Is your business experiencing wild swings in revenue?
This may surprise you, but putting too much emphasis on closing business is actually counterproductive to increasing your revenues.
What?! Let me explain.
Every time you close a sale you should be adding three to four more leads to your pipeline. When you’re concentrating too much on closing business it detracts focus from gaining new leads. Before long, you will have no new leads to close business with, and this is what causes swings in revenue or sales whiplash…as I like to call it! Don’t worry, dear sellers, there are ways to avoid this.
Are you wondering how you can attain consistent sales?
The secret lies in knowing that there must be a balance of activity in each stage of the pipeline. Make sure your team is actively balancing the focus between opening, qualifying and closing leads each week. It’s your job as a leader to monitor, measure and coach your sales team during each stage of the pipeline…not just closing.
You want to get into the habit of talking to your team consistently about generating leads. It’s very easy to get too attracted to the idea of closing a sale and in turn lose focus on other parts of the pipeline. Make it an equal emphasis for your team to qualify and generate lead attraction, they should be encouraged to participate in prospecting activities very frequently.
[bctt tweet=”Remember your team will only treat each stage of the pipeline with equal importance if you make it a priority. ” username=”EngageColleen”]
The beginning of your pipeline (i.e your prospecting) presents a direct indicator to whether or not you’re on track to reaching your future revenue goals. If you don’t simultaneously foster the top of the pipeline while closing business, you will find yourself struggling to attain and close new business.
Actively focusing on all parts of the sales pipeline also makes it easier to predict sales results. It’s also no coincidence that my very best clients all make it a priority to pay close attention to all stages of the pipeline.
I’m not saying don’t celebrate your closing accomplishments, it’s just important to celebrate quickly. Never get so wrapped up with the allure of closing a sale that you forget to prospect. A balanced and consistent approach to your pipeline will ensure that you’re setting up for tomorrow’s success.
Let me help you by providing tactical feedback on how to address your greatest business challenges and dramatically improve your results along the way. Learn more here.
How do you actively ensure that all stages of your pipeline are being focused on?
In terms of balancing where a sales person spends their time (assuming you have repeat business or ongoing contracts) it’s also good to spend a fair amount of time looking after the clients you already have.
It’s no good to keep adding people to the top of the funnel if you let good customers fall out the bottom
Great article, Colleen! My team would find this really helpful and informative for sure! If you or your readers are searching for a phone intelligence platform that integrates CRMs and phone systems, enabling companies to enhance prospect and customer interactions. I Hope you and your readers can give Tenfold a try. https://www.tenfold.com/tenfold-explainervideo