At the risk of stretching a simile, your sales pipeline is a bit like a faithful hound. It requires your attention on a daily basis. It should be a source of constant delight, and maybe an occasional surprise!
Also, like a faithful dog, it needs to be fed a proper, appropriate diet, or it’s not going to grow healthy and strong.
- Feed it the right kind of food. A growing puppy has different needs from a snoozy senior. You wouldn’t feed a Doberman on Chihuahua Chow. Similarly, the leads you’re feeding into your sales funnel should be, as much as possible, targeted and suitable for your business. If you’re selling fitted kitchens, say, you’re not going to get a great response from a batch of leads who all rent their homes.
- Feed it the right amount. Get this wrong, and you’ll end up with a sad, starved dog or a portly pooch. Similarly, you should know how much business you need to thrive, and how much would represent a glut that you might struggle to satisfy. Keeping the leads coming in predictably at a healthy rate is vital if you’re going to keep everything running well.
- Feed at the right rate. My dogs get their food in two meals per day, which suits them best. Even with dried kibble, it’d be a disaster to dump a month’s worth of food into their bowls at the start of each month and expect them to manage their own consumption until the next batch arrived! Similarly, for most businesses, buying in a load of leads at the start of the month (or quarter, or even the year!) and expecting them still to be fresh weeks or months later is not a great plan.
Ideally, then, you should be feeding your sales funnel with a regular, healthy supply of appropriate leads that will support your business goals. This is something we call the Rhythmic Acquisition of Customers, and it’s definitely something worth cracking. Let me know if you’d like a hand…
If you’ve any questions, or you think I might be able to help, I’d be delighted to hear from you! You can always email me, call me on +44 2393 96 06 42, request a (virtual) meeting or, if you prefer, fill out and submit the form on my Contact page and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.