Effective pipeline management will help you win more deals and keep your customers happy. Too many companies don’t take advantage of the power and full potential of pipeline tracking. Read on for some tips to help you effectively manage your sales pipeline and maximize your sales potential.

1. Choose a Good Pipeline Tracking Tool

Choose a good sales pipeline tracking tool so you can be sure that you’ve got the ability to automate the tracking of your pipeline. A tool that’s easy to use is going to make your job easier. Choose something that lets you collaborate with others, gives easy access to your information, and provides you information for actionable results. The right software tool won’t slow you down; it’ll make your job easier. Review at least a few CRM tools to find the one that’s right for your organization. (Tip: Try Base now. It’s a simple and effective CRM and it’s free.)

2. Update It Right Away…. As Updates Occur

If you save up your sales activities and updates on specific deals to put them into your pipeline tracker in batches, you won’t get the maximum benefit from your software and you’ll defeat the purpose. You’ll also increase the chances of forgetting important details. Put information in your sales pipeline straight away as updates happen. This helps you keep information up to date (which is better for reporting to your boss and for collaborative purposes). If you’ve chosen a good tool, you should be able to easily update your CRM and sales pipeline tracker on the fly.

3. Start Your Day Off by Checking It

The best way to maximize your productivity is to tackle your day with a plan. Starting each work day by checking your sales pipeline will help you decide which activities are the most important and which activities will pay you the best dividends.

Tip: Do the hard stuff first. Tackling the most challenging tasks first thing increases the chance of success and lowers your stress levels because your day will usually get progressively easier instead of progressively more difficult.

4. Do a Regular Pipeline Health Checkup

On a regular basis, check the health of your pipeline. Examine your results and ask yourself questions:

  • What percentage of my deals actually close?
  • Is my sales forecast accurate?
  • Where do the vast majority of the losses occur in the sales process?
  • Why do I usually lose deals before they get a chance close?

Regular interaction with your sales pipeline will help you manage customer relationships, develop deal closing strategies, streamline your sales process, teach you to avoid costly sales mistakes, and help you stay on track to continually increase profitability.