Pipeline management companies engage in activities like cold calling to generate leads for their clients. While this can help clients with reduced sales teams, pipeline management companies often lack experienced personnel and technical expertise. Younger companies may be better candidates for improved pipeline management services focused on sales support through activities like demo presentations, navigating prospects, and organizing meetings to contribute more to closing deals. However, sales support requires a different skill set and longer timeline than lead generation, and all involved must properly manage expectations.

1. What is PipelineManagement?
• A short explanation of Pipeline Management
• Pipeline Management Companies (PMC) usually
engage larger technology companies, e.g., IBM, and
take over outsourced demand generation, mostly
doing the cold calling for product line campaigns
• A PMC will sometimes also perform other marketing
tasks for their clients such as email blasts and webpage
development
• Pipeline Management Companies are relatively new to
the market, <20 yrs.

2. What justifiesPipelineManagement?
• Third party cold calling could possibly breathe new life
into moribund sales campaigns
• PMC could assume the marketing efforts for a product
that is only being minimally marketed by the client
• A different “set of eyes” on a project, i.e. third party
perspective, etc.

3. Justification(Client side)
• What is the justification for third party pipeline
management from the client perspective?
• Client company has reduced and/or reorganized their
sales force
• Client company is experiencing problems in sales of
certain product lines and/or services
• Organization does not want their sales reps to spend
their time cold calling and to spend more time on
“higher level” sales activities
• Other miscellaneous reasons

4. What Doesn’tWorkand Why
• Typical product line campaigns being proposed:
• Client may be looking to offload the campaign
• Last alternative to retiring product?
• Historically problematical sales?
• IT services (End-to-End) campaigns:
• All encompassing lines of service to propose
• PMC always trying to catch prospect with a supposed need
and then sell niche or whole bundle, etc.
• Timing has to be right in terms of contract sale and/or
renewal

5. What Doesn’tWorkand Why (2)
• Personnel related issues:
• Many resources who work for PMC’s generally do not have
enough technical background (a certain amount is helpful)
• Above fact forces the business development reps to rely on a
‘script’ and follow on questions for the prospect
• Analogous to fishing for marlin with fresh water line and pole
• PMC operations management is often lacking necessary
experience as well
• If nothing else the caller should make a credible impression
upon the prospect, but if you just mouth canned words, how
will that appear to the prospect?
• A PMC should weigh the number and type of clients they have
(and want to take on) viz. the number of business
development on staff, etc.

6. A few suggestions…
• Here are some ideas on improving the nature of pipeline
management:
• Reduce the number of business development representatives on
staff to a concentrated core of people that have appropriate
backgrounds --- Fewer people, Higher skills.
• Reduced but higher skilled staff will be able to deliver a different
set of services in addition to lead generation
• Reduce management in relation to reduced staff and
management should reflect level of experience as well
• Management should be able to participate in the work also
• Apply effort to win a focused set of clients and deliver a better set
of services to them

7. Examples of New Services
• Why not deliver services that are better designed for sales support?
• Examples:
• Delivering presentations describing the client’s solution
• Running a demo of the solution (ideally with customer data)
• Specific tasks such as running a demo and speaking to some
(high to mid level) aspects of the solution and benefits and
added value for prospect
• Navigate the prospect organization to work with champions and
responsible management and others
• Help get buy-in from these individuals
• Organize necessary meetings during sales cycle
• If the client is going to outsource part of sales then why not
outsource parts of your processes that would contribute more to
closings, etc.?

8. Required Resources
• What is required?
• Qualified personnel for sales support roles in PMC’s
• The specialists need to have the appropriate skills and background
• Specialists need to be highly functioning and able to perform
independently
• Sales specialists need not be co-located, but working in a
distributed network
• Vendor needs to have information infrastructure in place to support
the sales specialist network
• Sales Support team needs to be a self-contained unit with links to rest
of LG organization

9. Potential Market
• Who would be potential candidates for revised PMC services?
• Large companies such as IBM, HP, would not be; these companies
perform their own sales support and that is not likely to change
• Companies that have complex products that are system-intensive
are also not good candidates.
• Mid-level to startup technology companies could have better
potential for services.
• Smaller sales staff, fewer resources for sales support
• Emphasis and focus on sales is still developing
• Solutions should be less complex to demonstrate, explain, etc.
• Smaller organizations can influence length of sales cycle

10. Reality Check
• Sales Support has an entirely different set of expectations and
metrics:
• Sales does not imply ‘quick hits’ , i.e. as in generating leads –
accumulating one after another, etc.
• Sales process activities take place over a prolonged period of time
• This period has it’s own limit, but longer then in generating leads
• Requires a planned strategy and patience
• “Building towards a crescendo”
• Everyone needs to realize that nothing will be immediate
• Aids: Experience and Knowledge
• Everybody involved has to know how to properly set customer
expectations, this is the *baseline* for success in customer facing
relationships

11. Conclusion
• Business development is part and parcel of the sales process, albeit
the first few steps in the sales process
• Business development and the rest of the sales process differ in
activities, skills required, process, metrics, and expectations
• Post lead generation (initial step for business development)
requires fewer, but higher skilled resources who can work
independently and in concert with their organization
• Ensure close cooperation between team members – and make
sure that everyone is on the same page.