Categories: Sales Planning
Many sales organizations struggle with building consistent, qualified pipeline because their sales teams are spending too much time “working around the opportunities.”
The key to driving qualified pipeline is focusing your team on the territory, not the opportunities. When your sales team views their territory as their own business unit, they’re more accountable for the forecast and able to execute on next-level pipeline building.
Let's examine three ways you can switch up your team's approach to pipeline and give them the tools and agency to deliver more qualified opportunities.
The Franchise Mindset
Leaders can drive an operating rhythm around building pipeline at the territory level by establishing a franchise mindset.
Your ask to your reps in territory reviews should be, “What is your franchise doing right now to generate pipeline?”
With a sales franchise mindset, your reps own the plan to make the plan. They view internal players like marketing, partners, and front-line managers as resources available to help them drive greater profitability in their market. They're motivated to uncover high-value sales potential within existing accounts in their territory by digging in to territory whitespace and upsell/cross-sell opportunities.
Encourage reps to commit to pipeline activities that target specific accounts and develop a cadence around collaborating with internal partners. By taking ownership of their pipeline, sellers gain higher visibility into their forecast and potential risk in their pipeline, enabling them to work with front-line managers to solve problems before they stall deals.
A Value-Add Focus
The pipeline generation process is one of the greatest areas for sales managers to add value. As a sales leader, help your sellers build the activities needed to develop qualified pipeline:
- Analyze the territory whitespace and new accounts to be pursued
- Analyze the untapped space within accounts
- Determine the areas of greatest opportunity to build pipeline
Once the gaps are visible, sales managers can collaborate with the rep to move pipeline through the sales process.
It's important for managers to approach these planning sessions with an attitude of coaching, not compliance. It's not just about ensuring a rep updates Salesforce or goes through specific regimented activities of pipeline building -- they need to understand “the why” in what they’re being asked to do. They're motivated by the success of their territory, so help them connect how each activity can help them leverage the resources available to them to multiply their outcomes.
Leadership Accountability
Adapting your team's sales planning mindset can help you drive greater sales predictability. There’s no scrambling to close deals that aren’t ready. Your territory and account reviews are more productive and forecasts more accurate. You are a better sales leader because you leverage your own line-of-sight while enabling your reps to make their own “sales franchises” successful.
To achieve those outcomes, it's critical you take accountability for giving your team the ability to execute on the franchise mindset. Whether you're directing an enablement team or directly leading enablement efforts for a smaller team, you have to be accountable for providing the tools and skills to make this approach a reality. Leadership accountability for account planning looks like:
- Ensuring that each rep is assigned a territory of value and that has the ability to deliver quota.
- Ensuring that reps have access to internal resources, including managers that are capable of guiding them through the execution of their territory plan.
- Providing skills-based learning for the planning and prospecting process.
You can start enabling your sales team to greater sales planning effectiveness by inviting them to our upcoming strategy discussion with John Kaplan. We'll be discussing specific actions for both sales reps and leadership to master territory planning and drive strong, consistent pipeline. Sign up now and share the link with your team to get aligned on your new approach.
