May 12, 2016- ISSN# 1545-2646
Filling the pipeline
It is Mid-May 2016 – Do you know where your next sales are coming from?
As business leaders, we must lead by example. That means tracking the future sales of the business and meeting goals and objectives. It sounds quite simple but are you doing it?
If you are not doing it, then it is time to start. If you have a sales forecasting system or pipeline of activities, great. The next questions to ask yourself, are you using the pipeline to just capture the data or are you using it to drive sales?
When speaking to business owners and their sales teams they are often able to show me what they are working on – in their mind the sales pipeline. It tends to show me the name of the prospect, the items or product they are looking to buy, the projected sales value, and a date they think the prospect will buy. All of these are good pieces of data. If all they do is sit on a spreadsheet and get updated regularly, then all the sales rep is doing is tracking status not changing status.
In order to make the effort of sales forecasting and managing the pipeline valuable, you must converting prospects into customers with sales. Your sales team looks at these tools as a nuisance. They view them as managements way of tracking their work habits. That is unfortunate for that overtone to exist in the business. Yes, the numbers on the forecast can give good insight into the activity levels of the sales team. More importantly it should give important insights to the sales rep and their ability to move a prospect through the stages of the sale.
By using tools for managing the sales pipeline, the sales rep can more objectively understand when a sale has stalled. It can help determine when the rep is hoping to close the business vs. the customer wanting and needing to buy it .
This week re-evaluate your sales tracking approach. Is it used to convert prospects into customers or are you using it just to track what people are or are not doing?
Wondering if your sales pipeline is being used effectively? Give JKL Associates a call at (313) 527-7945 and let us look at what is or is not happening to open up your sales pipeline.
Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945
Copyright – JKL Associates 2016
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