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Signs Your Sales Pipeline Might be Based on Fiction or Fantasy

March 14, 2008

Is your sales pipeline based on fact, fiction or fantasy? According to recent research from IDC, sales productivity is now the #1 priority of CEOs, but many organizations are still focused on activity management instead of tracking the right performance metrics that will drive bottom-line results. Here are 5 signs that your sales pipeline might be based on fiction or even fantasy:

  1. You expect deals to close without knowing that they’re actually stuck in your pipeline.
  2. You’re looking at the overall pipeline totals, without looking at what’s moved
    into the pipeline and what’s moved out.
  3. You’re counting on specific deals to close, without looking at the performance of the reps responsible for closing those deals quarter over quarter or year over year.
  4. You don’t have a clear understanding of the trends in your conversion rates.
  5. You don’t know how long it takes for your sales reps to ramp up and instead rely upon antiquated industry rules of thumb.

It’s been said that sales is both art and science, but when your pipeline is truly fact-based you’ll have confidence in your forecast and be able to avoid nasty end-of-quarter surprises. And believe it or not, according to this CSO Insights whitepaper, you’ll also have better retention as your sales reps will have a clear understanding of how they’re being measured and your objectives will be aligned.

We recently did a webinar with Selling Power that focused on some of the best-practice analytics you need to deliver a fact-based pipeline. More on this topic next week. If you have other suggestions for posts on the topic of analytics best practices, feel free to email me or share your feedback in the comments below.

Written by dcunningham · Filed Under Features 

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Comments

3 Responses to “Signs Your Sales Pipeline Might be Based on Fiction or Fantasy”

  1. Gomez on March 14th, 2008 6:45 pm

    Advertorial?

  2. dcunningham on March 15th, 2008 3:33 pm

    My goal is to share best practices and to highlight the fact that that thanks to the on-demand model, business analytics can actually be simple to set up (innovation not infrastructure), simple to use (not just for power users), and even simple to buy (subscription pricing). In order to compete effectively sales organizations can no longer accept the status quo when it comes to pipeline visibility and measuring what matters. I look forward to your comments, feedback, and recommendations.

  3. Can You Answer These Questions About Your Sales Pipeline? | Salesforce Times on September 9th, 2008 11:06 pm

    [...] Here’s a list of the types of questions you need to be able to answer in order to ensure your sales pipeline is not based on fiction or fantasy: [...]

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