7 Stages of the Sales Pipeline:

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Prospecting, Lead qualification, Sales call or demo, Proposal, Negotiation, Contract signing, Post-purchase
How do you build a healthy sales pipeline in three steps?
For a pipeline to be considered healthy, it must flow. Prospects must move from one stage to the next in a set time frame or be filtered out from the pipeline. To ensure there’s continuous flow, reps should regularly bring in fresh leads, qualify those leads, nurture leads to increase interest in a purchase, and, ultimately, close deals. Reps can track this flow in a customer relationship management platform (CRM). Regular pipeline reviews are also important — they help you see which deals are stuck so you can determine what you need to do to get them moving again.

“You want to make sure your goals as a sales team are america phone number list reflected in your CRM, so that means having accurate data and updating your pipeline consistently as a prospect progresses from one stage to the next stage,” said Girmay.

Here’s how you build a strong, healthy pipeline:

1. Bring in leads that are likely to close.
Each company will have different criteria for what counts as a good lead, with many companies even using a lead scoring system to prioritize leads based on how likely they are to purchase. For example, at Salesforce, our lead scoring system is powered by AI to automatically prioritize leads based on existing customer and marketing data.

In many cases, however, you’ll need to follow up directly with leads to make sure they’re a good fit. Here are some common questions to ask when qualifying leads:

What pain points or needs do you have?
Do you have a budget for our solution?
Are you in a decision-making position?
What’s your timeline for purchase?
These questions ensure you don’t clog your pipeline with stagnant leads and throw off your sales forecast.