In order for your startup business to go beyond early adopters to mainstream buyers, your pipeline needs to grow. Your pipeline represents the business opportunities you have and the potential buyers you are in contact with. Scaling your pipeline allows you to generate more leads and revenue opportunities. Here’s what you should consider as you scale your pipeline for your startup.
Before you start hiring your first (or next) sales rep, you have to first make sure you have a sales process in place that you can repeat consistently. Without a process, it will be hard to measure your success and how you are progressing. To make informed decisions, you need accurate data. Without that, you are just making educated guesses on how much time you should allocate to your sales initiatives. When creating your sales process make sure it’s simple and structured so that it helps your reps succeed. Once your process is ironed out, your new hires should be able to contribute immediately because of a clear understanding of their tasks.
It’s better to have a hole than an a**hole. In other words, make sure to hire the right people. As the saying goes, “you are only as strong as your weakest link.” This is especially true in the startup world. As such, only hire a rep who has experience in your space, & possesses the attributes you are looking for. And take your time searching. It can also help to outsource SDR efforts to a sales agency. Before deciding to do so you should learn more about the benefits of using an outsourced SDR team.
To scale your pipeline to its fullest potential, it is helpful to have daily check-ins with your sales reps. If you don’t have the bandwidth to do it every day, do it weekly. Sales development is a long journey. Things can get very frustrating along the way. Sales reps will run into situations where they are not hearing back from their prospects, and if they are hearing “no” or “not interested”, it can take a toll on your rep. Regular check-ins with your sales reps will allow you to address:
Strategy Alignment
You want to make sure every rep is aligned with how your process works and that they use that process. If they have their own process, it will make it harder for you to track and optimize performance across your business. Make sure your reps are focusing on the same task so you can measure and monitor your sales process and progress. This will also give you the opportunity to understand the struggles some of the reps are dealing with. You’ll be able to better provide additional training, mentoring, or a performance improvement plan.
Team Morale
Morale is important for any team, especially the sales team. As a seller, you’re responsible for hitting your quota and contributing to revenue goals for the year. There are times of the year when selling can be difficult so it’s important to keep the morale of your team up. It’s important that each rep feels that they are supported by their manager and teammates regardless of success or failure. It helps to know that someone on your team has your back and is facing the same problems you might be dealing with. Lack of morale leads to a lack of motivation —- which leads to a lack of effort to build and grow your pipeline.
Finding a sales CRM that works for you can help you automate manual tasks. The bigger you grow, the amount of spreadsheets & reports you’ll have will ever increase. A sales CRM will help you complete these tasks faster allowing your reps to spend more time prospecting and less time creating reports. Look for a sales CRM that is easy to use and won’t require weeks of training. CRMs are meant to simplify the salesperson’s job. While Salesforce is one of the more popular CRMs, there are many to choose from. It’s all about identifying where your company is at in terms of growth, and what you can afford.
Since your sales process is clear and concise, you should be able to identify what the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are for your team. You can use this information to identify trends and make smarter decisions on what direction to take your team. With your CRM you have a level of transparency between you and your team. You can see who is consistently hitting their targets and double down on what’s made them successful. You can also see who needs assistance to get back on track. It’s important to get in front of possible problems to ensure your reps are hitting their KPIs by the end of the year. Use your insights to make tough decisions!
The process of scaling your pipeline is very important to how your business grows. By using the tips above, you can build and maintain a healthy sales pipeline, putting you and your team in the best position to hit your sales goals. Using these tips, Key Outreach has been able to assist with SDR efforts for many clients, connecting them to decision-makers and scaling their pipeline in the process. If you’d like to learn more about our services, contact us here!
