“Your time is a limited resource and the prospects you’ve been nurturing for the past six months are all going to be ready to buy on their timeline, not yours. Everyone is looking for ways to get more done efficiently.” – Scott VanderLeek in today’s Tip 352
Are all of those opportunities real and current? Are they going to happen on the timeline you have identified?
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Terryberry
Scott VanderLeek o LinkedIn
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today Scott VanderLeek, the Chief Sales Officer at Terryberry is back with another tip to help you get a strong start to 2020. Here he is:
Scott VanderLeek: Happy New Year. By the time you’re listening to this, it’s either the end of 2019 or just after the first of the year. Either way, you’re staring down 2020 and most likely a fresh set of goals and targets. Maybe you’re even thinking about how you’re going to get this done, again. Today’s sales tip is a simple and practical reminder about your pipeline. Your time is a limited resource and the prospects you’ve been nurturing for the past six months are all going to be ready to buy on their timeline, not yours. Everyone is looking for ways to get more done efficiently. I used to work with a mentor who often said sometimes less is more. I’m going to show you how fewer opportunities in your pipeline can lead to more closed deals over a longer period of time. Sound counterintuitive, maybe. Let me show you what I’m talking about. Ask yourself if this sounds familiar. Of the 15 opportunities in your pipeline, nine of them are deals that will likely happen sometime in 2020 but nothing is happening immediately. You don’t want to get rid of them though because then your pipeline looks too small or you’re afraid you’ll lose track of them. This is very, very common.
Here’s the problem though, when you’re analyzing your pipeline, including those nine opportunities, gives you a false sense of a fat pipe. If you take a close look at each opportunity and move those nine off of your current pipeline, it drives your focus toward two things. Really focusing on those six live opportunities and how to move them along, and also how to generate and build a more real pipeline with higher current probabilities. The really fascinating part of all this is when you’re focused on those two things, your pipeline becomes more alive and vibrant. It tends to close more real deals even faster, and it improves your focus on the things that will drive your business forward immediately. My guess is your cycle time will decrease in your win ratio will increase both strong drivers of your results.
Now just to be clear, best practice on those no decision opportunities is to move them out to the future in your CRM and set very clear and specific tasks for yourself. You’re going to need new real opportunities in Q2, Q3, and Q4 as well and the opportunities where you have already laid some groundwork and qualified are often your richest source of the future pipeline. Thanks! I hope this tip helps and good luck in the new year.
Scott Ingram: As Scott suggests: take a good, hard look at your pipeline. Are all of those Opportunities real and current? Are they going to happen on the timeline you have identified? OR, are they real opportunities, but don’t need your focus right now. If that’s the case, the start of the new year provides a perfect opportunity to flush them out, set future tasks for them, and spend your valuable, finite time on those activities that are going to help you post some wins right away in the beginning of 2020.
For a link to connect with Scott VanderLeek, just click over to DailySales.Tips/352
Then be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!