What is a sales pipeline? Do you know the average time it takes to close a sale? How many commercial procedures do you have in process or are you going to close soon? The pipeline has the answer to this and many other questions. If you want to control and optimize your sales processes, this is your tool. Let's see what it is and how to get the most out of it. Content theme menu What is the sales pipeline? What is a sales pipeline for? What are the phases of a pipeline? How to create a Pipeline for a company? With what tools can a pipeline be made? What is the difference between Forecast and Pipeline? What is the sales pipeline? A sales pipeline is a visual tool that collects all the steps that are carried out from the customer's entrance to the moment of their final purchase. Many consider it the backbone of the business process because it makes it possible to track sales opportunities.
This tool does almost the same job as a sales funnel , that is, it allows you to know in which phase of the purchase process your client is. However, the difference is that the pipeline focuses on purely commercial actions (sales) and the funnel approaches the process from the perspective of inbound marketing . In other words: in marketing, the funnel is responsible for capturing and nurturing leads during the sales process, and the pipeline executes and records the actions necessary to close them. With this tool, clients are tracked in an organized way. In this sense, the precise movements that the sales team must make so that the client reaches the end of the funnel 工作职能邮件数据库 are indicated. But this does not end here, because it also allows you to design strategies to retain customers and thus avoid losing potential ones and include many more. Main indicators of a pipeline By implementing this tool you will be able to visualize some key metrics of your sales flow. For example: the number of current contacts, the average value of the offers made, the speed of sales, the conversion rate... Each business has to adapt and design its own "pipeline" according to the causes of its business. What is a sales pipeline for? The pipeline guarantees us to control our sales processes, detect opportunities and possible obstacles. 1. Understand your sales processes In B2B businesses or high-ticket products, the decision process is more thoughtful, and a sale can take 3 to 6 months, or even a year, to close.
Knowing the data of your processes will allow you to have a more accurate sales forecast and better control of your financial flow, both in terms of income and costs. 2. Monitor the health of your sales A healthy pipeline is one that has a recurring flow of potential customers that feed it, and from there, work through the different stages until they convert. 3. Detect possible obstacles in the process You know what percentage of prospects you convert in each phase. This tool allows you to detect if there is any stage in which the results are not optimal and thus be able to act accordingly. 4. Optimize your sales processes Knowing the health and status of your sales makes it easier for you to implement new changes focused on optimizing and making the most of your processes. Sales teams understand the flow, timing, and work it takes to move through each stage. 5. Measure your turnover You will be clear about what volume of business you are moving: from potential clients to closed sales, which products sell better, what is the average time to close the sale of that product, among others. What are the phases of a pipeline? Sales pipeline phases The Sales Pipeline is divided into different stages that are the ones that allow you to reach the final goal. 1. Discovery or awareness When the buyer identifies that he requires a product or service and your company is the one that can satisfy his need.
From the moment he discovers us, we have to work on his nutrition: lead nurturing . 2. prospecting The opportunity, which is what the client is called in this phase, makes a complete analysis of your brand. At the same time, you as a company must understand the needs of your buyer persona before launching your value proposition and continue to feed their interest in your brand. 3. Sales proposal It is the stage in which you launch your proposal and actively offer your product or service.