What is a Sales Pipeline?

A sales pipeline is a visual representation of the progress of a prospect through stages of your sales process or cycle. It also shows you existing deals and what their values are. The sales pipeline allows the sales reps to forecast the revenue and predict how many deals will close during a given timeframe.

A healthy sales pipeline for B2B sales offers:
An improved sales cycle
Visual forecasting of business deals and revenue
Insights and analysis of sales strategies
Lead handling and allocation of resources to close more deals
Review progress and growth of organization
Predict and track your progress and target
  • An improved sales cycle
  • Visual forecasting of business deals and revenue
  • Insights and analysis of sales strategies
  • Lead handling and allocation of resources to close more deals
  • Review progress and growth of organization
  • Predict and track your progress and target

It also plays a key role in closing more deals as well as predicting the overall future of your company.

Sales Funnel Vs Sales Pipeline

A Sales Pipeline represents the stages that a prospect goes through to become a customer. It represents the number of prospects making it through those stages. A sales pipeline works in different steps in the sales process - from gaining the lead to closing the sale. The sales pipeline looks internally at the stages that your marketing and sales teams need to move a prospect through, to turn them into your customer.

A sales funnel, on the other hand, looks at the entire customer journey, from brand awareness to making purchases. It is customer-focused and focuses on the stages of the purchase journey of a customer.

Close More Deals and Predict Revenue Based on Sales Pipeline 6 Stages of Sales Pipeline

Stage 1

Lead Generation

When it comes to lead generation, there are various methods of doing it. Usually, you create a user persona of your ideal customers and reach out to the prospects through paid or non-paid campaigns. These leads are then captured in the CRM through the integration process.

Stage 2

Lead Qualification

Lead qualification is among the crucial steps in the sales pipeline stages. The record of an opportunity is identified with potential customers and created in the CRM, marking the first step towards closing a deal.

Stage 3

Sales Call

During this stage of the sales pipeline, the sales reps contact the leads to enquire about their business requirements and help your team in mapping the services against the prospect’s needs.

Stage 4

Schedule Demo or Meeting

Once the lead is convinced with your services after the initial contact, the next step is to schedule a demo in the sales pipeline.

Stage 5

Negotiation and Commitment

After the lead has expressed its interest in buying your services, you come to the negotiation stage. You can negotiate on the price, services, and more to ensure a profitable sale.

Stage 6

Deal Closure

The last stage of the sales pipeline is lead closure. This is where you record the outcome of your deal and mark it - won or lost.

Do More with Tutterfly Sales Pipelines

Enhance Sales Cycle

Easily identify the stages where the leads stagnate and work on making the process smoother.

Sales Forecasting

By calculating the total value of deals in your pipeline, you can predict the revenue based on your conversion rates.

Quickly Analyze Sales Strategy

Sales pipeline analysis allows you to recognize faults in your sales strategy so that you never lose a potential prospect.

Improve Decision Making

Get insightful reports on the pipeline to make important sales and service-related decisions.

Review Your Performance

Track the performance of your business in terms of revenue and work on sales strategies to accelerate growth.

Win More Deals Faster with Tutterfly CRM

Closely track your leads as they progress through the sales cycle with leading sales pipeline management software

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Frequently Asked Questions

Sales pipeline management software is a business tool that provides organizations with visibility into the sales processes. It works by tracking the sales cycle - from the time a lead enters the system to the conversion part and even beyond. In order to manage sales pipelines, businesses use CRM software.
A sales pipeline can be defined as a visual representation of lead progress in the sales cycle in a CRM. The pipeline also predicts the deals sales reps are expected to close in a given time interval and how close they are to reaching their targets.
Some of the main sales pipeline stages are- prospecting, lead qualifications, demo/meeting, proposal, negotiation, opportunity won, post-sales.
Sales pipeline management is all about changing supporting the sales reps so that they are more likely to close any active deals. While sales forecasting, on the other hand, is about predicting the targets for tomorrow.