What is pipeline management?

Glossary
In most CRM systems, the term pipeline management designates the process of overseeing and directing future sales in various stages.
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Top Practices for Competent Sales Pipeline Management

After considering the main advantages of integrating an effective pipeline control scheme into your business, you should move on to another topic of the day. In this article, we'll break down how you can manage and improve your pipeline to get the most out of your efforts.

Pipelines as Supply Chains

For a start, you should start looking at the concept of pipelines as a rudimentary supply chain. However, this must be done in the context of clients. In other words, you need to be more focused on finding customers than turning them into customers.

For instance, your business is directly related to e-commerce, and you are involved in the sale of quality lingerie throughout the United States. You are well aware that managing logistics and supply chains in this operation is not an easy task. Accordingly, to make your work easier, you should use the Bitrix24 program and invest in making the entire business process as optimized as possible. At the same time, investments in platforms will make supply chains transparent for tracking the entire logistics line, bulk purchasing, and all that jazz.

The same can be applied to pipeline control systems. By looking at business pipelines as supply chains, it's easy to understand the practices you can use to figure out that your sales processes are streamlined and profitable enough. The rules are the same, but the variables and methods are different. Still can't figure out how to control the pipeline? Don't be discouraged, just think of them as supply chains for your business products.

Be Smart and Set Realistic Goals

Try to set only realistic goals for yourself and take into account the ever-changing world of sales. The thing is that unrealistic goals often provoke conflict between management and employees, and suggest a waste of resources as well. As a result, unattainable goals will only cause stress to your sales teams and create unpleasant tension in the work environment.

In addition, setting unattainable goals also speaks of management incompetence. This circumstance may affect the operation of your conveyor, as well as the overall reputation of the company. Let’s use an example. During the vicious pandemic, most companies and employees had to switch to a remote type of work.

It is no secret that many people simply needed time to adjust to several drastic changes in such a short time. This is especially true for the older generation. It happened that statistics showed that 71% of all USA employees worked from home during a pandemic. Setting some unrealistic goals during this period would be a huge mistake that would lead to disastrous results.

One way or another, you need to make certain that your ambitions are realistic. Creating contrived goals will only hurt the existing pipeline. So, it comes as no surprise that this wrong move will put the company in a precarious position where changes are made indiscriminately, pouring forth.

Turn Your Mind to Highlighting Only Essential Leads

A majority of common companies simply target every single lead they can get their hands on and put them all in just one single class whilst working with them in the sales process. What matters here is that in every concept, there are always several vital improvements that need to be implemented as soon as possible.

With proper pipeline management and the Bitrix24 program, you will undoubtedly succeed in your business goals and will be able to consider the main thing, namely how your sales process works. More than that, you’ll observe which leads are the most optimal route.

As for sales management, it is also commonly understood as the proper allocation of resources. It is unlikely that anyone would like to chase a lead with a plethora of resources and end up showing nothing. Just satisfy yourself of chasing right leads that are quite high in value so you can make the most of your high profits in the shortest period and with the least amount of effort.

Be sure to stick to your target market concept as closely as possible. It is vital to note that this is how potential customers will benefit the most from your product or service. Implementing a good lead scoring model is the best solution for identifying the most significant leads. You will be able to evaluate leads and potential customers according to certain criteria. Meanwhile, it will assist you in basing your priority list on who you would really like to focus on first before the rest.

So, if you are a crypto-currency business, you might not feel like spending most of your resources on prospects who are just getting started with crypto-currency. Moreover, in such a case, you would like to try to target those people who already have sufficient experience.

After all, potential customers have different types of value. That being said, you should accurately measure every lead you get, as well as prioritize them correctly. All of this will allow you to focus your business sales efforts on those leads that matter the most and have the highest potential to return value to your company.

Fortunately, you don't have to do these steps manually. The fact is that there are software packages for solving these issues. CRM programs are great search starters. For example, Bitrix24 implies a complex service that facilitates and optimizes the joint work of several departments of one company. The electronic solution combines tools not only for planning, delegation and analytics but also for business communication between employees and the like.

Tracking Key Pipeline Performance Indicators

When running a prosperous business, you should always keep an eye on your KPIs. You can make use of the collection of information and data to further ameliorate working strategies. Start with a daily review of your KPIs. This way, you'll surely find out if you have some extra resources so you can actively monitor what's really going on with the overall state of your sales pipeline. Moreover, competent monitoring will assist you in showing how your business is performing, as a whole.

Tracking business sales in real time will ensure that you are always at the top, especially when it comes to spotting negative moments before they become a real challenge. It will also help ensure that every sign of good business growth is maximized or integrated into your company strategy. Among the main performance markers that you can track in your sales management pipeline, you need to highlight the following aspects:

  • time spent on a trade;

  • number of trades you expect at the beginning;

  • the headway of the deals that you manage to close;

  • average deal size you work with.

Overview and Verification of Company Pipeline

The company pipeline as well as the manner you manage it is not perfect. The methods you use currently may become obsolete soon. At the same time, ROI is becoming less and less in demand. Deliberate stagnation in your business strategies determines that the enterprise is in a bad position.

Testing your pipeline process is similar to system testing. Just find a bottleneck in your business process and experiment with different practices that you can use to make it immaculate. In this way, you will protect your firm in the future, and be able to outperform business competitors.



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Pipeline management in Bitrix24

If you are looking for a simple and powerful CRM with multiple pipelines, consider Bitrix24. With over 35 tools for sales and marketing on board, Bitrix24 is a perfect tool for any business.

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