The Absolute Most Important Activity In Growing Sales & New Customers

“Your pipeline must always be full. This is at the very basic level of any sales process, but many sales people get lazy and forget to drum up new business. You are always putting new prospects in your pipeline. If you simply out-work and out-prospect everyone else around you, you’ll end up at the top." - Todd Falcone

What Is A Sales Pipeline?

A sales pipeline is a set of stages that your prospect moves through, as they progress from a new lead to a customer. Once each pipeline stage is completed, the goal is to advance your prospect to the next stage.

Your number of prospects (and new customers) is directly proportional to the quantity and quality of prospecting that you routinely engage in. 

Though the sequence and actions of a sales pipeline can differ from company to company, here are some of the more common stages:

Prospecting. I define prospecting as, “The art of creating new relationships.” This can be a number of actions from personal networking at your local chamber, door knocking, cold calling, direct mail, instigating referrals, promoting webinars, connecting with more people on LinkedIn, optimizing content for search engines, to running ads on Facebook.

Interestingly, the origins of the word prospect give us insight. Late Middle English (the action of looking towards a distant object): from Latin prospectus ‘view’, from prospicere ‘look forward’, from pro- ‘forward’ + specere ‘to look’.

Qualification. The rep asks questions and listens to requests to determine if the prospect has the desire, genuine need, budget, and authority to buy and/or sign-up in the near future.

Meeting. The sales rep and prospect discuss the solution/opportunity that would best fit the prospect’s needs.

Proposal. The rep sends the prospect a detailed proposal laying out what will be provided, at what cost, and for how long.

Closing. Final negotiations are made and contracts are signed. The prospect is officially a customer.

The Top Of The Pipeline Is The Most Important. And Usually The Weakest

Ask any sales person, entrepreneur, or business owner the following questions:

• How many hours per day do you (or your team) spend purely on prospecting?

• What level of sophisticated technology do you leverage to generate and nurture prospects?

• What social channels are you constantly growing and engaging?

• What sales training are you offering?

• How are you enhancing the abilities and skills of yourself and/or sales team?

• What content are you putting out to generate attention and new leads?

• What strategic partnerships are you leveraging to generate new leads and customers?

I could ask a few more important and telling questions, but I believe you get the point. The answers will reveal all. And what will be revealed will be any critical weaknesses and lost opportunities. (We may even locate successful actions that need to be bolstered.) Moreover, I will find those who refuse to learn new skills, and adopt new technologies. 

Without adaptation to new technology, you will become irrelevant. Without investing into marketing, your brand will drown in obscurity. Without sales training, you will come across as unprofessional, unpolished, and uncertain.

By addressing the beginning points of the sales funnel with good technology, training, consistent management, and a 10X hustler mentality, your sales will grow. Effective prospecting will change the viability of your business.