How to Build Quality Pipeline?

This year my team struggles to build quality pipeline. Almost 70% of opportunities were not being accepted by Account Executives and I had no clue why. Every time an opportunity was flipped to an AE, best case scenario was that there was always a long delay in accepting opportunities, worst case scenario, the opportunities were never followed up on and they died. After a lot of back and forth, I decided to call a meeting with the key SMEs involved in the lead generation process and finally get to the bottom of the issue. What came to light from uncovering all the issues inhibiting an opportunity from moving from 0% into pipeline was 4 key areas which ultimately become the strategy for building quality pipeline.

First thing we decided was to look at the data we had and analyze the trends we were seeing. We looked at conversion rate, push rates, customer profiles & segments and lead source. What we found for the majority of opportunities stuck at 0% and not yet moved by the AE into pipeline was that most of the opportunities were, in fact, marketing leads that did not fit our target customer profile. The ARPU per subscriber was either too low and therefore could not afford to pay the per user fee or the business was a small MVNO and therefore we could not sell to. This revelation encouraged us to adopt a robust 'lead scoring' process that would help BDRs focus on qualifying the right accounts.

Second thing we looked at was Qualification. Yes, we could see that in the majority of cases, there was some sort of pain identified however, in a good few cases, this pain was not explored further. It is important that BDRs not only identify the pain, but also identify the cost of that pain. Adhering to the 'Value Selling Framework' provides a structured way to explore the cost of the problem and knock on effect on other areas of the business. Spending some time training our reps to diagnose these issues upon initial qualification, made a big difference to conversion rates going forward and building quality pipeline.

In a previous company, a big challenge we came across was BDRs encouraging prospects to consider a site license and therefore the AE would need to quote for the actual number of licenses required as well as a site license with absolutely no business case or justification for going with the bigger license amount. Yes we saw an increase in the value of the pipeline, however, this was pipeline inflation! This made forecasting a nightmare! To avoid the scenario of 'happy ears' and give a true reflection of your discovery, I suggest sending a summary email to every prospect you speak to no later than 24 hours after your call. This makes sure you hold the prospect accountable for what they asked for on the call as well as providing a solid bridge for the AE to follow up on next steps.

The above three points were implemented and we managed to increase our conversion rate from 30% to 80%. This was a massive improvement but we still wondered about the remaining 20%. Why were these deals not progressing through into pipeline so my team can reach target. What we realized over time was that the missing piece of the pie was Feedback from AEs. Various reasons that did not match the above criteria such as 'they simply forgot to move into pipeline' or 'they didn't manage to have a call with the prospect and were trying to reschedule' were among the most common. Regular communication between BDRs and AEs is so important. This can become strained when AEs are working in the field and not in the office. Always make time to synch up with your AE to make sure you are building quality pipeline.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. If you have similar challenges and would like to get in touch, feel free to comment below or send me a message.