A pipeline for sales has seven read this main stages, and they are the following:
Lead Generation
B2B lead generation is usually a task that the marketing team carries out, but it is still a part of the sales pipeline. As sales can contribute a lot to lead generation, it is the first stage of the pipeline.
Here is what the sales team should do in this stage,
Create ideal customer profiles
To create ICP (ideal customer profiles), you should study closed deals wherein your company and their company gained mutual benefit. Find out the common attributes among those customers. It will help you create a clear customer profile. It is best to involve real-time marketing in this task as well.
Align with marketing in content creation
Content marketing forms a part of lead generation. The sales and marketing teams should have joint brainstorming sessions to provide valuable inputs to help make the content look appealing to prospects.
Prospecting
Prospecting-How To Build A Sales Pipeline
Prospecting is a one-on-one approach where you draw prospects who would like to purchase your product or service.
But according to a study, 50% of prospects don’t fit into the definition of an ideal customer. That is why it is essential to do lead scoring before letting leads into the sales funnel.
Make the most of industry events and have sales reps engage in meaningful conversations with people. The aim is to leave a lasting impact on the minds of prospects.
Next, make sure you don’t sell to prospects immediately. Instead, pose as a trustworthy industry expert who prospects look up to.
At the prospecting stage, you have to do cold calling and cold emailing. Both of the activities will deliver results when done right.
Lead qualification
Lead qualification-How To Build A Sales Pipeline
At the lead qualification stage, you have to ensure that the prospects match your customer profiles. You have to determine whether the prospects have the budget, the need, the authority to decide, and the timeline to purchase your product or service. To know that, you have to ask the right questions appealingly. Get as many details as possible about their pain points, such as the other tools they use, previously tried solutions, and similar details to qualify the prospect. Click here to read a simple lead qualification checklist.
Contact
Contact-How To Build A Sales Pipeline
At this stage, you have qualified prospects who are interested in buying your product or service.
You have to sell your offering to them, which requires getting in touch using a phone call, an email, an in-person meeting, or a product demo.
Proposal
Proposal-How To Build A Sales Pipeline
At this stage, you make the proposal that usually comprises the summary of the prospect’s problems, your product or service as the solution, pricing details, and the time required to implement the solution and train the employees. You also have to mention the terms and conditions involved. Just remember to customize the proposal as per the requirements of the prospects and stay customer-centric throughout.
Negotiation and closing
At this stage, you should negotiate a little with prospects if need be and leave it to them to take the decision. If things go well and the prospect is impressed with you and your product or service, you can log your win.
Retention
Even after you make a sale, your job is not yet over. You have to retain the customer so that you benefit in the long term as well. Help the customer during the sales onboarding process and periodically check on them to know how things are going. Also, it would be best if you asked for the customer’s feedback.
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