by Richard Foster

Created on: January 21, 2009   Last Updated: February 13, 2009

Healthy sales pipelines are the route to flourishing sales whatever the economic conditions or market position. There are a handful of key attributes that all good pipelines should possess and these are outlined below. These guidelines are designed for B2B businesses although can be adapted for other sales environments.

The most fundamental feature of a positive pipeline is a good "hopper". By hopper I refer to the reservoir of clients at which the majority of sales are aimed. This essential resource must be continuously monitored to ensure the smooth running of the pipeline. The hopper will need to be replenished at various strategic moments and targets strictly adhered to otherwise the pipeline dries up and ceases to function as planned. The typical hopper will have between 50 and 100 clients and the responsibility for feeding this hopper can be a research function with some input from sales management.

The main function of the hopper is to provide a constant stream of prospects for the front line salespeople who turn them into active sales leads. As soon as client x has moved from the hopper to becoming an active sales lead, the hopper will need to be topped up. The Frequency of this topping up procedure should be established at the outset and be in line with the work flow of the business. The hopper can be a mixture of generic and specific sectoral targets which will flow down to departments or territories. Active leads are generally defined as those clients who have been contacted but not been visited or received a proposal.

There should be a standard number of active leads for each sales group/ member and this will be determined by the conversion rate. Once active leads are converted they become prospects and are at pitch stage so a different conversion rate and ultimately when they become clients they come out of the pipeline. The hopper system succeeds because it is simple, fair and transparent. Assuming all the salespeople have been involved from the beginning and all the targets and conversion rates are set correctly, the sales will flow.

Transparency is the major goal of any sales pipeline. With the hopper system you can see clearly how people are performing and where action needs to be taken to address any problems. It is quick and relatively straightforward to conduct checks and although it should run without interference there can be circumstances when it is wise to tweak. At any time, there can be checks and balances carried out which allow the system to be tweaked.

Alongside the ability to see how much progress is being made quickly and efficiently, the best pipelines afford a reasonable amount of flexibility and give the decision maker/s a series of levers to use to suit the business cycle so pressure can be applied or relaxed. The objectives for sales success are based on the cogent, clear framework which engenders the best guidance and goal-setting combined with a degree of adaptability for judicious review.

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