If you look at your sales pipeline right now, can you count at least one huge deal that has been there a long time and promises to be the game changer/make your year/validate your business event?
Most sales pipelines (especially those from early stage companies) have at least one large 'deal' that sits there. The reasons are many and predictable - have not received a yes or no, wants to meet again, still looking for who has budget, project owner changed, re-prioritizing projects due to budget constraints, gone silent, etc.
The bigger the deal, the more important to you, and the longer it sits in the pipeline as a whale but not making any real movement means it will not happen in a time frame that is meaningful to you - this quarter, this year, before funding, etc. That doesn't mean it won't happen. It just means it will come together when it comes together if at all.
Chase big deals but be disciplined about measuring progress including having clearly understood desired end states at each step in the sales cycle that signify meaningful progress versus more meetings and email exchanges that provide limited clarity. Mostly, and it sounds corny, don't put all your eggs in one basket as it rarely works out when and how you imagine.
Great post. Is the pipeline lying or is the individual lying to himself/herself/others?
Goals/objectives must be revisited as the environment changes and as the marketplace delivers feedback. Just becuase a target is in the pipeline does not mean that it should sit there forever. Targets should come on / off as resources and actual opportunities are developed.
Time is a precious resource. Five minutes wasted on a useless pipeline target is five minutes that should have been spent on a target more likely to close.
Posted by: Michael | May 27, 2009 at 05:26 AM