Pipeline Management – Prioritize High-Probability Sales Opportunities

As a VP of Sales, you know your reps don’t have unlimited time to work their live deals.  You must coach them to prioritize their Opps in the pipeline to ensure that they are on track to hitting its goals.  By analyzing the Pipeline and focusing on the highest probability opportunities  (i.w. to become a Won Deal).

This requires knowing the “Strike Zone” and understanding which top characteristics help you identify the opportunities that are most likely to convert.

 

Look at the following 7:

  1. $ Deal size – Large opportunities behave differently than smaller ones (they usually progress through the Funnel more slowly and convert into Deals less frequently), so you should think carefully about which large deals you want your reps to prioritize.
  2. Sales Cycle – Opportunities that have lingered in your Pipeline for significantly longer than your average Won Deal are less likely to convert, so you may want to discourage your reps from investing too much time into working them.
  3. Right target buyer persona – if you are targeting the typical buyer that buys from you then that is a higher probability Opp than the one which has an influencer involved but not the final decision maker.
  4. Higher level of sales activities – sales is a function of activities and connecting with the prospect.  If you see a higher activity level and responses from the prospect then that is a higher probability Opp.
  5. Inspectable commitments from the prospect – if the sales rep has email responses where the prospect confirms the qualifications and commits to moving forward then that is a higher probability Opp.
  6. Positive momentum – Opportunities that have stalled in their progression down the Funnel are less likely to convert into Won-Deals, and a rep who owns a stalled opportunity should either perform an action on it or cut his losses and move it to Closed-Lost.
  7. Engagement – Most Won Deals require a fair amount of attention from the reps working them, so opportunities that haven’t been engaged with as much are typically less likely to covert. (Also – how many meetings did the customers take – more meetings is a positive sign)