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4 Tips To Move Prospects Through Your Sales Pipeline

March 29, 2018
5:32 AM

Ever wondered what makes prospects move faster through your sales pipeline?

Well, mostly when you hear the terminologies lead and prospect, consequently the conversation moves to manage their data on the CRM to facilitate better prospecting and faster conversion. In general, CRM is the tool that most businesses use nowadays to attract more clients and keep their affairs in order.

Let’s learn more about the various concepts surrounding prospects before we learn how to transform them into buyers that guarantee profits.

What is CRM?

It stands for Customer Relationship Management. It’s software that can bring a number of capabilities together. The CRM software lets you be more efficient by letting you store customers and prospects, send emails, make calls, schedule appointments, create reports, manage your personal pipeline, add notes, and even find out who has opened the last email that you sent, all while you’re still inside the CRM software. It is a new and much more efficient way of getting things done in your business.

The people who are in sales have to acquire a lot of information about a potential client. They have to do their research and be up to date before they approach that client. Usually, to keep track of a client, you’ll have to have all of the client’s information written down on sticky notes, open call logs, have spreadsheets containing pipeline data, and simultaneously be able to keep track of their calendar in terms of making calls and scheduling appointments. CRM software can make the process a lot simpler.

Instead of having to log on to and open multiple apps and platforms, the CRM software presents you with all your client’s information in one place. A single interface can help you keep track of your history with the client in terms of the emails you’ve exchanged, the calls you’ve made, the appointments you’ve scheduled, and the notes you’ve scribbled. You’ll even be notified when your customer does something significant like when they view your email or visit the pricing page. You’ll have this goldmine of information available, all under the same roof. Sales CRM is a literal lifesaving software for your sales teams. Managing your business pipeline is an important part of managing your business in terms of growth and development.

So, what exactly is the sales pipeline?

It is a visual representation of all your sales prospects. It shows you where your clients are at in the purchasing process. Pipelines can also provide information on the sales rep’s account forecast, in connection to how close they are to making quota, and how close the whole team is to reach a quota. This allows the company to make an estimated guess of the number of deals that they will be able to close in a certain amount of time. Having a sales cycle that’s fast is every salesperson’s dream.

Just imagine what it could mean for your company if you could just move all your prospects faster through the sales pipeline. Not only will your sales numbers increase, but you’ll also have more free time on your hands, meaning you’ll have more than enough time to close more sales than you anticipated, through the course of the year. Everything comes down to how you manage your prospects and how quickly you can settle each sale. Here are a few tips you can use to move your prospects through the sales pipeline faster, to dominate all your sales competitions.

1. Always sell to the right person - The decision-maker in the company

You’ve probably been told this from the day you started working in sales. Although a little overrated, it still holds the most importance. Make sure your prospect is the person in charge of making the decisions. You won’t get anywhere with the potential client if you’re not talking to the right people. In fact, all it does is waste time and delay the process.

This is especially important if you’re trying to do business with another business. If the decision-makers in that specific company comprise four or more people, selling to one person will only delay the process. You’ll need to sell to the right group of people, to the original gatekeepers of the company, to be let into the kingdom. By knowing who you should talk to, you can be prepared and move the sale along faster.

2. Glean information about your potential client

Learn all about what keeps them up at night. Their strengths, their weaknesses, their challenges, and even their short-term objectives. Knowing your prospect inside out will give you an edge in every discussion that the two of you partake in. Understand the things that your prospect could go through if his challenges aren’t resolved. Also, find out how they would feel once they’ve achieved all their objectives.

Go into full discovery mode. Learn all about how serious they are in achieving their set of goals and resolving their specific set of issues. Converse with your prospect in an understanding way, by using words like ‘how’, and, ‘what’.

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3. Does your solution fit the problem that your prospect has?

As a salesperson, it’s understandable that you have your eye on the price. You just want to close a deal as quickly as possible. Understand that at certain times, it’s better to walk away from a potential deal because it just wouldn’t be a good fit for either your prospect or your company. Neither of the parties will be happy and you’d just be closing the deal to bring your sales numbers up.

Never force a deal. If it’s meant to happen, your client would be more yielding to the idea of it all. If you know a prospect wouldn’t be a good fit, you should immediately change your strategy from getting a quick ‘yes’ to getting a quick ‘no’ instead. Now you can go ahead and pursue different prospects who are a better fit for you and your company. This gives you a chance to close prospects who are more pliant to your cause and are actually going to say ‘yes’ at the end.

To understand whether your solution fits the client’s problems, you’ll have to be a good listener. Ask pointed questions and listen to what your client has to say. This will also help you in making your product look like a good solution to the client’s problems.

4. Is your client serious about closing the deal?

Firstly, you’ll need to make sure that the need to take action is there.

How much does your prospect want what you’re selling and how far is he willing to go for it?
How quickly is he willing to act?
Is this just another option for him or does he depend primarily on your product?
Ask questions that will give you answers to questions of your own.

Make an estimated guess in terms of how long your prospect will take to close the deal and order them accordingly on your pipeline.

Remember these tips when you’re moving prospects through the sales pipeline. You’ll be sure to experience an uptick in annual sales numbers.