Time to Clean Out Those Pipes

Are your sales pipelines feeling a bit clogged lately? Well, welcome to the recession, says Scott Gillum in a recent MarketBridge blog post. "With customers delaying and/or postponing decisions altogether, the ol' pipeline ain't what it used to be," he notes. But, lucky for us, he then offers 7 Pipeline Management Tactics to help get B2B sales flowing again. Among his tips:

Apply a layer of BANT. "By qualifying and re-qualifying opportunities based on Budget, Authority, Need and Time, you will get to the bottom line on why leads are not advancing," Gillum advises. "Reps will say that it's 'B,' but I wouldn't assume that," he adds.

Define a lead, and stick to it. "Look, it's going to be a difficult road, but be honest with yourself on what is truly a lead," he says. "Leads are defined by meeting a BANT criterion." Period.

Manage responses. You can still strike it rich here. "So sort the 'junk,' and find the diamonds in the rough, pick out the ones who are in the right companies or have the right titles, and work them," Gillum advises.

Grab customer face time. "It's during these times that you need to have your reps in front of customers," he insists. "[T]hey can tell you why [they aren't buying], when things might loosen, who you need to get to, etc."

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