Best Practices to Help SMBs Grow Pipeline

Are you a small to medium sized business looking to grow your sales pipeline and generate more revenue? Perhaps you're just starting out. Or perhaps you've been doing this a while but something isn't clicking with regards to your bottom line. What are some best practices for pipeline development and growth? 

1. Create your vision

• Who is your target audience? Knowing your customer inside-out will help you target your prospects and engage more effectively. Most importantly, make it a point to understand the buying patterns and behaviors of your target customer.

• Who is more likely to buy your offerings? Prioritize prospects you're most likely to convert before expanding to broader markets. 

• What's your specialty? Is there an underserved demographic that you can reach? Do you have a value add in a specific segment that other competitors do not have? 

2. Generate leads through leveraging strategies

• Have diverse lead gen channels: Utilize a diverse range of channels—including content marketing, social media, referrals, partnerships, direct outreach, and paid advertising—to expand your reach and reduce dependence on any one source.

• Social Media Marketing: Build a strong presence on platforms where your target audience is most active. Share compelling content, engage in conversations, and respond to comments to foster trust and generate leads.

• Content Marketing: Produce valuable resources like blog posts, ebooks, webinars, and videos that address your audience’s challenges and establish your brand as a trusted authority. According to Network Solutions, 91% of B2B marketers include content marketing in their strategy.

• Referral Marketing: Motivate happy customers to refer others by offering incentives or launching a referral program. As reported by Exploding Topics, businesses with structured referral programs see higher conversion rates, quicker sales cycles, and greater customer lifetime value.

• Networking and Partnerships: Collaborate with industry peers to broaden your reach and enhance credibility. Joint content initiatives or co-hosted events can attract new leads and strengthen brand visibility.

• Paid Advertising: Run targeted PPC and social media ad campaigns to reach specific audiences based on demographics and interests. Continuously optimize your campaigns to improve ROI and attract qualified leads within your budget.

3. Lead nurturing and conversion

• Develop a lead nurturing process: Build relationships with potential customers by providing valuable content and resources at each stage of the buyer's journey.

• Implement lead scoring: Assign numerical values to leads based on their firmographics, behavior, and engagement levels to prioritize those most likely to convert. TechnologyAdvice notes that using a lead scoring system can initially decrease lead volume but increase the percentage of qualified leads and conversion rates.

• Personalize communication: Segment your audience and tailor your messaging and content to meet their specific needs and interests.

• Consistent follow-up: Establish a system for timely and personalized follow-ups via various channels like email, phone, and social media.

• Use social proof: Showcase customer success stories, testimonials, and reviews to build trust and credibility with potential buyers.

• Focus on providing solutions: Shift the focus from selling to understanding and addressing your customers' needs and challenges. 

4. Sales pipeline management

• CRM System: Implement a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to centralize lead and customer data, track interactions, automate tasks, and gain insights into your sales pipeline.

• Define and standardize sales process: Establish clear stages and processes within your sales pipeline to ensure consistency and efficiency in lead qualification, nurturing, and conversion.

• Align Sales and Marketing: Ensure both teams have a shared understanding of lead qualification, collaborate on content creation and messaging, and track shared performance benchmarks.

• Regular pipeline reviews and cleanups: Regularly review your pipeline to identify potential issues, address bottlenecks, remove unqualified leads, and refine your strategies.

• Analyze Pipeline Metrics: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates, deal size, and sales cycle length to monitor progress, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions. 

By adopting these strategies and utilizing the appropriate tools, small businesses can develop a strong sales pipeline, efficiently nurture leads, enhance conversion rates, and ultimately achieve sustainable growth and profitability.

Contact us and set up a thirty minute consultation to see how we can help you gain deeper insight into your pipeline process.