Building a scalable, predictable, and sustainable sales pipeline feels like a mystery, but it can be achieved inside your business without outsourcing the problem.
However, getting there requires businesses to adjust their mindset to what may have worked in the past and adopt new ways of working.
Scale: The power of multiplying channels and roles
Scaling your sales pipeline starts with the diversification of channels.
In a world where LinkedIn is a dominant platform for B2B sales, it's not just about how many profiles you have but how effectively you can activate them at the top of your demand generation funnel. This activation isn't just about outreach—it's about nurturing prospects throughout their journey.
And when we say profiles, we're talking about interesting and useful people in your team. It is not about company pages, but instead, subject matter experts that a prospect is more likely to want to engage with and doesn't carry a threatening 'sales' job title.
To truly scale, consider the breadth of your demand generation efforts. A hyper-scaled cold outreach engine can significantly expand your reach, but it requires more than just one channel or a handful of profiles.
Success in this area depends on your ability to leverage multiple profiles—preferably those of subject matter experts—across LinkedIn and other platforms to create meaningful connections with prospects.
However, scaling doesn't stop at demand generation. It extends into the structure of your sales team. The traditional model of hiring business development managers (BDMs) to oversee the entire sales pipeline, from outreach to closing, is increasingly outdated.
These roles are hard to fill with quality candidates, and when you do find the right person, they are often expensive.
A more scalable approach involves breaking down the sales process into specialised roles.
Consider employing entry-level team members equipped with the right technology, training, and guidance at the cold prospecting stage.
These individuals can manage the tools and tech stack needed for demand generation under the supervision of more experienced professionals. By dividing tasks, you can scale your efforts without significantly increasing costs.
In the middle of the funnel, where nurturing takes place, consider utilising commercially savvy relationship managers rather than traditional BDMs.
These professionals excel at building relationships and guiding prospects through the sales funnel without pushing hard sales tactics.
This approach not only increases the likelihood of conversion but is also more cost-effective and scalable.
Finally, at the closing stage, your need for multiple closers depends on your business size.
However, even with a small team, you can scale your efforts by introducing a variety of subject matter experts into your sales process. These individuals are naturally more attractive to prospects, making them more effective in closing deals.
Predictability: Leveraging data for consistent outcomes
A scalable sales pipeline naturally leads to predictability. As you run campaigns and manage your sales engine, patterns will emerge in the data.
This data - whether it's conversion rates from LinkedIn connections to conversations, meetings and pipeline progress becomes the foundation for making your sales process more predictable.
The key to predictability is scale. The larger the dataset from your campaigns, the clearer the patterns become.
Over time, you'll gain insights into what works at each stage of the funnel, allowing you to optimise your approach. Sales, at its core, is a process of conversion rate optimisation, and predictability is a direct result of refining this process through data analysis.
By continuously running campaigns and analysing the results, you can adjust your strategy to improve outcomes at every stage. This iterative process not only increases predictability but also enhances the overall efficiency of your sales engine.
Sustainability: Building a resilient sales engine
Sustainability in your sales pipeline comes from the people and processes you put in place.
By involving more team members in different roles, you reduce the risk associated with relying on a few key individuals.
This approach also mitigates knowledge leaks, which is a common issue when your sales engine is geared around the end-to-end salesperson approach.
With a more distributed sales team, if one part of the engine fails or needs adjustment, it's easier to make changes without disrupting the entire process.
This flexibility is essential for long-term sustainability, as it allows your sales engine to adapt and evolve with your business needs.
Moreover, building your sales engine in-house, rather than outsourcing it, enhances sustainability. When the entire process is under your control, you have full transparency and can make adjustments as needed.
This level of control ensures that your sales pipeline remains aligned with your business goals and can be scaled up or down as required.
Let's wrap this up
Building a scalable, predictable, and sustainable sales pipeline is not just a strategy, it's a necessity for modern businesses.
By diversifying channels, specialising roles within your sales team, leveraging data for predictability, and ensuring sustainability through in-house development, you create a robust engine that drives consistent growth.
As businesses continue to evolve, these principles will be key to maintaining a competitive edge in the market.