A
sales pipeline is a series of strategized moves in the entire sales
process right from conception to closing the deal. The stages of a
sales pipeline might sound simple and easy to grasp but in B2B sales,
it is one of the most versatile and thus complicated concepts.
Sales pipeline stages are diverse and can be segmented or fragmented into customized divisions as per the needs of a particular company. It is very important for any company to properly understand the nature and usage of the sales pipeline stage division so that they can customize it for their organization as per needs and implement it accordingly.
A brief example or idea of a sales funnel, in general, is demonstrated and explained below.
Generation of leads
Lead generation is the first step in any sales business and is thus the first stage in this pipeline for sales. It can be either a harrowing or a simple task, depending on how to handle the task. Being resourceful in your approach can help you find multiple ways to generate leads and move ahead in the stages.
Nurturing of leads
Nurturing leads is an important task and is often overlooked by many salespeople. Often, plenty of leads are generated but what is overlooked is that most of them are not the target audience of the organization. Thus management, auditing, and nurturing of the right leads is highly required so that time and energies of the workforce are not wasted during the later stages.
Check lead's financial viability
Post auditing of the lead is done, it is important to move towards the third stage in the sales pipeline where the financial auditing is done. Checking every lead's financial viability helps the salesperson determine the right plan or deal to be offered to a particular client and thus plan ahead in time.
Run need assessment of the leads
Auditing for financial viability alone is futile without running a need assessment. Without running a need assessment, the later stage of calls and meetings can turn out to be disappointing with failure. For the maximum chances of success in calls and meetings, need assessment is an inevitable stage.
Initiate meetings and calls
This is the stage where the active process of sale starts. After the filtering of the above stages, one can initiate meetings and calls with potential clients. This stage includes all the various levels and stages of meetings and calls in a sale.
Make an offer
Ultimately, after explaining the deal and plans of your company's goods or services to your potential clients, it is required that you make the right offer along with a quotation to the potential client. Analyzing and designing the right offer for your client is crucial in the successful conversion of your deal.
Negotiate terms and conditions
Once the right offer is made, the next stage in the sales pipeline is negotiations of terms and conditions or in some cases, even the entire offer. This is where your EQ(emotional quotient) and salesmanship comes to play.
Close the sale
Once a successful negotiation of terms and conditions is finalized, you are ready to close the deal with your client.
Post-Sale
Closing the sale is not the end of this sales funnel. The last stage is to maintain a good and positive relationship with the client and give post-sale services as promised by your company based on its policies.
These
are the basic and generalized stages of a sales pipeline for any
organization. They can either directly imitate your company's sales
pipeline stages plan or act as a blueprint to your company's
customized sales pipeline stages. Either way, the goal is to
strategize well and reap maximum benefits in your annual sales target
through this segmentation.
It is also of utmost importance that all the salesmen in your organization understand each of these stages with utmost detail and clarity for it to act as a successful endeavor.
We, at edge CRM, follow all the stages mentioned in the sales pipeline to the T. Our record speaks for itself. We would recommend all the salespeople out there to do the same.
