Pipelines & Pipedreams

When developing marketing strategies for clients,  one of the first things we do is learn about the company’s sales process.  This includes going on sales calls, sitting in on sales meetings, viewing the pipeline reports, finding out how the sales cycle works — basically absorbing everything we can about the sales function within the organization.

One common complaint heard from CEOs time and again is centered around the pipeline (or lack thereof) and the shortfall that occurs every quarter.  The pipeline never seems to live up to its promises.  I’ve sat in enough sales meetings now to quickly figure out if a company has a real pipeline or a pipe-dream.  The four most common mistakes I see are listed below:

1.  Lack of a common sales methodology:

There are a lot of great sales methodologies out there and many are equally effective.  Whether you adopt Spin Selling, Sandler, or something else it is important that you make sure everyone is following the same one.  The strength of any process comes in everyone speaking the same language and following the same methodology.  That way every opportunity is being managed in a similar fashion and the entire sales team is moving in unison.

2.  Lack of common descriptions for stages of the sale:

As with adopting a common methodology, you want everyone on the sales team to use the same definitions and stages for the sales cycle.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  Here is a five stage system we often set up for our clients:

Stage 1 – This is a “suspect.”  You have not begun the qualification process.  You got this contact from a networking event, participation in a webinar, an online inquiry, etc.  You “suspect” this company/person may need your services and want to start a dialog.

Stage 2 – The first level of a prospect.  You’ve had at least one conversation, you are starting to understand the prospect’s “pain” and how you might provide a solution.  The prospect is interested in learning more about what you have to offer. Read more

Don’t Confuse Marketing with Selling

This month’s Fortune magazine has an article about how to manage your business in a recession.  Like many other articles, the writer mentions the importance of investing in marketing.  “Kohl’s, the big retailer, actually spent more on marketing this past holiday season than it did last year,” writes Geoff Colvin. We’ve received several inquiries from CEOs of small and midsized companies that want to talk about implementing a marketing program to increase revenues.  My first question back to them is usually a surprise.  I want to know about their sales team.

• Do you have a strong sales leader?
• Do you have an established sales process?
• Do you track your pipeline?
• How many people sell in your company?
• Do you have a mix of hunters and farmers?

It’s not that we’re trying to be difficult.  We just don’t want to waste your money and our time.  If you don’t have a good sales team, a clear sales process, and a system to process leads through your pipeline, then spending money on marketing is going to be a waste.  No deal was ever lost because a sales person didn’t have the right brochure.  And (to my knowledge), no deal was ever won because the buyer saw a data sheet and yelled, “Holy smokes, lets go buy this product based on how great this data sheet looks!”  (Although this would be really cool if it did happen.)

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