It Is Back to Basics

“Back to Basics”

The fifth studio album by American singer Christina Aguilera. It was released on August 9, 2006, in the United States through RCA Records as a double album.

It was a recent question from a journalist on sales pipeline management best practices during an economic downturn that sparked my interest and thinking.

I am a 25+ year sales leadership veteran that has gone through two economic downturns, the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2000 and the financial crisis in 2008. So, what are my top tips or hacks for managing your sales pipeline in an uncertain economic environment?

(1) Believe in the process, and stay with the program. When the going gets tough, those basics are often ignored. If the sales process and the pipeline management best practices are proven, they apply no matter what the economic environment is like.

Sales teams often get worked up over the prospect of not making top dollars on commissions and bonuses, and then they make short-sighted, ad-hoc, and gut-feel-based decisions rather than believing in the process. The execution of a proven, repeatable process is always the best bet.

(2) Keep the focus on the top of the funnel. Especially when sales slow down and the pressure on the team to deliver the numbers increases, they develop a tunnel vision. They tend to focus on the ever-shrinking number of opportunities at the bottom of the funnel and try to get those across the finish line. With hope and prayers, they are regurgitating these opportunities and ignoring the fact that with time the likelihood of closing those shrinks.

What is needed now is fresh blood and new opportunities entering the sales process. Keeping a focus on the top of the funnel ensures success.

(3) Do not discount. Discounting seems like an easy fix to get a deal across the finish line. And customers ask for it, stating that their business is not doing well, pointing at the economy, sharing that your competitors are discounting, and if you just were to do it, you would get the deal.

Maybe? And even if you are successful in closing a deal by offering a discount, the psychology that is at work when you do has detrimental effects: You are saying that you don’t believe enough in what you’re selling that you think you can sell it for the standard price. You’re showing your cards and proving that you have a weak hand. And when you offer a discount, there’s no going back. You will be stuck with it forever. Do not discount.

It is back to basics.

Talk to us to find out how a fractional or interim sales leader can support you.

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Photo by author and Lena Kulla