Streamline your sales funnel management for operations

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Sales pipeline and sales funnel. They’re two of the most commonly misused terms in B2B sales, partly because a lot of people use them interchangeably. But there’s a really important difference that you have to keep in mind. A sales pipeline reflects the major MILESTONES in a sales process, and a sales funnel measures CONVERSION rates through the sales process. Now…what does that mean exactly? Let’s take it from the very top. If you work in B2B sales, your team probably has a sales PROCESS. A sales process refers to all of the recurring actions that a seller takes on every lead from first contact to close. How are leads distributed? When and how does the first outreach attempt happen? What information needs to be collected from the prospect before a demo or presentation? All of those decisions, tasks, and to-dos from start to finish make up your sales process. The ACTIONS in a sales process are divided into PIPELINE stages. A sales pipeline is a set of stages that a prospect moves through as they progress from a new lead to a customer. Each of those stages represents a major milestone that has to be reached before a lead can move forward. Once the goal of each pipeline stage is reached, the prospect is advanced to the NEXT stage. What makes this a little confusing is that many sales professionals also use "pipeline" to mean the quantity or dollar value of the deals currently in their pipeline. It's common to hear a sales rep complain that their "pipeline is looking rough this month" because they didn’t do enough prospecting. Or their manager might call a "pipeline meeting" to discuss specific deals that the team has in progress, and how everyone is progressing against their quotas. What they're really talking about here is pipeline VALUE. By the way, you can keep track of your pipeline value in a CRM FORECAST report. A forecast report shows the value and quantity of every deal in each stage of your pipeline. This helps sellers understand whether they have enough deals in progress in order to meet their sales targets. Now let’s talk FUNNELS. A sales funnel represents the quantity and conversion rates of prospects through each of your pipeline stages. So for example, of the 100 leads you received last quarter, what percentage of them advanced from the Qualify stage to the PRESENT stage? What percentage of those leads advanced to the CLOSING stage? It’s called a “funnel” because of its shape: wide at the top as prospects enter, then increasingly narrow as they become disqualified, or decide not to buy at each stage of your pipeline. Many CRMs offer funnel reports that crunch these numbers for you. A funnel report is important for sales managers because it can help them identify where deals are getting stuck, so they can improve their process and better coach their team. So when you’re thinking about the difference between a pipeline and funnel, remember this: A sales pipeline represents the STAGES or major milestones of your sales process, and a sales FUNNEL measures the effectiveness or EFFICENCY of those stages. Got it? Thanks so much for watching, and please check out the link in the description for some sales pipeline templates that YOUR team can use to keep your best leads moving forward. See you next time.