November 12, 2024
75% of B2B buyers now favor a rep-free buying journey–compelling sellers to overhaul their traditional sales pipelines and approaches.
Gen Z buyers are evidently leading the charge, reshaping the B2B buying experience with their modern, and increasingly complex, purchasing decisions. Adding to this challenge, each purchase decision today involves an average of 6-10 stakeholders, each with distinct priorities, making it even harder for sales reps to effectively guide prospects through every deal stage.
In this reality, a porous sales pipeline can be an open invitation to your competitors to hemorrhage your deals and steal your customers’ trust.
Let’s see how you can build a bulletproof pipeline, and explore strategic ‘exit criteria’ to ensure no leaky deal stages.
A sales pipeline is the visual representation of the steps a potential customer goes through, from initial contact to closing a deal. It shows the stages of your sales process and helps track prospects as they move from one stage to the next.
Today’s buyers have shifted from the linear AIDA model (attention, interest, desire, action) to a more parallel journey revolving around exploration, evaluation, engagement, and experience. Hence, a robust sales pipeline is CRUCIAL for creating a profitable and no-regret purchasing experience–catering to modern buyers. Without this, it’s easy for sales teams to lose track of leads, miss out on essential client insights, and lack a reliable method for forecasting revenue.
A successful pipeline is more than just a series of stages. It requires a deep understanding of your audience, effective messaging, and a clear strategy for engaging potential clients.
The foundation of an effective B2B sales pipeline lies in establishing well-defined deal stages that facilitate consistent deal tracking, efficient lead management, and insightful sales forecasting. Invest ample time and effort into preparing your own sales pipeline stages to match your prospect’s buying journey.
Additionally, each transition between stages should be governed by specific requirements or exit criteria, ensuring that all team members adhere to the same standards.
The qualification stage is where the sales rep connects with the prospect and determines if they are a viable lead. At this point, they assess whether the prospect meets the initial requirements for a successful sale.
Astoundingly, 67% of lost sales are a result of reps not properly qualifying potential customers before taking them through the sales process. To avoid pitfalls, consider boosting your lead qualification efficacy by incorporating best practices like:
Additionally, you can implement proven frameworks like BANT, MEDDIC, CHAMP, etc., to add structure and consistency to your lead processes.
Exit Criteria: The qualification call should result in either a scheduled discovery or demo session if the prospect qualifies.
Once a lead is qualified, the next stage is scheduling an effective demo or a discovery call to understand the prospect's needs and challenges and demonstrate how your offerings can solve these issues.
Essentially, customers have their unique buying processes that don’t necessarily align with your sales approach. Your responsibility is to uncover the buyer's process and adapt to their journey, streamlining your interactions to encourage swift decision-making.
Exit Criteria: Wrap the discovery call or demo confirming that the solution meets the prospect’s needs, followed by scheduling a follow-up.
Evaluation is when the prospect is actively considering the company’s solution but may also be evaluating competitors. It often includes a trial or pilot period, especially in SaaS or other tech-heavy industries, where prospects want first-hand experience before committing.
Exit Criteria: Establish technical requirements, identify the scope of work, and schedule a meeting to discuss pricing.
The lead has expressed interest, they’re a good fit, and the decision-maker is willing to purchase from you. Now, it’s time to negotiate the deal.
Today, information sources have transformed customer expectations. Even well-intentioned traditional practices can inadvertently lead to increased dissatisfaction among customers. The right negotiation tactics can help you create a win-win scenario, where both sides feel valued and understood.
Exit Criteria: Once the pricing and terms are agreed upon, prepare the contract for sending.
At this stage, the contract is sent to the prospect, and the sales team waits for the signature. It’s essential to have a strong follow-up process here to avoid the risk of “going dark,” where the prospect may hesitate or delay the decision.
Exit Criteria: Once the signed contract is received, schedule the first onboarding meeting with the implementation team.
The final stages, Closed-Won or Closed-Lost, determine the outcome of the deal.
If closed-won, the client transitions to the onboarding or customer success team.
If closed-lost, mark the opportunity as lost and try to understand the reason, so you can improve your process for future opportunities.
Closing a sale is just the beginning. The real work lies in ensuring customer satisfaction and setting the stage for future business. This involves onboarding new customers and making follow-up calls to address any immediate concerns.
[P.S.: This is a standard explanation. Typically, the more complex your product is, the longer your sales cycle will be, which can also mean more stages within your sales pipeline.]
A lack of the above exit criteria can stir inconsistencies, complicating data analysis and hindering improvements in the sales process. For example, a ‘qualifying’ stage should only advance when a discovery call is scheduled, preventing discrepancies in data tracking and maintaining the integrity of the pipeline.
One of the most significant shifts in perspective when building your pipeline is to focus on audience awareness rather than just perceiving individuals as mere prospects.
Start by identifying various audience segments that may benefit from your offerings, and accordingly create a well-defined ICP. Your audience could include past clients, current clients, strategic alliances, and referral partners. For instance, if you’re in the software industry, your audiences might include CFOs, CEOs, and VPs of Marketing. Each of these groups has distinct needs and challenges, requiring tailored messaging to engage effectively.
Once you've defined your audience, the next step is to craft personalized messaging for each segment. By doing this, you can create targeted content that resonates with their specific challenges and interests, increasing the likelihood of engagement.
Action Steps:
In today's digital age, sales professionals have a myriad of AI tools and platforms at their disposal for outreach and engagement. While cold calling may still hold value as a tactic, it’s essential to recognize the power of digital platforms, especially LinkedIn, for B2B sales. Engaging your audience through various platforms can significantly increase your reach and effectiveness.
The more active you are, the more likely you are to generate interest and inbound leads. Additionally, you can use content syndication to boost the reach of your marketing content beyond what you’re able to accomplish organically.
After identifying the platform, develop a strong understanding of your audience’s problems, and list the specific challenges they encounter in each segment. When reaching out to potential clients, address their pain points and articulate the solutions by communicating how your offerings can address their specific challenges.
Action Steps:
Finding the right number of deals in your pipeline is crucial to hitting sales targets and meeting annual revenue goals. By strategically managing your sales cycle and ideal pipeline size, you can achieve your revenue objectives with greater consistency and confidence.
Here’s how to approach it:
For example, if your target requires five closed deals each month:
Additionally, your sales pipeline heavily relies on your sales cycle and how efficiently your salespeople can close deals. The length of your sales cycle can vary significantly based on key factors such as:
To optimize your sales cycle, fine-tune your approach to product delivery, lead generation, and sales engagement.
By aligning your sales process with your pipeline, you can set up a structured approach that drives consistent success.
If your team already has a defined sales process, you likely have the steps of your pipeline mapped out. If not, consider building each pipeline stage to naturally establish your sales process.
The lead pipeline also acts as a critical tool for achieving revenue goals. Knowing the numbers allows you to answer a vital question: how many deals must be added to your pipeline to hit your objectives? For example, if you understand the percentage of qualified leads that convert into customers, you can calculate the number of deals required at each early stage of your pipeline.
Research indicates that companies with structured sales pipelines are 10% more likely to grow their revenue year over year. This showcases the clear connection between a streamlined pipeline and improved deal closure rates.
To maintain your pipeline’s hygiene and structure:
Leads that linger in the same stage without progressing are often unlikely to convert and can clutter your pipeline. 79% of leads fail to convert due to insufficient nurturing, so re-engaging them strategically can still lead to conversions. Use CRM tools to filter out leads that have been inactive for an extended period.
If a lead remains unresponsive after multiple attempts, consider removing them from your active pipeline to stay focused on more promising prospects.
It’s possible that some leads were not adequately qualified during initial interactions. Take the time to reassess your existing leads using updated criteria. Decide whether to remove these leads or move them into a nurturing campaign if there’s potential for future engagement.
Leads that haven’t been contacted recently may go cold, but they can still be revived with a consistent follow-up strategy. Send personalized emails or make calls to re-engage them. Sybill is your ultimate sidekick for drafting personalized, resonating messages for reviving the engagement.
(To take a sneak peek into Sybill’s intelligence, click here.)
8 out of 10 deals fall through due to personnel changes. Stay proactive by monitoring shifts within your prospect’s organization and updating your contact information accordingly. If a key stakeholder leaves mid-deal, consider moving the opportunity back to the qualification stage until you’ve identified the new decision-maker. Additionally, review close dates and opportunity values regularly to maintain an accurate sales forecast.
Your pipeline is not just about making calls. It’s also about understanding your audience, leveraging digital platforms, and solving real problems for your clients.
Now that you’ve built your B2B sales pipeline, ensure it never goes dry. With a repeatable lead generation and lead management strategy, you can maintain a steady flow of new leads and fill the sales pipeline at every stage. Additionally, effective pipeline management is crucial for consistent revenue growth and long-term success.
With Sybill as your automation ally, you can easily automate fresh updates to your CRM and get comprehensive insights into your deals and conversations. With seamless integration and quick automation, Sybill can help maintain consistent follow-up efforts, prevent human error, and keep your pipeline running smoothly, ensuring no lead slips through the cracks.
Ready to get started for free? Click here now.
75% of B2B buyers now favor a rep-free buying journey–compelling sellers to overhaul their traditional sales pipelines and approaches.
Gen Z buyers are evidently leading the charge, reshaping the B2B buying experience with their modern, and increasingly complex, purchasing decisions. Adding to this challenge, each purchase decision today involves an average of 6-10 stakeholders, each with distinct priorities, making it even harder for sales reps to effectively guide prospects through every deal stage.
In this reality, a porous sales pipeline can be an open invitation to your competitors to hemorrhage your deals and steal your customers’ trust.
Let’s see how you can build a bulletproof pipeline, and explore strategic ‘exit criteria’ to ensure no leaky deal stages.
A sales pipeline is the visual representation of the steps a potential customer goes through, from initial contact to closing a deal. It shows the stages of your sales process and helps track prospects as they move from one stage to the next.
Today’s buyers have shifted from the linear AIDA model (attention, interest, desire, action) to a more parallel journey revolving around exploration, evaluation, engagement, and experience. Hence, a robust sales pipeline is CRUCIAL for creating a profitable and no-regret purchasing experience–catering to modern buyers. Without this, it’s easy for sales teams to lose track of leads, miss out on essential client insights, and lack a reliable method for forecasting revenue.
A successful pipeline is more than just a series of stages. It requires a deep understanding of your audience, effective messaging, and a clear strategy for engaging potential clients.
The foundation of an effective B2B sales pipeline lies in establishing well-defined deal stages that facilitate consistent deal tracking, efficient lead management, and insightful sales forecasting. Invest ample time and effort into preparing your own sales pipeline stages to match your prospect’s buying journey.
Additionally, each transition between stages should be governed by specific requirements or exit criteria, ensuring that all team members adhere to the same standards.
The qualification stage is where the sales rep connects with the prospect and determines if they are a viable lead. At this point, they assess whether the prospect meets the initial requirements for a successful sale.
Astoundingly, 67% of lost sales are a result of reps not properly qualifying potential customers before taking them through the sales process. To avoid pitfalls, consider boosting your lead qualification efficacy by incorporating best practices like:
Additionally, you can implement proven frameworks like BANT, MEDDIC, CHAMP, etc., to add structure and consistency to your lead processes.
Exit Criteria: The qualification call should result in either a scheduled discovery or demo session if the prospect qualifies.
Once a lead is qualified, the next stage is scheduling an effective demo or a discovery call to understand the prospect's needs and challenges and demonstrate how your offerings can solve these issues.
Essentially, customers have their unique buying processes that don’t necessarily align with your sales approach. Your responsibility is to uncover the buyer's process and adapt to their journey, streamlining your interactions to encourage swift decision-making.
Exit Criteria: Wrap the discovery call or demo confirming that the solution meets the prospect’s needs, followed by scheduling a follow-up.
Evaluation is when the prospect is actively considering the company’s solution but may also be evaluating competitors. It often includes a trial or pilot period, especially in SaaS or other tech-heavy industries, where prospects want first-hand experience before committing.
Exit Criteria: Establish technical requirements, identify the scope of work, and schedule a meeting to discuss pricing.
The lead has expressed interest, they’re a good fit, and the decision-maker is willing to purchase from you. Now, it’s time to negotiate the deal.
Today, information sources have transformed customer expectations. Even well-intentioned traditional practices can inadvertently lead to increased dissatisfaction among customers. The right negotiation tactics can help you create a win-win scenario, where both sides feel valued and understood.
Exit Criteria: Once the pricing and terms are agreed upon, prepare the contract for sending.
At this stage, the contract is sent to the prospect, and the sales team waits for the signature. It’s essential to have a strong follow-up process here to avoid the risk of “going dark,” where the prospect may hesitate or delay the decision.
Exit Criteria: Once the signed contract is received, schedule the first onboarding meeting with the implementation team.
The final stages, Closed-Won or Closed-Lost, determine the outcome of the deal.
If closed-won, the client transitions to the onboarding or customer success team.
If closed-lost, mark the opportunity as lost and try to understand the reason, so you can improve your process for future opportunities.
Closing a sale is just the beginning. The real work lies in ensuring customer satisfaction and setting the stage for future business. This involves onboarding new customers and making follow-up calls to address any immediate concerns.
[P.S.: This is a standard explanation. Typically, the more complex your product is, the longer your sales cycle will be, which can also mean more stages within your sales pipeline.]
A lack of the above exit criteria can stir inconsistencies, complicating data analysis and hindering improvements in the sales process. For example, a ‘qualifying’ stage should only advance when a discovery call is scheduled, preventing discrepancies in data tracking and maintaining the integrity of the pipeline.
One of the most significant shifts in perspective when building your pipeline is to focus on audience awareness rather than just perceiving individuals as mere prospects.
Start by identifying various audience segments that may benefit from your offerings, and accordingly create a well-defined ICP. Your audience could include past clients, current clients, strategic alliances, and referral partners. For instance, if you’re in the software industry, your audiences might include CFOs, CEOs, and VPs of Marketing. Each of these groups has distinct needs and challenges, requiring tailored messaging to engage effectively.
Once you've defined your audience, the next step is to craft personalized messaging for each segment. By doing this, you can create targeted content that resonates with their specific challenges and interests, increasing the likelihood of engagement.
Action Steps:
In today's digital age, sales professionals have a myriad of AI tools and platforms at their disposal for outreach and engagement. While cold calling may still hold value as a tactic, it’s essential to recognize the power of digital platforms, especially LinkedIn, for B2B sales. Engaging your audience through various platforms can significantly increase your reach and effectiveness.
The more active you are, the more likely you are to generate interest and inbound leads. Additionally, you can use content syndication to boost the reach of your marketing content beyond what you’re able to accomplish organically.
After identifying the platform, develop a strong understanding of your audience’s problems, and list the specific challenges they encounter in each segment. When reaching out to potential clients, address their pain points and articulate the solutions by communicating how your offerings can address their specific challenges.
Action Steps:
Finding the right number of deals in your pipeline is crucial to hitting sales targets and meeting annual revenue goals. By strategically managing your sales cycle and ideal pipeline size, you can achieve your revenue objectives with greater consistency and confidence.
Here’s how to approach it:
For example, if your target requires five closed deals each month:
Additionally, your sales pipeline heavily relies on your sales cycle and how efficiently your salespeople can close deals. The length of your sales cycle can vary significantly based on key factors such as:
To optimize your sales cycle, fine-tune your approach to product delivery, lead generation, and sales engagement.
By aligning your sales process with your pipeline, you can set up a structured approach that drives consistent success.
If your team already has a defined sales process, you likely have the steps of your pipeline mapped out. If not, consider building each pipeline stage to naturally establish your sales process.
The lead pipeline also acts as a critical tool for achieving revenue goals. Knowing the numbers allows you to answer a vital question: how many deals must be added to your pipeline to hit your objectives? For example, if you understand the percentage of qualified leads that convert into customers, you can calculate the number of deals required at each early stage of your pipeline.
Research indicates that companies with structured sales pipelines are 10% more likely to grow their revenue year over year. This showcases the clear connection between a streamlined pipeline and improved deal closure rates.
To maintain your pipeline’s hygiene and structure:
Leads that linger in the same stage without progressing are often unlikely to convert and can clutter your pipeline. 79% of leads fail to convert due to insufficient nurturing, so re-engaging them strategically can still lead to conversions. Use CRM tools to filter out leads that have been inactive for an extended period.
If a lead remains unresponsive after multiple attempts, consider removing them from your active pipeline to stay focused on more promising prospects.
It’s possible that some leads were not adequately qualified during initial interactions. Take the time to reassess your existing leads using updated criteria. Decide whether to remove these leads or move them into a nurturing campaign if there’s potential for future engagement.
Leads that haven’t been contacted recently may go cold, but they can still be revived with a consistent follow-up strategy. Send personalized emails or make calls to re-engage them. Sybill is your ultimate sidekick for drafting personalized, resonating messages for reviving the engagement.
(To take a sneak peek into Sybill’s intelligence, click here.)
8 out of 10 deals fall through due to personnel changes. Stay proactive by monitoring shifts within your prospect’s organization and updating your contact information accordingly. If a key stakeholder leaves mid-deal, consider moving the opportunity back to the qualification stage until you’ve identified the new decision-maker. Additionally, review close dates and opportunity values regularly to maintain an accurate sales forecast.
Your pipeline is not just about making calls. It’s also about understanding your audience, leveraging digital platforms, and solving real problems for your clients.
Now that you’ve built your B2B sales pipeline, ensure it never goes dry. With a repeatable lead generation and lead management strategy, you can maintain a steady flow of new leads and fill the sales pipeline at every stage. Additionally, effective pipeline management is crucial for consistent revenue growth and long-term success.
With Sybill as your automation ally, you can easily automate fresh updates to your CRM and get comprehensive insights into your deals and conversations. With seamless integration and quick automation, Sybill can help maintain consistent follow-up efforts, prevent human error, and keep your pipeline running smoothly, ensuring no lead slips through the cracks.
Ready to get started for free? Click here now.
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