Sales Pipeline Health
Many organizations are proficient at managing their existing customer sales but fall short on the development of new opportunities. The key to maintaining a healthy sales volume is to create a steady flow of new customer opportunities, also known as "sales pipeline", which should include an equal amount of long-term and short-term opportunities. Many sales organizations identify with deals that close quickly (3-6 month time frame) or are worth high sales dollars, while failing to build long-term pipeline volume. As long-term opportunities turn to active, the space needs to be filled to keep the pipeline flowing. Maintaining this balance is critical to a healthy pipeline.
If a steady stream of new sales is the goal, then a constant prospect development process is required. If you operate in a business-to-business sales environment, your sales cycle most likely runs between 9 and 18 months (depending on the product or service that you offer). To support a successful sales process, your prospect pipeline development process should be generating 5-7 new qualified prospects per month.
