Techniques to Help Your Team Avoid a BLOATED SALES PIPELINE

One of the most challenging aspects of managing

a sales team is sales pipeline management

Over time, sales pipelines become bloated with opportunities that are no longer viable

Using techniques to help sales teams better manage opportunities...

...will eliminate “bloat” from the sales pipeline

Develop Objective Criteria

1

Developing objective criteria for opportunity advancement is a crucial first step

Examples of Opportunity Advancement Criteria:

The Customer has acknowledged the need

The Salesperson has identified a business need of the Customer

The Salesperson has helped Customer understand the benefits

The Customer has confirmed the benefits

Setting objective criteria at each stage ensures

each opportunity actually meets the criteria

Assign Reasonable Probabilities2

Often management sets probabilities too high, creating unrealistic forecasts

Each stage in the pipeline should include a probability factor…

...based on a historical analysis of prior wins and losses

Track Velocity3

Pipeline velocity is the speed at which opportunities are moving through the pipeline

To avoid a bloated sales pipeline...

Set time limits on how long an opportunity stays in a

stage before it is "inactive“…

…to prevent inactive opportunities inflating the dollar amount associated with active opportunities

By assigning objective criteria, reasonable probabilities, and eliminating inactive opportunities…

Managers can rationalizethe sales pipeline for

consistency, and more accurate sales forecasts

Learn how to transition star sales reps into high performing sales managers!

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By Norman Behar

@NormanBehar