Finding partner success and AI value
Posted: Wed May 28, 2025 4:21 am
From my perspective, it’s all about trust and responsibility going forward. For most of our customers, this is the beginning of their AI journey. AI can transform how business works. It can streamline existing processes and improve efficiency across teams. It’s on all of us to upskill and train our employees and customers to learn these new capabilities.
Salesforce interviewed fellow AI pioneers at World Tour London to hear their views on how generative AI is changing the industry. In the following articles of this AI Day series, we discuss the topics our most influential partners shared with us. We’ll cover why trust, transparency, and data security is top of mind. We’ll also dive into why it’s essential to look for compatible use cases to meet customer needs, and how being part of the partner ecosystem is helping partners support our joint customers.Sellers love the close. But focusing solely on the close is like a marathon runner trying to take a shortcut — you might get ahead, but you’ll be kicked out of the race. The best sellers, like the best runners, log the steps and embrace the journey to success. That’s where a healthy pipeline comes in. It gives you the structure and guidance to build strong relationships and secure consistent deal wins.
That may seem like quite a hurdle, but we’ll show you how to build a healthy sales pipeline, step by step with the help of sales software.
What you'll learn:
What is a sales pipeline?
Why is a sales pipeline important?
How do sales pipelines work?
What are the stages of a sales pipeline?
How do you build a healthy sales pipeline?
What tools do you need to build and maintain a pipeline?
How do you evaluate and improve your sales pipeline?
How to clean up your sales pipeline
What is a sales pipeline?
A sales pipeline is a visual representation of where each prospect america phone number list is in the sales process. It helps you identify next steps and any roadblocks or delays so you can keep deals moving toward close.
A sales pipeline is not to be confused with the sales funnel. Though they draw from similar pools of data, a sales pipeline focuses on where the prospect is in their buying journey, which helps reps determine what they should do to keep deals moving. A prospect lingering in the negotiation stage, for example, may need a change to product price to move them to the contract stage.
The sales funnel is also a visual representation of the sales process, but from the customer’s point of view. Think of it as the conversation that happens in a prospect’s mind as the steps of the sales process progress, underscoring their level of engagement and “buy in.” This ranges from awareness at the start of the sales process — “This is a cool new product” — to evaluation and purchase towards the end of the process — “I have to make sure this product has all the features I need before I buy.”
Salesforce’s Zig the Zebra mascot standing in front of a sales pipeline dashboard.
Salesforce interviewed fellow AI pioneers at World Tour London to hear their views on how generative AI is changing the industry. In the following articles of this AI Day series, we discuss the topics our most influential partners shared with us. We’ll cover why trust, transparency, and data security is top of mind. We’ll also dive into why it’s essential to look for compatible use cases to meet customer needs, and how being part of the partner ecosystem is helping partners support our joint customers.Sellers love the close. But focusing solely on the close is like a marathon runner trying to take a shortcut — you might get ahead, but you’ll be kicked out of the race. The best sellers, like the best runners, log the steps and embrace the journey to success. That’s where a healthy pipeline comes in. It gives you the structure and guidance to build strong relationships and secure consistent deal wins.
That may seem like quite a hurdle, but we’ll show you how to build a healthy sales pipeline, step by step with the help of sales software.
What you'll learn:
What is a sales pipeline?
Why is a sales pipeline important?
How do sales pipelines work?
What are the stages of a sales pipeline?
How do you build a healthy sales pipeline?
What tools do you need to build and maintain a pipeline?
How do you evaluate and improve your sales pipeline?
How to clean up your sales pipeline
What is a sales pipeline?
A sales pipeline is a visual representation of where each prospect america phone number list is in the sales process. It helps you identify next steps and any roadblocks or delays so you can keep deals moving toward close.
A sales pipeline is not to be confused with the sales funnel. Though they draw from similar pools of data, a sales pipeline focuses on where the prospect is in their buying journey, which helps reps determine what they should do to keep deals moving. A prospect lingering in the negotiation stage, for example, may need a change to product price to move them to the contract stage.
The sales funnel is also a visual representation of the sales process, but from the customer’s point of view. Think of it as the conversation that happens in a prospect’s mind as the steps of the sales process progress, underscoring their level of engagement and “buy in.” This ranges from awareness at the start of the sales process — “This is a cool new product” — to evaluation and purchase towards the end of the process — “I have to make sure this product has all the features I need before I buy.”
Salesforce’s Zig the Zebra mascot standing in front of a sales pipeline dashboard.