Balancing Near and Long Term Opportunities | Sales Strategies

I have been thinking a lot about pipeline building recently, specifically, a sales rep requirement to not only look short term at the deals within their pipeline that they should be closing, but also to look into the future in order to build the pipeline that they need to close business in the first place.

How do you make this calculation? If you said to me, “Colleen, when I get a lead in front of me and I’m working through the qualifications, it takes me at least 6 months to close,” I would tell you that it takes 6 months to nurture a pipeline that’s big enough for you to hit your goal.

The magic in sales is that it takes the same amount of time to close a deal as it does to build your pipeline.

That is the vision that the salesperson needs to have. You need to be looking at the immediate to work through all of the leads that are already in your pipeline to move them through the sales stages and see them close. You also need to be looking into the future in the same amount of time forward as it takes to close said deals in order to build the pipeline for the future. Only then do you ensure a nonstop sales boom because you’re closing now and creating closing deals for the future.