Building a pipeline can be an overwhelming task for most business owners. It is important to know the steps that you need to take in order to achieve your desired results. 

This blog post will walk through some of the key components of building a pipeline, and provide information on how best to execute them.

What Is A Pipeline?

Before we go into building a pipeline let’s understand what is a pipeline? A good way to describe its essence would be as follows: "it's something that helps businesses manage their marketing efforts, drive revenue faster and ensure growth". 

It is important for marketers, advertisers or entrepreneurs working with their own company to have a sales pipeline because it helps them determine how many new customers they want to bring on their side. 

What is even more important, this tool allows figuring out the right moment to do that for business growth and lead generation.

In order to achieve some results, you first need to define some goals as well as timelines for achieving those goals. In other words, before you move on creating a sales pipeline, you need to have some specific time frames in mind when your team will tell your potential clients about your product or service. 

This way, your marketing department will be able to come up with actionable deadlines and see whether everything goes according to plan or not. The next step would be drawing up at least 5 leads (or leads could be potential clients) which you want to bring into your business. 

You will get this done by creating a list of businesses or people who might be interested in what you are offering them.

Here Are Our Tips To Help You Build The Best Pipeline Possible:

1). Know your ideal customer- Your sales process starts with a specific type of person in mind. That's why it's so important to understand who you're selling to, and what companies they work for. 

Your prospect profiling should include things like: name, position title, company size...every detail that could be relevant when it comes to sealing the deal.

2). Understand how prospects move through your funnel- Go from lead generation all the way through to closed business. The easiest way is to draw out a basic funnel shape with each stage - but don't stop there! 

Plan every possible touch point and interaction which might take place between your team and the potential client before a sale can happen. Think emails, calls, meetings etc. By mapping these out it'll be a lot easier to predict bottlenecks and plan for them.

3). Break down every step of the buying cycle into small tasks for each team member- Get a list of all the people who will have some kind of input in the sales process from start to finish, and assign specific tasks accordingly. 

It would be great if you could find an intern or graduate to do some admin work so you don't have to - but more importantly, make sure everyone knows what their job is, how they fit into the process and when they're going to be expected to deliver something. 

4). Set clear deadlines with responsibilities assigned to each task- Your sales manager should hold a virtual sales pitch where each team member details their role in getting a sale signed off. 

Once everyone has talked about their part, make it clear how much time they have to get cracking and what the end result needs to be. Make sure that you track all progress against these deadlines and don't let anyone slip behind!

5). Share everything with everyone - be transparent!  (This will save time)- Remember: your decisions need to be informed by market research and customer feedback, not by personal opinion. The best way of doing this is to share everything with everybody - so you can benefit from multiple points of view, including yours. 

If you've got an idea for something but nobody agrees? Don't take it as gospel - find out why instead! Most importantly: if someone does come up with a better idea than your own, listen to them!

Create a Google Docs spreadsheet with the breakdown of tasks for your team members. Everyone should have access to it so they can see what everyone else is doing and what support they need.

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Tools That Can Help You In Building A Pipeline

With so much to do, it can be difficult to keep track of everything at the best of times. That's why sales managers have developed a few ways of streamlining their processes - and you should too! 

Here are some helpful tools that will help you stay on top of everything:

1. Basecamp- this helps your sales pipeline by allowing your team to collaborate on projects. It also allows you to assign due dates, checklists and milestone markers for every project task - making it easier to see which things need doing first. 

Please note that this is free but it may not be right for everyone - if your business is bigger than 5 people then check out the Pro version! There are more options here  and a free demo on this page .

2. Wunderlist- a more visual version of Basecamp, you can see what's been done and what needs doing. This is simpler for smaller businesses or if you prefer to delegate tasks to others, rather than having it all under one roof. 

It also helps you keep track of any deadlines - oh yeah! For both these tools, make sure your whole team has access - it'll really help them feel involved in the process.

3. Slack- this is an online messaging app that can be used for communication between you and your team. 

Make sure everyone has access to it so they can let you know what's going on at any time - the sky really is the limit with this one! 

4. Pipedrive- this is a cloud based Sales CRM tool that allows you to manage your sales pipeline from almost anywhere. With it, you can create pipelines and track their progress automatically with every sales activity syncing in real time. 

It also allows you to add tasks and deadlines on top of opportunities, giving you complete control over everything relating to them. Try out the free trial on their website or contact them directly for more information.

5. Scoro- this CRM system is designed to streamline communication and workflow between sales, marketing and support. 

It allows you to see what's going on in each department and offers a good way of keeping on track with all the different things that need doing - such as review call notes or project updates. You can also share files the easy way and the app is compatible with iOS and Android devices - so no excuses!

6. Close.io-  another cloud based tool that helps your entire team manage leads through engaging automated workflows. 

Designed specifically for small businesses, anyone who wants to reach out to leads via email can do it easily with all the contact information needed on hand. You can also track follow ups and manually add in new leads easily.

Stages Of A Pipeline

After you've selected the right target market, mapped out your value proposition and created your marketing materials it's time to look at one of the most crucial tasks for new businesses - getting customers through the door.

A well constructed sales funnel can be a great way of understanding which potential customer is likely to become a paying customer. Your approach may change significantly depending on whether you are selling B2B or B2C so it's important to understand what makes each individual type of business tick before you begin.

The main difference between selling directly to consumers and selling in bulk using a corporate model is that in consumer sales each deal will cost more in terms of advertising, energy and effort but there will also be a higher potential profit.

On a larger scale, most businesses gain income from a variety of sources so it is important to consider whether your product or service alone will generate enough money with the costs associated with it. 

It's highly likely that you will need to provide additional elements to persuade companies to buy in bulk and pay you more for your time. 

Your marketing strategy may have already addressed this by introducing several products or services with different price points but if not then perhaps now is the right time for you to reassess your offerings .

With both selling strategies there are always going to be people who choose not to spend their money on what you're offering and unless they want something else more (or they don't want anything at all), you'll need to find a way of filtering them out. 

There's no point in wasting your valuable time and money on those who won't be buying from you so the sooner you can identify "no" as an answer and move on, the better for your business.

Your sales pipeline is essentially a list of potential customers that you will follow up with until they buy or die – it's not quite as depressing as it sounds! Each person has their own level of interest in what your offering so there are several stages to consider:

1. The first stage is finding leads – people who might be interested in buying from you but potentially haven't made the decision yet. 

At this stage it's best to keep things simple and make sure you're reaching as many potential customers as possible by advertising and marketing your services or product in a way that is likely to appeal to the majority of your target audience.

Each lead will move through several stages on their way to becoming a customer and it's important not to get too attached at this stage especially if they end up falling off the end of the funnel (commonly known as 'leakage'). 

Once you've received an enquiry from someone, make sure you follow up on it quickly; otherwise they'll lose interest and you'll have lost out. 

2. The next stage is qualifying leads – this means making sure each person has what it takes to buy from you and so you should be asking questions about their business to understand whether they really do have the money to spend right now.

After qualifying your leads you'll need to get them through your sales funnel so it's time for you to up your game and provide the type of service or product that matches their needs. 

If you've done enough research on your target market, then this should be fairly straightforward; but if not then you may need to step away from what you're comfortable doing in order to accommodate everyone.

3. The final stage is turning a lead into a customer – congratulations! You've survived the tough world of B2B/B2C selling...for now at least! Making this transition takes effort and commitment.

It's easy to make assumptions and think that you know all there is to know about your target market but this will only hold true if you're willing to continue learning about them , which might mean making changes to your business as it grows.

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Conclusion

Whatever approach you take to selling, make sure it's scalable because underperforming or leaving out any stage in the process can cause problems further down the line. 

For example, following up on leads right away helps you tackle smaller issues quickly but if a client spends too long going through your sales funnel then you'll have other issues to deal with such as being unable to keep up with their needs. 

Similarly, providing a high-quality service means that each customer will be worth more money than those who bought from an inferior product or service while simultaneously making a brand impression that will encourage more people to buy from your business.

However, you don't want to completely alienate potential customers at the beginning of the process by only selling to those who meet strict criteria so it's important to keep in touch with everyone you come across and stay visible without being too pushy. 

If the person is genuinely not interested then give them some time to think about what you've said and follow up later but if they ever get back in touch then this also works in your favour because it proves that they were at least considering buying before which means there's a greater chance that they'll be interested when you contact them again .   

 Finally, always remember no matter how much effort and investment you put into making sure your client is happy, there will always be someone who you couldn't please. This happens in every business because no matter how good you are at what you do, not everyone's needs can be met...but that's nothing to worry about! 

It just means that the people who are right for your business probably aren't aware of it yet but if you continue doing what you're already doing then they'll eventually come along and when they do, make sure that you're recognisable enough to catch their interest.