How to deal with a Bloated pipeline

I am contacted by salespeople quite often who are having difficultly managing their time, keeping on top of all opportunities but only successfully closing a small % of the value in their pipeline.

This is caused by a range of factors, one of the most common is that salespeople are natural optimists are they are reluctant to eliminate a potential opportunity even if there is a slim chance of success, and therefore end up with a bloated pipeline.

The key is to tackle this in a systematic way.

Step 1. Get your mindset right

First the salesperson must prepare themselves for the exposure when many of their existing ‘deals’ drop out or are disqualified and the chance of reaching targets on the existing opportunities is low. The reality is that they will need to work hard to create new opportunities.

Step 2. Icing the cake

Clearing out the existing opportunities in a bloated pipeline I call  ‘Icing the cake”  we apply pressure like we are icing a cake, and we may get a few successful closes that are squeezed out but the process will also show us those that should not have been opportunities at all. They are not properly qualified or have some other aspect that make them unsuitable to be worthy of the time and effort to quote and to follow up.

Step 3. Establish the disqualification criteria

Once prepared for the consequences we need to establish the criteria we will use and apply to sort quotations and proposals into. Usually this will be a grading process that takes into consideration, rated chance of success, age of proposal, amount, type of work, when work is scheduled, the relationship with potential customer.

Step 4. Make contact

Work through all opportunities which have been quoted starting with the ones which have a higher chance of success. Re establish their problems, needs and confirm the solution provided is valid.

This will result in dropouts of inappropriate proposals

However, the key point is this: the opportunities that remain in your pipeline must have a been able to be re-affirmed at a higher chance of success. If you are leaving them at their current status you must have a very good reason not to eliminate them.

 Step 5. Set expectations

The conclusion of any discussion must place a higher responsibility on the prospect.

Those that confirm they still have a problem or need and that your proposal is valid must then be requested to provide a definitive date and time when they will make their decision,

Your pipeline will now have fixed periods whether they are weeks/months or quarters, with fixed closable dollars attached to each.

Step 6. Burn the boats

The nature of following up is you are likely to be ghosted, that is repeated attempts at contact by email, voice email leave you with no return communication. In this instance you need to bring the business connection between you and the potential customer to an end in a professional way. You do this with a “burn the boats” email this will either re kindle communication or allow you to shut opportunity down and remove it from the pipeline if you so not receive contact by a set date and time.

Conclusion

The pipeline will now be leaner and you will have more time to focus on those opportunities that are going to close and spend much less tome chasing those with small chance of success.

So follow the steps

Step 1. Get your mindset right.

Step 2. Icing the cake

Step 3. Establish disqualification criteria.

Step 4. Review all opportunities.

Step 5. Make contact.

Step 6. Set expectations.

Step 7. Burn the boats.