The sales pipeline is a set of actions that must be taken by professionals in the field to encourage leads to advance in their buying journeys. In this article, in addition to better understanding what a pipeline is , you will see a step-by-step guide to structure yours and learn about the main performance indicators to monitor results. What is a sales pipeline ? The sales pipeline is a tool that gathers a company’s leads and organizes them according to the negotiation stage they are in. In addition, it defines what actions the sales team must take in each of these stages, with the aim of moving the lead forward in their purchase journey . Sales pipeline stages In addition to understanding what a pipeline is , it is important to know its stages. Each of them corresponds to a step taken by the sales professional in his strategy to turn leads into customers.
These are the stages of the sales pipeline
In this step the professional must qualify the leads to understand which ones are more aligned with the persona and which ones are already in more advanced stages of their buying journey, that is, closer to closing a deal; SAL ( Sales Accepted Lead ) : at this stage, the marketing team has already managed to define which are the ideal leads and they are already educated; Opportunity : at this stage, the lead agreed to talk to a sales professional after Australia School Email Lists qualifying the SDR and has great potential to close the sale; Meeting/visit : after selecting the most qualified leads , the sales professional must send personalized proposals, generating value on the offered solution; Negotiation : The goal here is to eliminate objections from leads . It is at this stage that the sales professional will contact the lead once again.
Final step of the pipeline Although the pipeline has phases
The lead does not need to follow linearly through all of them The purchasing process is individual. That is, things do not always happen the same way with all leads — after all, we are dealing with human beings, not robots. It may be that, in some cases, leads follow the journey linearly, going through all stages of the sales pipeline . However, the professional must be prepared to deal with non-linear journeys. Leads can, for example, go through EC Lists all the stages in one day or take months to decide on a purchase . It also happens that some leads skip steps. It will not always be necessary to follow up to move on to the negotiation phase, for example, just as a very determined lead can go directly from the follow up to the closing stage .
