Elizabeth Lockwood

A good sales pipeline doesn’t build itself. It’s a masterful creation that’s part art, part strategy, and designed to help take your business to the next level of sales and outreach. Like many things, some people have their own tried-and-true techniques and tips that they swear by, while others are still trying to figure out where to even begin. If you’re part of the latter group, you’re in the right place.

The close is the moment that all salespeople train for. It’s the make-or-break decision point and if you do it right, you’ll convince prospects to convert once and for all. Unfortunately, there are more people who struggle with closing than not—after all, it’s a challenging spot to be in. You’re so close to getting that conversion and every single detail of what you say, how you say it, and when you say it is going to impact the outcome.

Outreach has changed a lot in recent years, but one thing has remained the same: people don’t want to know what you’re selling. They want to know what problems you can solve for them. Having dedicated scripts that highlight these pain points and provide insight on how they can be resolved will do wonders for your sales team. Of course, you’ve got to get the conversation right if you’re going to succeed.

Messaging is everything in your outreach. It’s how your team engages with prospects and the way that you approach it can make all the difference. The perfect message will result in a great lead capture that converts buyers with ease, but a weak message will generally be ignored. Worse yet, the wrong message could even damage your company’s reputation.

In the sales world, there are several metrics that are monitored on a regular basis. These metrics can help companies make important decisions about their outreach strategy and other sales efforts. Sales velocity is something that companies need to track. It’s also something that just about every organization can stand to improve, but you first have to understand it.

Leads are the foundation of success for any sales team. Getting them, of course, can prove to be quite the challenge. Plus, even when you get those leads, are they the right ones? Will they convert? Or are you just throwing darts at the wall and hoping one will hit the mark?

Even in the digital age, trade shows and in-person events are still a big part of the business. They’re also a great place to drum up some stellar leads. But how do you make sure that those leads don’t just get lost in the pile of trade show stock that you take back to the office?

Sales follow-up is every bit as important as the initial outreach, if not more so. More than 98% of all sales leads need more than one communication with the sales rep before they are ready to buy. You will spend plenty of time on outreach, and only one of those interactions will ever be a “first” for the customer or lead.

When it comes to sales leads, how you manage them is as important as how you acquire them, if not even more so. A sales lead management system will help you create a process for finding and fielding leads, helping prospects move through the sales funnel, and making sure that every single lead is maximized.

Lead management and tracking are critical steps for every business that is working on outreach, marketing, and lead generation. There are several avenues that customers may take on their journey, which means that your team needs to be able to manage all of those avenues and leads.