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Given the tough competition in B2B sales, several factors have made it important to manage the speed of sales through the sales pipeline for growth in sales revenue. The sales pipeline velocity is also known as the rate at which each deal progresses in the sales pipeline from MQL to SQL through to the closing stage. Increasing this metric enables organizations to shorten the sales cycle, increase cash flows, and experience overall higher sales efficiency. In this article, the focus is on the best practices for increasing sales pipeline velocity based on real-time B2B data and cases.
Let’s delve into key strategies for enhancing each component.
1. Increase the Number of Opportunities
Lead Generation and Qualification
Improving the approaches towards generating leads and improving the existing methods for lead scoring are the initial ways that can help in generating more opportunities. The high quality of the leads results in a stronger pipeline.
Data-Driven Targeting: By understanding prospecting and leveraging analytics, organizations can extend their reach toward promising clients. For instance, IBM employs predictive analytics to optimize its lead targeting, which in turn boosts the generation of leads by 50%.
Marketing Automation: Many companies use marketing automation systems like HubSpot or Marketo to reach out to leads in a personalized and timely manner to help guide them through the funnel. Forrester has revealed that businesses that handle lead nurturing effectively get 50% more qualified leads at a third of the cost.
2. Enhance Average Deal Size
Value-Based Selling
Applying value-selling methodology is useful in explaining the key value propositions of the solutions you provide for a higher price.
Solution Selling: Concentrate on serving various niches by providing solutions for particular business issues. For example, Salesforce uses solution selling, which has helped close large contracts since it solves multiple business problems.
Cross-selling and upselling: Increasing transaction sizes by rebuilding with existing clients includes offering related products that they might need or upgrading them to higher service offerings. Smarter recommendation technology is used in Amazon Business to single out suitable products for existing clients, which increases the average order volume.
3. Improve Win Rates
Sales Training and Enablement
Employing extensive sales training and enablement helps prepare the sales force for competitive advantage and improve their ability to close deals.
Consultative Selling: Professional training of the sales teams is another way of enhancing consultative selling because it equips the team with a better understanding of clients’ needs and how to respond to them. CSO Insights also reports that companies with a formal sales enablement process have closed at a win rate of 49% as compared to 42.5% for those without.
Sales Playbooks: Through the creation and use of the sales playbooks, any approaches and strategies that are followed in the sales processes are standardized. According to Gartner, firms that implement sales playbooks experience a 15% improvement in their win ratios.
4. Shorten the Sales Cycle
Streamline Sales Processes
Minimizing any hindrances to the overall sales process can go a long way in shortening the sales cycle.
CRM Integration: CRM system integration with other tools means that there is no break in data transfer, improving the efficiency of the sales team. According to Salesforce, organizations that implement CRM solutions witness a 29% boost in sales productivity.
Automated Workflows: Sales follow-ups, data entry, and other similar tasks are time-consuming and can be effectively replaced by artificial intelligence. According to Forrester research, the use of sales automation can decrease the sales cycle by 14%.
5. Case Study: Cisco’s Sales Pipeline Optimization
To improve the sales pipeline velocity, Cisco, a market giant in networking and information technology, followed a strategic blueprint. With the help of sophisticated analysis tools, the company singled out several major delays in their sales pipeline. They implemented specific sales training and employed a solution-selling method, which greatly enhanced their success ratios. Moreover, they synchronized their CRM with marketing automation systems, which made lead nurturing and qualification effortless. Therefore, the sales pipeline velocity at Cisco increased by 20%, which means faster revenue realization and a better competitive position on the market.
Conclusion
Accelerating the velocity of a sales pipeline is always a management challenge that involves concentration on lead quality, size of deal, win rate, and time taken to close a deal. In essence, with the right data-driven approach and sales and marketing enablement best practices, B2B companies can optimize the velocity of their pipeline. This not only increases the rate of revenue generation but also optimizes the organizational sales performance, which leads to long-term success in a competitive environment.
