How to Build a Sales Pipeline From Scratch?

Imagine building a sales pipeline as the lifeline of your sales team, guiding opportunities from initial contact to a sealed deal. 

A well-managed pipeline isn't just a tool; it's a strategic asset. 

The problem is that many businesses, despite a modicum or some level of success, are oblivious to building a sales pipeline effectively.

On that note, this post fills everyone in on how to build a sales pipeline from scratch, and different aspects of how to build a strong sales pipeline.

The main difference in both terminologies is average vs robust sales pipeline creation, which ultimately, not only streamlines your business activities but also quintuples the drip workflow.

You’re ideally looking for more passive income, easier call conversions, and better business scalability to blow the competition out of the water.

So, let’s get to it and see what sales pipelines are all about.

What Is a Sales Pipeline?

The term ‘what is a sales pipeline’ coincides with different processes, or steps that identify your potential leads journey.

At the start of a sales pipeline journey, the prospect is allocated to the awareness stage where they may have questions about your business offerings, services and stuff like that.

According to old school marketing school of thought, sales pipeline is interpreted as your typical marketing funnel. It’s divided into three parts, i.e.:

• TOFU: Top of the funnel constituting awareness about product, services etc.
• MOFU: Middle of the funnel centered around the how to factor, addressing pain points and such other things. It’s also usually transactional, and imperative to how to build a sales pipeline from scratch phase.
• BOFU: Bottom of the funnel area where your lead is almost converted, or they’re just looking to pay because of the awareness factor and everything else. These leads are easiest to convert.

Having said that, navigating the sales pipeline isn't without its hurdles. One pressing issue is lead stagnation, where leads linger in one stage for too long, becoming "cold" and less likely to convert. 

Another common challenge is bottlenecks; these are points where deals tend to stall or drop out entirely. 

The quality of leads also poses a significant problem. Spending time on unqualified leads can drain resources and negatively impact morale.

Moreover, the length of the sales cycle can be a concern. A prolonged sales process might exhaust both the sales team and potential clients, leading to missed opportunities.

How To Build Sales Pipeline From Scratch?

Building a sales pipeline is a multi-step process and generalized in nature. We encourage you to improvise for the best results because you may have different ongoing factors that aren’t in your business’s control.

Identifying Your Ideal Customer Profile

The cornerstone of a robust sales pipeline is understanding who your ideal customer is. This isn't just about knowing their demographics; it involves understanding their pain points, goals, and behaviors. 

Start by analyzing your best customers – What industries are they in? What problems are they trying to solve? Create a detailed ideal customer profile (ICP) that includes:

• Demographic Information: Age, gender, income level, job role, and company size.
• Psychographic Data: Interests, values, and lifestyle choices.
• Behavioral Insights: Purchase history, engagement level, and feedback.

Having a well-defined ICP helps in targeting the right audience, thereby increasing your chances of success and reducing wasted efforts.

Creating a Step-by-Step Sales Process

Once you've nailed down your ICP, it's time to establish a step-by-step sales process. 

This process acts as a roadmap for your sales team, guiding them from initial contact to closing the deal. Here's a simplified framework:

1. Lead Generation: Identify potential customers through various channels like social media, referrals, and industry events.
2. Lead Qualification: Assess if the lead fits your ICP and determine their stage in the buying journey.
3. Initial Contact: Reach out to the lead through personalized emails, calls, or even face-to-face meetings.
4. Needs Assessment: Understand the lead's specific needs and challenges through discovery calls or meetings.
5. Proposal and Negotiation: Present a tailored solution and negotiate terms if necessary.
6. Closing the Deal: Finalize the sale agreement and move towards contract signing.
7. Post-Sale Follow-Up: Ensure customer satisfaction and explore opportunities for repeat business.

Implementing the Right Tools and Technology For Sales Pipeline Development

To bring your sales pipeline to life, you'll need the right tools and technology. 

On top of that, it’s an AI technology driven area. So most of the tools that come embedded with Ai technology, tend to outperform those that don’t have that much technical prowess in there.

For building a sales pipeline, and eventually for things to happen in a certain way, you need a combination of CRM tool, ai cold calling software, analytics and reporting system with centralized features and vice versa.

From a general point of view, when choosing these tools, they need to have the following features:

• Ease of Use: The system should be intuitive and easy to navigate.
• Scalability: It should grow with your business needs.
• Integration Capabilities: Ensure that it can integrate with other tools you are using, such as email marketing platforms or accounting software.

Beyond a CRM, consider utilizing automation tools to streamline repetitive tasks. For instance, automate your lead nurturing campaigns or set up reminders for follow-up actions. 

Use Trellus To Accelerate Your Sales Pipeline Conversion Process

Trellus is a robust AI sales assistant software, working proactively as a means to an end in a sales pipeline system.

Alongside a high affordability margin, the program’s value offering lies in its ability to help businesses coach their sales teams through an integrated solution.

Trellus does so via a two-prong approach:

1. Trellus is installed through a lightweight Google Chrome extension as a sales cold calling software. The one-click solution is then integrated automatically into your existing CRM, such as SalesLoft, HubSpot, Apollo, or OpenPhone.

Integrating this software into your existing CRM ensures that you don’t have to switch over to other tabs or tools to make blazing-fast calls on auto-dial.

Essentially, it also means that your team’s entire workflow can continue to process without having them switch over to multiple tabs. As a result, they’re looking at their very own personal hands-free power dialer, ensuring back-to-back calls are uninterrupted, auto-dialed and conversions are 3 times more than usual.

2. Conversational intelligence is part of the AIO solutions that Trellus comes with.

In terms of the ‘ai sales assistant’ aspect, reps have access to real-time coaching during calls, and post-call analytics, via a detailed diagnostic report that suggests where the caller’s conversational skills could have been better, subtle counterarguments/ responses to turn the conversation into your business’s favor - potentially netting an increased probability for conversions and vice versa.

Your team also gets access to the Pre-Call Research Panel which shows any prior information about the business, prospect details, and much more. It simply shows that the program’s combination of machine learning and R&D enables improved performance, efficiency, awareness, etc.

On top of everything else, Trellus offers full visibility into your team’s performance for 6x improvement.

Managers can access analytics & reports, review past call transcripts, go through any sales rep’s AI call summaries & notes, etc. This is to ensure that there are no near misses, the next time anyone is dialed in to convert leads.

Get full visibility into your team's performance

Identify your team's areas of improvement 6x faster than you would with traditional analytics and dispositions

Key Features

• Real-time call coaching assistance – Our M.L.-based AI system coaches sales reps in real-time to enable better conversions, improved conversational skills, and overall efficiency
• Perform all your admin work through Trellus’s auto dispositions, call notes, and more
• Stay hands-free with auto-logging for a seamless calling experience
• Real-time call transcripts
• Post-call automatic AI summaries/emails and detailed diagnostic data
• Automated single-line dialing (converts your existing dialer into an automated dialer with Trellus).

To sum it up, Trellus’s overall goal is to offer an all-in-one ai co-pilot that integrates into different CRMs and helps businesses move things forward in terms of cold calling, acquiring prospects, improving prospect-related workflows, and various other automations.

Pricing

Trellus offers flat pricing plans to maintain a high affordability factor for businesses.

• Free Forever: Starting at $0 per user/ per month with access to real time transcription, basic AI coaching, analytics, auto dialer access (*30 dials per week), call summaries and more.
• Power: Starting at $39.99 per user/ per month and gives access to all the basic + advanced features such as; unlimited single line dialing, VM drops on select platforms, access to call transcripts, and much more.
• Business: Contact our sales team for more details.

Monitoring Team Performance: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Sales teams function akin to a well-oiled machine, where each cog must turn smoothly to keep the operation running optimally. 

Monitoring team performance is crucial for ensuring everyone is aligned, productive, and meeting targets consistently. But it’s not always a walk in the park. 

Let's delve into three main aspects critical to mastering this: tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), balancing individual and team metrics, and leveraging data visualization.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Track

KPIs are your sales team's scorecard. They help you understand who’s excelling and where improvements can be made. Some vital KPIs to monitor include:

• Conversion Rate: This measures how many leads convert to customers, providing insight into the effectiveness of your sales strategy.
• Sales Cycle Length: Knowing the average time it takes to close a deal helps you identify inefficiencies.
• Quota Attainment: This tracks whether sales reps are meeting their sales targets, ensuring you're on track to hit your revenue goals.
• Lead Response Time: How quickly your team responds to leads can significantly impact your conversion rates.
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Understanding the marketing and sales costs involved in acquiring a new customer helps manage expenses efficiently.

Don’t Forget to Use Data Visualization for Quick Insights

Interpreting raw data can be as fun as watching paint dry. Data visualization turns this drudgery into a dynamic, easy-to-understand process, making it simpler to pinpoint where attention is needed.

Consider these tools and techniques:

• Dashboards: These provide real-time insights into performance metrics at a glance, making it easier for managers to make informed decisions quickly.
• Heat Maps and Graphs: Visual representations can reveal trends and outliers that might not be apparent in spreadsheets.
• Performance Heatmaps: These can highlight which team members are excelling and who might need additional support or training.

Addressing these elements keeps your sales team performing optimally, ensuring you're not just meeting but exceeding your sales targets.

Spotting Red Flags: When Molehills Become Mountains

Keeping a keen eye on your sales pipeline is essential to prevent small issues from snowballing into bigger problems. Let’s dive into the signs that indicate things might be going awry and what you can do to keep your pipeline healthy.

Early Warning Signs of Pipeline Issues

Identifying issues early can save you from a lot of headaches down the line. It's crucial to look out for:

• Stagnant Deals: If you notice deals aren't progressing through the pipeline at a reasonable pace, it could indicate problems in your sales process or engagement strategy.
• Decreased Win Rates: A sudden drop in your win rate is a glaring red flag. It might mean that your lead quality has dwindled or that your sales tactics need a revamp.
• Lower Lead Conversion: A decline in lead conversion ratios usually points to problems in lead qualification or the initial outreach phase.
• Extended Sales Cycles: If your sales cycles are lengthening, it may be time to reassess how efficient your approach is and whether your team needs additional support or training.

Monitoring these metrics can help you put a finger on potential issues before they become insurmountable.

Conducting Regular Pipeline Health Checks

Just as with physical health, regular check-ups are key to maintaining a healthy sales pipeline. These should include:

1. Weekly Reviews: Regularly assess your pipeline status, looking at key metrics such as deal progression and win rates.
2. Deal Analysis: Delving into each deal helps identify where leads tend to get stuck. Are certain touchpoints consistently problematic? Are specific objections recurring?
3. Feedback Sessions: Regularly gather feedback from your sales team. They can provide invaluable insights into the root causes of any pipeline issues they encounter.

These health checks act as preventive measures, ensuring you're always ahead of any potential problems.

What’s Your Sales Pipeline First Aid Kit?

Every sales pipeline encounters stagnant leads and bottlenecks. The key is to identify and address them early to prevent them from becoming severe obstacles. Here are a few strategies to tackle these issues:

1. Regularly review your pipeline: Conduct weekly reviews to ensure leads are progressing appropriately. Look for patterns and identify where leads tend to get stuck.
2. Prioritize stagnant leads: Allocate more time to engage with stagnant leads. Discern why these leads have stalled and work on re-engaging them, whether through personalized emails, phone calls, or special offers.
3. Revise your process: If you notice a consistent bottleneck at the same stage, it may be a signal to revise that part of the process. Streamline the stage to enhance the flow of leads to the next phase.

Maintaining a healthy sales pipeline is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process. 

The goal is not just to manage the pipeline but to nurture it, keeping it in tip-top shape through constant vigilance, adaptation, and innovation.

What’s your go-to strategy for building a sales pipeline and goal conversion? We’d love to hear from you on this. 

Feel free to share your thoughts by reaching out to us through email.