Pipeline by Stage
Setting sales priorities starts with knowing the status of each opportunity in the sales pipeline. You want to see a good proportion in later, close-to-closing stages. Even more valuable with the use of Decipher is the ability to compare and contrast trends over a time horizon for instance by quarter for the past 5 quarters. As an example, looking at the Pipeline by Stage shown here identifies that early-stage opportunities (in blue) are getting "stuck" and growing (where chance to win is a low %) and later-stage opportunities are shrinking (with higher % chance to win). This could indicate that future sales forecasts are in trouble.
Pipeline by Age
To drive more revenue, increasing pipeline velocity is a key objective. When a sales pipeline is growing fastest in the Over 200 Days age category and shrinking the most in the Zero to 50 Days age category, it is an unhealthy sign. A healthy sales pipeline should instead show that "young" opportunities are steady or growing proportionally as the size of the pipeline is growing. Viewing aging over a number of quarters helps you clearly understand how well your velocity is holding up and how it might be changing, and can also drive changes in marketing or sales strategies that will improve pipeline velocity.
Pipeline by Rep by Age
Setting sales priorities also requires facts about the pipeline of each sales rep. Resources are always scarce and need to be focused on not just the best opportunities or channels but often where the best performing reps can be brought to bear. In addition, good sales reps performance can vary over time and gaining visibility into these changes, particularly negative changes, is best viewed by assessing, and as needed, drilling into your sales pipeline by rep.
Pipeline by Rep by Stage
Sales reps can have quite different profiles when comparing their pipelines by stage. It might be a result of one rep being assigned opportunities that are different than the others but more importantly might be a rep with disproportionate number of opportunities that are "stuck" in certain stages. For example, the rep in the far right bar (see chart) has a clearly different pipeline (more opportunities, plus opportunities at every stage) than his peers. Reviewed regularly, this view can identify anomalies, make further analysis more efficient and pinpoint where someone is above or below the norm, or where a rep's trends are changing versus what results they were achieving in the past.
Pipeline by Rep by Type (new or existing)
Individual reps should have a healthy balance of new and existing (repeat) customers in their pipeline. The ideal balance is driven by your unique business goals and situation, but typically, pipeline snapshots and trends that reveal extremes are useful for pointing out early on if trouble is looming . For instance, Mitch (see chart) has good proportion of repeat business opportunities while other reps such as Ahmad are pursuing mainly new business (with probably lower chance to close and win than existing customers).
Lead Source Quality
For many companies the front-end of the sales funnel is often more like a “sales sieve” as marketing dollars are wasted on lead generation activities that don’t have a direct correlation to closed business. Lead generation powers your pipeline. Identifying the sources for lead that are most effectively driving high quality pipeline opportunities will ensure that the best performers get necessary investment and top priority. Decipher provides wins, losses and yield information for different lead sources to guide you in making that decision.
Activity Duration for Wins & Losses
Do you know at what interval to contact your sales leads in different stages of the sales cycle? Is weekly follow-up with a prospect in qualification stage too little or too often for your business? Decipher tells you the optimal duration between activities at different stage of the sales cycle for winning deals. It also analyzes lost opportunities and provides insights whether longer or shorter duration between the activities is the real cause of lost deals.
Average Number of Activities for Wins
We all know what Sales Activities look like, right? Sales Activities are the execution of all your hard work planning and preparing. These activities may include the sales calls and meetings, negotiations or follow-ups, closing a deal or order taking, and relationship building and networking. Easy to manage? Easier when you are prepared and carry out your plan. In order to get the most out of your sales team, it’s essential that target quantities of each of these activities that will produce winning results are identified, and each salesperson’s quantities of activities are measured against the target.
Average Number of Activities for Losses
Does your sales team spend too much time on lost deals as compared to won deals? Comparing Average Number of Activities for Losses to Average Number of Activities for Wins will give you insights on when you should take the loss and focus your scarce resources to the next opportunity. The intent is to create a combination strategy that optimizes the activities of your overstressed sales force and supports that optimal approach with a plan that provides clear direction and firm support for their efforts.
Neglected Leads & Opportunities
Research indicates that as many as 80% of sales leads are neglected or mishandled. You certainly can't afford that kind of inefficiency with your most critical sales opportunities. Are you tracking leads and opportunities which had no activities today? This week? This month? Sales growth can easily be improved simply from capturing those neglected sales opportunities. To build lasting relationships, you must check in with leads and opportunities on a regular basis.
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