandatory. Let’s look at the sales pipeline process.

3 Steps to Filling Your Pipeline with Eager Clients and Customers
If your primary source of business revenue is selling services, there is no worse feeling than having an empty pipeline. So how do you keep a full pipeline with eager clients and customers? Let me share 3 tips to get you started.

Recruiting Strong Salespeople - The Sales Candidate Pipeline
Recruiting Salespeople - again? Yes. I cannot write enough about this! But, as usual, I'll address recruiting from a slightly different perspective this time - the candidate pipeline. Not to be confused with the candidate pool which is simply a single component of the pipeline. Your sales pipeline should have four stages:

How to fill your pipeline pre- and post-sale? Thought leadership is the answer
Filling the sales pipeline is one of the most talked about aspects of marketing and sales. In this article I challenge conventional thinking about how to fill the pipeline and advocate that in fact thought leaderhip is one of the most effective ways to do so.

Assessing and Building Your Leadership Pipeline
Developing the next levelof managers. Who is in your leadership pipeline?

pipeline Tagged Articles

Other pipeline Related Articles