The Pot of Gold at the End of Your Pipeline

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, let’s talk about a pot of gold…but not at the end of the rainbow, but rather at the end of your pipeline…as in your sales pipeline.

You have no doubt heard the Irish myth that a leprechaun is standing guard over a pot of gold at the end of any rainbow. While I can’t promise you that is true, I can promise you that is the case when, as a salesperson, you commit to some basic principles of pipeline management. Unfortunately, what many salespeople believe is a pipeline is just a pipedream.

A pipeline is supposed to be a predictive indicator of future revenue growth. It is supposed to be your current inventory of opportunities that have a solid chance of closing in the next 30 to 90 days. And your pipeline is king. I will say that again – pipeline is king. There is no other leading indicator that even comes close in its importance to your sales success.

The Three Key Components of a Strong Pipeline

There are 3 parts to an accurate pipeline:

1. The value of the deal (salespeople tend to exaggerate this number)
2. The estimated timeframe (salespeople tend to be way too optimistic on this)
3. The probability percentage of winning the deal (again, salespeople are way too optimistic)

Remember what the rock group Styx said back in the ’70s? You’re fooling yourself, and you don’t believe it. (For reference, that was off The Grand Illusion album in 1977…if you don’t know what an album is, I can’t help you with that.)

So how healthy is your pipeline? Here are 4 signs of pipeline health:

1. Lots of stuff entering the top of the funnel…you are always up for a conversation with anybody at any time…there should be a steady flow of new names entering your pipeline.
2. Lots of movement between deal stages…initial conversations becoming validated prospects, who then become qualified prospects receiving presentations.
3. More than a handful of prospects telling you no…if not, then you are not qualifying like you should. And most of these no answers should come prior to your presentation.
4. Wins coming out the end or the bottom of the funnel.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all of you…and thank you, as always, for reading along. Maybe there really is a leprechaun out there somewhere. I know there is a pot of gold. Go find it, friends.