Building a pipeline of qualified prospects can be a monumental task but it is necessary in order to maintain consistent sales of your products and services.  While every company will experience their ups and downs, having a well-developed sales pipeline will ensure your company is able to stay afloat even during the lean times.

Identify Your Target Market

What is your niche market?  In order to have a healthy sales pipeline you need to be targeting companies that fit your ideal buyer persona.  To do so, you need to clearly define your target market.  Which industries, verticals and micro-verticals are the best fit for your solutions?  This will help to narrow your audience and establish a stronghold on your biggest potential market.  This also makes your marketing efforts far more effective as you will be able to use detailed personalization to draw in prospects.

Pinpoint Your Differentiators

What makes your company, products and services different from your competitors?  Leveraging this information is essential in closing deals.  These can include experience, client longevity, talented personnel, a certain technology and a myriad of other factors.  Identifying these traits and bringing them to the attention of your prospects will give them more to consider than simply pricing.  Knowing what makes your company different will help you build a brand around those factors.

Develop A Pricing Structure

More often than not your ability to make a sale will depend on price.  You’ll want to research what your competitors are charging and compare your solutions to develop your own structure.  This may include building packaged pricing, developing trial periods and of course, determining what you need to charge in order to be profitable.  You’ll also want to research what kind of budget your target market has.  If those budgets do not align with your price points, you either need to change your structure or identify a different target market.

Create A Marketing Plan

Marketing is the driving force behind sales and a well-developed marketing plan is essential in building out your pipeline.  Having a plan is necessary to ensure consistent and measurable efforts.  In today’s competitive landscape this will include using a variety of tactics within a multi-channel marketing approach.  You’ll want to identify how your target audience gets their information and focus on those channels while complementing your outreach with other tactics to ensure your brand becomes well known within your target market.

Build A World Class Team

Talent, effort and attitude make a difference.  Whether it be your product development, sales or marketing teams, you want to ensure you have the right people in place.  Building out your ideal organizational structure and refining your hiring process are necessary steps for building and maintaining a healthy sales pipeline.  You will need people who have the talent to get the job done as well as a strategy for developing a company culture that fits your ideals and purpose.

Select Your Marketing Technology

Marketing technology has become an essential piece in the sales and marketing process as it allows you to implement your marketing plan while providing detailed analytics to measure the success of your campaigns.  The ability to have a holistic view of how your campaigns are performing will allow you to make data driven decisions on future marketing efforts.  Marketing automation allows you to stay consistent with your outreach and nurturing campaigns without having to use up all of your resources.  A quality CRM will help to keep your contacts organized.