Sales and Pipeline Management Processes
We work with your team to analyse, design and implement enhanced business processes for key areas of sales operations and management. Typically, we find two key processes are of critical importance to professional service firms:
As with all our work, we give an unconditional client satisfaction guarantee: If when the work is done, the client does not feel that full value was received, then the client decides how much it was worth and how much to pay.
Contact us for more details or to discuss your specific requirements.
Sales Pipeline Management
In today’s increasingly competitive world, professional firms must focus obsessively on maximising their sales opportunities. They must ensure that:
- They invest their sales time, resources and investments in the areas of highest return
- They achieve a regular flow of sales into the company to avoid damaging “boom-bust” cycles
- They are able to rapidly respond to the changing needs of customers and specific opportunities and adapt their sales tactics accordingly
- They can identify and diagnose which areas of their sales approach are working well and which need improvement
- They can accurately track and forecast their sales and take corrective actions where needed
Sales Pipeline Management is a key management tool which has been developed to address these issues – yet many firms fail to implement it effectively, if at all.
Many professional service firms still rely heavily on instinct, guesswork and “seat-of-the-pants” management to control their sales pipelines. As a result, many are trapped in a vicious circle where they over-focus on highly visible areas such as closing late-stage deals, and under-invest in key areas such as early-stage lead generation.
This leads to a further drying up of quality opportunities, a panic-driven focus on closing the few remaining opportunities in the pipeline at all costs, and more neglect of the critical front-end. For small or medium-sized firms – and particularly for sole practitioners – this can be even more crippling, as the key business-winners are often also heavily involved in the execution of sold work – and are easily dragged away from working on filling up the earlier stages of the pipeline.
The issue behind these problems is often the lack of a visible and rigorous sales pipeline management process. It doesn’t have to be complex – but it does have to be done.
Key Account Management
When selling to large companies - and particularly when selling multiple services to a network of decision makers - an increased level of co-ordination and planning is needed.
This can require a significant change in sales behaviour.
Firstly, an understanding of the decision network is required - rather than just the individual.
Then, relationships must be built with the key decision makers and influencers in the decision network.
This almost always requires a planned, team-based approach - something frequently alien to the individual-dominated business development cultures of most professional services firms.
Hiring decisions in these circumstances are often made using formal procurement processes - so professionals must learn what influences not just their primary customer, but also the other key players in the process.
Decisions are always a complex mix of rational, political and emotional factors - rather than purely rational territory that professionals are most comfortable with.