Sales Training: Silver Bullet for a Weak Pipeline

Sales Training: Silver Bullet for a Weak Pipeline:

Sales Training Article: One Silver Bullet to Bulk Up a Weak Sales Pipeline

By John Kenney, Sales Benchmark Index
According to Kenney, sales managers spend the majority of their time working in the wrong stages of the sales process. They focus on deals in Stages 4 and 5. Intuitively, it makes sense to concentrate the experience and skills of the sales manager on the smaller number of deals that are ready to close. But this is completely backwards. Kenney identifies the most common reasons:

• Your managers are Ignorant of Early Stage Deals: Reps are not entering deals in the CRM system until they have progressed to Stage 2 or 3. The reps don't want the extra pressure to move these deals to closure, so they hesitate to update the CRM system until they are ready to commit the deal to the forecast. With no visibility to many deals in the early stages, sales managers simply focus on the late-stage deals they know about.
• Some managers are Super reps who still think they should Always Be Closing: New sales managers are often promoted based on their epic ability to sell and close. They see their greatest value to the sales process as the hero who rides in at the eleventh hour and seals the deal. Stage 5 is where they are most comfortable and effective. (The best managers learn how to transfer their skills and enable their reps to be heroes.)
• Show Me the Money: Sales managers follow the money and spend the majority of their time closing the 20% of the deals that make up 80% of the revenue. Advancing deals from Stage 4 to Stage 5 is critical, but if the groundwork is laid properly in early stages, the closing is less chaotic.
• Empty Toolkit: The sales process lacks job-aids that the sales rep can use to help the customer advance through the buying process. Opportunities dry up early and often.
• Get the Leads Out: The Lead Generation and Management process is not producing enough Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) to build a robust pipeline. With little volume at the top of the funnel, sales managers are occupied with trying to squeeze the most out of the late stage deals. (This is more of a Marketing problem, but it manifests itself in a weak funnel.)

Kenney states that there are negative consequences for devoting so much time to late-stage deals:

• No Inflow: Without guidance, reps fail to qualify leads correctly, so the early stages yield little. There are so few deals in the pipeline that the sales manager has to rely closing a high percentage of the late stage deals.
• Next Rep, Please: The unskilled sales rep often fails to move the prospect through the early stages. The manager is not there to provide feedback, alternative ideas, or motivation. The rep develops bad habits and fails. The manager wastes precious time with HR to move out the underperformer and recruit a successor.
• Stormy Forecast: Just when a deal is about to close, the prospect suddenly reverts to an activity that should have already happened. Reps tend to skip activities in a rush to thrust the budding opportunity forward. In later stages, the deal is suddenly delayed. The revenue shortfall is almost as bad as the humiliation of de-committing the deal from the forecast.

There is a better way - do a Shift and Lift of your sales manager's time.
How do we get the manager the visibility they need on the true state of early stage deals?
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