A sales pipeline provides sales and marketing teams the visibility required to improve their efficiency and revenue growth. According to the Vantage Point research, about 72% of sales managers prefer to review the sales pipeline to enhance the entire sales process.
Why is it important to track Sales Pipeline Generation
The sales pipeline provides a high-level visual snapshot of sales process prospects. Whereas sales pipeline generation includes different stages of the buyer’s journey or sales process giving detailed insights on leads. For B2B sales, it allows to
- Enhance sales process
- Predict business results
- Analyze several sales strategies
- Review progress for the financial year
- Know targets and strategize to achieve them
Tracking your sales pipeline generation metrics improves your pipeline management. According to the Harvard Business Review study, companies invested in pipeline management enhance the sales process. This leads to an 18% difference in their revenue growth compared to companies that do not follow a formal sales process.
What are the sales pipeline metrics to track?
Systematic sales pipeline metrics tracking fills the pipeline with better opportunities. It also helps teams understand the progress of revenue goals. Some of the metrics obtained from sales pipeline analysis are discussed below:
- New Qualified Leads: Without qualified leads, marketing and sales teams cannot successfully close deals. Tracking pipeline generation metrics helps revenue teams understand
- How efficiently do activities generate new leads?
- Does the company have sufficient lead volume to reach the revenue goal?
- Does the sales team focus on lead quantity at the expense of quality?
- New Opportunities: This is one of the important sales pipeline stages as it indicates when the buyer has shown intent to purchase your product or service. More qualified leads can be translated into sales opportunities by implementing strategic sales pipeline generation ideas.
- New Booked Meetings: Either face-to-face or virtual meetings help identify serious opportunities in the sales pipeline and provide a chance to increase the pipeline conversion rate. Sales tracking software gives insights into the new meetings booked with leads that may turn into closed deals.
- New Closed Deals: The final step in the sales pipeline is a closed won deal that directly translates into revenue. This metric helps organizations understand the strengths and weaknesses in their sales and marketing processes.
- MQL to SQL conversion rate: The sales and marketing team should be aligned and on the same page for successfully qualified leads. The MQL to SQL conversion rate provides information about collaborated and unified strategies of the sales and marketing team.
Other sales pipeline generation metrics you should be tracking include win rate percentage, average deal size, customer acquisition cost, LTV to CAC ratio, total pipeline value, and CLV to CAC ratio.
How to optimize your pipeline generation plan?
An optimized sales pipeline generation plan is key to successful sales and marketing campaigns leading to increased sales and hitting the targets. Sales pipeline generation ideas include:
- Follow Up: Customers have multiple options for various products and services. Thus, they need assistance choosing the exemplary product or service. The sales team should follow up with leads for a successful sale. A decade ago, sales professionals could close a deal in 3.68 sales calls, which has increased to 8 today. So, following up is an important asset that can be achieved through reminders or automated processes.
- Review and Improve Pipeline Processes: Sales pipeline generation plans and strategies should keep up with market trends and demands. The dynamic market needs your pipeline processes or sales techniques to improve regularly. Sales and marketing teams should often review and experiment with new approaches to overcome bottlenecks or blockages in the sales pipeline.
- Regular Pipeline Updates: The sales pipeline constantly changes with the addition of new leads and their stages in the sales pipeline. The sales pipeline must be organized and up to date for efficiency and successful deals.
Improve your sales pipeline health with accurate tracking
Tracking your sales pipeline metrics helps you monitor your sales pipeline health. You get the insights to improve sales pipeline generation plans and strategies. This is crucial for the growth and revenue generation of modern businesses as well as to align the sales and marketing functions.
