Remember in college (wait, should I stop there?) how messy you were? How after cleaning your room at the end of the school year you would find lost memories from September? Or how, for lack of a better term, disgusting your kitchen was, and how nice it looked when you cleaned it before moving out? It’s nice to clean things, and your sales and marketing pipeline is no different. This task may not be as monumental as cleaning your dorm room for the first time, but by taking 5 steps, it could come pretty darn close.
Look at this Mess You Have!
Before you go running over to jam more leads into your already clogged pipeline, take a step back and look at the leads that are already in there. Maybe you forgot about one or two? Reach out, see if you can continue to move them through the process. Maybe some have gone completely dark, unresponsive to anything and everything you’re throwing at them. Maybe they even left the company you were communicating with. Make sure to do your research, find out if the data in your CRM is accurate. If it’s not, well, then you’re just wasting your time and resources dealing with problems that could be avoidable.
Don’t Forget the Little Guy
In marketing, the bigger the fish (lead) the better, right? Right. But, sometimes you have to focus on the little guy too. Low-scoring leads, though low-scoring, can still prove essential to any business if nurtured properly.Being that they are low-scoring, don’t spend too much time crafting high level content for them; a quick email to educate and build a relationship will do. And who knows, they might convert. Your goal is to move them through the pipeline, not have them get stuck. Also, fun fact, smaller leads are great for those of you with a small team size who can’t pump out content by the hundreds. Take your time with these leads, they’ll blossom.
The ABM Factor
ABM is all about personalization. It expects that the content you deliver to your accounts is engaging, personalized, and customized; it wants you to make the individuals reading or experiencing your content feel special. With that in mind, apply a little sprinkle of ABM to the content that you’re giving to the leads sitting in your pipeline. This “newfound” personalization may be the trigger that causes them to move forward in the sales process. Also, apply this practice to your new accounts entering the pipeline to ensure that they’re getting great, engaging content from the start. After all, everyone wants to feel like the star of the party.
Speaking of ABM…
While on the subject of ABM (account-based marketing), its important to point out that another huge part of this “strategy” (it’s more of a company mindset) is that all the leads that you engage with are qualified. And if you’re putting two and two together, qualified leads will move through the pipeline more quickly than, say, “Jimbo’s Mysterious Questionable Shop of Leads” (or unqualified leads, I tried). The reason why they’re moving through your pipeline faster is because these are the accounts that fit your ICP (ideal customer profile) and the personas within them are accurate. Therefore, they’re interested in whatever your offering, and the speed at which they’re moving is faster than someone who has no interest at all.
Map it Out
Usually if you plan something out beforehand, it pans out better in the long run. Birthday party? You have to make sure that the invitations get sent out and the pizza arrives on time. Trying to go on a vacation? You can’t go anywhere without a hotel to sleep in. Moving accounts through your pipeline? You should probably have a content calendar ready for your clients. You should plan out your touchpoints ahead of time to make sure that each account is getting the nurturing it needs. Different accounts can start at different stages in the buying process so you just want to make sure you always have the appropriate content to deliver. If you don’t, well, things are going to start piling up and clogging your pipeline. You don’t want that now, do you?
Well there you have it folks, 5 tips and tricks to increase your pipeline velocity. Though they may sound easy when you read them, they actually take a lot of time to correct and implement, so if you notice some clogging, you better get the plunger ASAP! As always, make sure to leave a comment below with any questions you may have in regard to this topic, and I’ll do my best to answer them accordingly. Well be in touch.