20 reasons for using a Sales Pipeline Process and how this works and is embedded in CRM software

1. Using a “Sales Pipeline Process”
20+ reasons to
have a “Sales
Pipeline” and
Process embedded
in your CRM

2. Introduction
This ebook is intended to give you some further ideas, which
space precluded from featuring in the recent MAS blog.
The reasons and benefits listed are the result of a recent
Sales Enriched Training course group task with Arrivista
where delegates were asked to name their reasons “for” and
“against” why a Sales pipeline is critical for businesses.
As Simon Williams, Managing Director of Arrivista
commented:-
“Without a Sales pipeline, companies do not know where
they are going or what they need to do. This is a fundamental
requirement for all businesses with paying customers.”
Getting your own team to list their own reasons “for” and
“against” introducing or using more a Sales Pipeline could be
illuminating!
Sales Pipelines are one of the core functions of any CRM
system.

3. 20 Reasons why you need a
Sales Pipeline Process
This ebook is divided into looking at how a
sales pipelines helps various roles:-
1. Sales People
2. Sales Management
3. Marketing Management
4. Owners/Directors
5. Why you don’t want to use a Sales
Pipeline!
6. Why using a CRM system helps this process
(with screenshot of a number of systems)

4. 1. Nine Benefits for Sales People
1. Sales Pipelines help the Sales person see
how they are likely to perform against
quota and importantly if they need more
opportunities to hit their quota or target.
2. Sales person are able to press marketing
for more support and engage in feedback
loop on the best opportunities and what is
working and what is not!
3. Easy reporting for the sales person to
enable their own tracking and maintain a
focus on what to close and when an
opportunity needs to be closed as well as
stopping anything “slipping through the
net”.
4. No more missed opportunities since key
dates and expected close dates can be
seen.

5. 1. Nine Benefits for Sales People
5. Sales Person can see their own
Opportunities at a glance and can now focus
on these (if you measure it, then you tend to
see better results). So it is for their benefit
6. Helps a sales person know and estimate how
much commission can be made and when.
7. It’s a job protector for a sales person i.e.
with plenty of future opportunity they can’t
sack me!
8. “Its my comfort blanket” – If I lose a deal,
but I can immediately see all the others I can
still work on.
9. Sales persons now have the capability to see
at what “stage” and when an opportunity is
due to “close” and importantly how long it has
been open, leading to the building up of key
metrics such as “average time to close” (by
type of business, client etc).

6. 12 Benefits for Sales Managers
1. “Won” and “Lost” metrics can be
measured in a consistent way. In our
view, it is often as important to find, track
and measure why a sale was “Lost” as
well as why it was “Won”.
2. Sales team using Sales pipelines perform
better and hit quota more often than
those with an ad hoc approach.
3. Easy to Report on what is happening with
Dashboards, Instant Reporting (with
CRM).
4. Methodologies such as SCOTSMAN can be
applied consistently and added to the
CRM opportunities customisation for
better tracking and feedback.
5. The Monday morning Sales Meeting
becomes quicker, no more chasing for
Excel spread-sheets, enabling the key
opportunities or problem opportunities
to be focussed on, freeing up time.

7. 12 Benefits for Sales Managers
7. The weighting of Opportunities with
probabilities gives both Sales and Management
a stronger feel for likely actual sales (using a
common process is again critical here).
8. CRM can include workflow automation, so if a
Sales has certain value or probability or an issue,
Sales Management can be instantly informed, by
a system email for example.
9. Good comparative tool – 1 sales person takes
3 months to close a deal, the next takes 3 weeks
– what is he doing right that we can all learn?
10. Maximise use of CRM system functionality
such as in-built reports and helps to consolidate
the usage of the software.
11.Now able to measure conversion ratios, by
Type of opportunity, by Campaign Source and
adjust marketing mix to increase Sales Leads.
12. Review which Sales people are doing well
and which need more help and support.

8. Benefits for Marketing Managers
1. Marketing can see instantly by the “source”
of opportunity which of their campaigns are
most effective and repeat or adjust
accordingly.
2. Marketing now know what is happening
with the Sales Lead and which ones lead to
opportunities.
3. CRM system make the reporting easy and
replace the weekly excel spread-sheet.
4. Marketing now have an instant ‘feedback
loop’ to review their campaign process and
which campaigns create the most/best
opportunities .
5. Campaigns can be created to develop types
of opportunities meaning marketing spend
can be optimised.
6. Sales Team and Marketing can work better
together and move more into alignment to
support each other.

9. Benefits for Directors/Owners
1. Management now have a one-stop view and ability
to instantly see what has changed and why as well
as now having an ability to take action.
2. Senior Management can see the pipeline details
and CRM gives the ability to see a Whole company
sales pipeline across many Sales People or Teams.
3. Sales people now can’t hide and are accountable
and responsible for their own pipeline.
4. Having a Sales pipeline means using introducing or
adopting a common Sales Process methodology for
tracking and actions, this in itself is known to
improve sales performance.
5. All the details behind the opportunity are now
visible and can be tracked and reported on and
delved into if required.
6. Management now have a stronger capability to see
possible cash flow and manufacturing implications
far in advance
7. Marketing can be tasked and actioned to improve
leads with clear understanding of which campaigns
are working and what sales Team need to meet
their quota, based on facts.

10. More Benefits for Directors/Owners
8. Management are now able to help and support key or
problematic opportunities and focus on these (for
example, why has that opportunity been open for 6
months, if the average is 3 months). This all helps sales
people hit their quota.
9. Management don’t need to worry about holiday, illness
and can “pick up the baton” if next actions are clear when
the unexpected happens.
10. With a Campaign/ Opportuntiy ‘source’, management
are now able to review the mix between new and existing
client generated business.
11. Having to use a Pipeline helps with the user and
adoption issues tremendously in CRM. “If its not in the
system , it didn’t happen”.
12. People buy businesses based on their future potential
success, not the past i.e. your pipeline is key in defining
what people will pay for the business.
13. Further to the above, the sales pipeline is your asset
which you can borrow funds against.
14. Introducing Sales pipeline, means validating often the
importance and usefulness of a CRM System.

11. Why using A CRM system Helps
1. Senior Management can see the pipeline details
and CRM gives the ability to see a Whole
company sales pipeline across many Reps.
2. Introducing Sales pipeline, means validating often
the importance and usefulness of a CRM System.
3. Ownership of opportunities can be clear using a
CRM system, reducing friction in larger sales teams
and reducing management time in resolving these
(since most CRM software has a creation date
embedded for the Sales Opportunities and even
Company/Lead).
4. Solution Selling methodologies such as
SCOTSMAN/Miller Heiman and other Sales
Strategies can applied consistently and added to
the CRM Opportunities customisation for better
tracking , feedback and enhanced Reporting.
5. CRM systems typically have a whole host of
reporting and from the screenshots below, there is
a clear consistency of approach.

12. Why using A CRM system Helps
6. Workflow can help to notify and improve tracking of
notes for example for changes in due date, stage,
probability, value. Managers can be notified instantly
7. Win/Loss reasons can be instantly and quickly
tracked and monitored
8. Changes in tracking can be monitored in your CRM
system easily, such as Stage Changes
9. Sales are able to follow up on “Lost sales” in your
CRM. As an example, you may lose the initial sale, but
we have examples, where a client who purchased a
system, six months, later came back to us which
resulted in a £20000 order. So, never give up! We
created a simple “follow-up on lost sale” task, it may be
lost, but many not be lost forever!
10. CRM helps to bring sales and Marketing together
since each has visibility over the others actions,
encouraging close working and a feedback lop based on
facts.

13. “Why Not use a Sales Pipeline?”!
These are taken from a recent review, but you can see
how many reasons for compared to against. This is a
good internal exercise if you do not have a Sales
Pipeline at present. Recent comments include:-
• “Managers can’t see what I’m working on!”
• “Gives me more control over my customers since I
know what is going on”
These first two reasons were actual comments from a
Arrivista training assignment to a Sales Team.
Other reasons we can think of, include:-
• Sales Manager’s enjoy chasing and sales people like
being chased for their Excel spread-sheet on a
Friday afternoon or over the weekend for the
Monday morning weekly or monthly Sales Meeting!
• This is reciprocal for the Sales Person having their
weekend interrupted or doing the update
preparation on a Sunday night! We have all been
there!

14. Some Examples of CRM Pipelines
A View of the Opportunity Dashboard in GoldMine, sorted by “Stage”

15. Example of CRM Pipelines
A List Based View Opportunity in ACT!, sorted by “Stage” with customised columns

16. Example of CRM Pipelines
A List Based View of Opportunities, “All Stages” with customised columns

17. Example of CRM Pipelines
A List Based View of Opportunities, “All Stages” with customised columns

18. Example of CRM Pipelines
A List Based View of Potentials i.e. Opportunities, “All Stages” with customised columns

19. Example of CRM Pipelines
An individual opportunity showing the Stages from Qualify to Close in New MS CRM 2013

20. CRM Pipelines – What’s common
• As you can see, there is a commonality
amongst all these CRM applications,
but the key elements remain:-
– Company/Contact
– Opportunity Name
– Value
– Stage
– Close Date
– Probabilities
– Account Manager/Owner
Plus additional columns are often added
depending on the functionality and clients
needs.
However, all are very clear in the
information they impart and this can often
by exported or showing in further reports
and dashboards

21. Conclusion CRM and Sales Pipeline
A Sales Pipeline is a key requirement for all businesses
with paying customers who need to have a better feel
of their likely income over a given period.
From our own perspective, the introduction of CRM
and effective use of CRM is often closely related to the
need for a Sales Pipeline.
With a CRM system you are able to :-
• Have instant up to date Dashboards
• Using a Sales Pipeline process is proven to
increase:-
– Quota attainment
– Visibility
– Tracking
– Ability to respond and plan
– Improve Marketing Campaign effectiveness

22. What Should I Do Next?
MAS have spent many years managing CRM
implementations and have gained a wealth of
experience and ideas to support our process. The
need for a single overview of Sales Opportunities is
often a key requirement for the introduction of CRM.
So, if you are looking into how a CRM system can be
used to create and measure your Sales Pipeline or
indeed how you can improve your existing CRM to
embed this process, speak to a MAS consultant to see
how we can help on 01905 380920
Or visit this page to learn more about either our CRM
Audit and Review service or the CRM Discovery
Review.
If you are interested in SalesEnriched then contact
Arrivista on 01905 621566
More
Questions?