🚰 Is Your Sales Pipeline Leaking Revenue?

Pipeline maintenance turns into consistent revenue

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Welcome to Sales Skills For Founders, a weekly newsletter with one actionable skill for sellers who are tired of tips, tricks, and scripts. AI isn’t going to close deals for you so let’s master sales, one skill at a time.

Today’s Skill: Pipeline Audits

Keeping your pipeline organized and up-to-date is crucial for a smooth sales process. Regular audits help ensure that every opportunity proceeds without issues. I recommend weekly pipeline audits to keep things tidy and manageable.

Why Audit Your Pipeline?

You need to understand what’s happening in your business. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. In this case, it’s detrimental.

Imagine not knowing your monthly expenses. You'd hope there's enough money to cover them but you’re simply guessing if you are above your take home pay and by how much. That's no way to plan or prepare. That’s how you get yourself in trouble.

The same logic applies to your sales opportunities. You need to know where every opportunity is at all times. You need to know what is near-term and what isn’t. You need to be on top of it.

To run a top-notch sales engine, conduct regular audits of your pipeline.

P.S. → Keep the pipeline clean, too.

Getting Started

  1. Organize Your Pipeline by Date, Not Stage.

    → We talked about “stages” last week and why they are important to your sales process. But, Stages are less important than close dates for forecasting. They are helpful but ultimately to know what is coming in we want to put a focus on what will happen in the next few weeks or months. Structure your pipeline to view opportunities by their projected close dates.

  2. Review Monthly and Quarterly, Not Beyond.

    → Projections further out than a quarter are likely to have too many unknowns. Discuss these opportunities but avoid marking them as "committed" until you are more certain.

  3. Dedicate an Area for Notes and Next Steps.

    If anyone needs an update on a specific opportunity, they should check the CRM. It should show recent activity and the next steps. A dedicated “next step” field with current status and upcoming actions is a great place to start.

Pro Tip: Your first pipeline audit might take longer. But, weekly reviews (and keeping your CRM clean) will make future audits much quicker.

Recommended Pipeline Audit Steps

1. Review Opportunities Closing This Month

Spend under 2-3 minutes per opportunity reviewing:

  • Steps to Closing: Do you know all of the steps to closing?

  • Potential Hurdles: What’s likely to slow down the process?

  • Concerns: Any red flags that could derail the deal?

 Action Item: What is the next clear action item that needs to be taken for each of these?

2. Select 3-5 Mid-Stage Opportunities Closing This Quarter

Spend under 5 minutes per opportunity to confirm:

  • Decision-Maker Involvement: Are key players engaged or are they always being informed through your point of contact?

  • Evaluation Process: Is a clear evaluation process or defied timeline? Are there other vendors being evaluated? Do you know how a decision is getting made?

  • Next Steps Scheduled: What is the next step? Are we in control of that? Is there a next conversation already on the calendar?

  • Concerns or Red Flags: Is there anything that might cause this deal to lose momentum?

Action Items: How do we keep these opportunities engaged without a gap in communication or a clear next step?

3. Choose 1-2 New Opportunities Added To Your Pipeline

If time allows, spend a few minutes on each to develop a plan of action.

  • Main Problems to Solve: What are their current pain points or key problems that they need to solve?

  • Opportunity Source: How did this lead come about and do we have any influence on it?

  • Next Scheduled Step: What’s the immediate action to keep this moving?

  • Excitement Factor: What potential do you see in this opportunity and is the potential client eager to solve problems or “window shopping”?

  • Red Flags: Are there concerns we should be calling out up front?

Action Items: Is there any clear timeline for when they need to have this problem solved?

The Goal of a Pipeline Audit

A good audit helps you uncover:

  • Any unaddressed details in your deals

  • Challenges that might interfere with closing

  • Missing information you need to make sure is captured

It’s easy to get lost in daily tasks and neglect the pipeline but doing so will impact your deals. When you don’t keep a close eye on your opportunities they can end up losing momentum.

Be proactive. Keep details current, be critical during audits, and address issues head-on.

Pro Tip: Don’t let “happy ears” distract you from real challenges!

Timing and Frequency

Run your pipeline audit weekly, ideally on Monday morning, to build momentum for the week. Allocate at least 30 minutes to ensure that you update every opportunity.

Without a clear view of your pipeline health, you cannot predict revenue. You also can't explore new markets or find where deals are slipping.

Make pipeline audits a habit and set yourself up for consistent growth.

Your Action Item

Get all of your opportunities up-to-date right now!

Keep them updated regularly when changes happen. It’s a continual process you must keep on top of. This way, an audit becomes a strategic review of the opportunity. It is not an administrative exercise in updating details or activities.

This will help you get clear on your next steps which will be the focus of next week’s newsletter.

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