Despite the best laid plans sales pipelines can remain frustrating and non-productive. It is not that they don’t work. What doesn’t work is the idea that one can build a “no-brainer pipeline” that a prospect can just roll down and come out the other side a closed deal.
Of course not too many believe that a pipeline is that idiotically simple but the false hope that it might be can contaminate the whole works. Fortunately a pipeline can be made to work but only when the wild cards are taken into consideration.
And what are those wild cards? Those would be the sales people and their prospects - the human element. Builders of pipelines often tend to think and plan in terms of assembly lines and patterns, these can work beautifully and with wondrous efficiency but only for putting bolts on tires or caps on bottles – not in systems that deal in deeply independent decision points.
One cannot man up a sales area with automatons following a defined sequences. The idea that every decision could be replaced with a “if a customer says A then do B” approach will fail miserably even if just from the point of alienating the prospect.
The tackling of decision points lies at the center of any sales activity. That is what salespeople have to be able to do otherwise they are just overpaid order takers or animated promotional pieces. And so we come to a RULE:
The core of sales is being willing, able and trained to assist someone in the process of either changing or making up their minds about a product, service or activity. Sales areas that cannot do that will fail – no matter how many shiny mailers they send out or webinars they might host.
Every sales or purchasing event requires a decision. Even routine purchases, supplies and such, are based upon previous decisions that were formed and are now maintained in place. If you have ever tried to change a prospect’s mind about one of these routines you know very, very well what mighty boulders those established decisions can be to move.
True: The greater the potential for multiple or variable decision points then the greater the need is for an established pattern or pipeline.
False: Assuming that the pattern could ever be a replacement for true knowledge, understanding and familiarity with a job, a product line or the handling of a customer.
The first step in fixing those pipeline leaks is to just toss the idea that if they only had a system that was good enough automatons will make good sales staff. The key to a successful system will always lie with developing the salesperson’s ability to think within that pipeline.
So go ahead and build those pipelines, smart and strong, but don’t forget what makes them work – well trained, well drilled and competent sales staff that can recognize, define and properly handle decision points with their prospects and so achieve a close.
And finally, getting that job done and keeping the effort going forward takes considerable management dedication. It is never a matter of putting it up and walking away, systems and pipelines demand constant vigilance and creation. In the long run the key to success and the greatest challenges can be found on this point as nothing stays the same - staffs come and go, new products emerge, campaigns evolve and markets change.
A powerful human development system such as the Real Ability management system and software can be invaluable in providing the tools to not only build the team and pipeline but to keep them running well into the future.
Thomas Soracco
Real Ability Software and Management Systems
www.realability.com
Technorati Tags: sales training, sales process, employee development, sales pipelines
