The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Let’s not sugarcoat it: if your CRM is just a place where deals go to die, you’re doing it wrong.

A well-run CRM should be your sales command center—a real-time snapshot of what’s happening, what’s coming, and where the money’s hiding. But too often, it turns into a digital mess that’s part to-do list, part graveyard, and all frustration.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

If you’re a sales leader looking to get more predictability, performance, and profit out of your pipeline, start by locking in these 3 CRM musts:

Sales managers, let’s talk about the lifeblood of your team’s success—your sales funnel. If it’s weak, your sales will be inconsistent. If it’s strong, your team will have a steady stream of deals to close. Your job? Make sure it’s built for success. 

Here’s how you can strengthen your team’s funnel and keep revenue flowing.

In this Quick Take episode, we're exploring one of the most crucial aspects of success as a business: the ability to keep your sales pipeline full. 
 
By the end of this short episode, you'll have 10 effective tactics at your disposal to ensure that your sales pipeline is never empty. 

As a sales manager, you know the frustration of watching your pipeline slow down to a trickle.

When you need a boost of new opportunities to drive revenue quickly, it's time to look beyond your typical marketing channels.

Here are five lead sources offering a "short route to revenue" to help fill your funnel quickly.

As a sales manager, imagine how much better your life would be if you were consistently able to:

• Forecast with better accuracy
• Improve the sales performance of your team

These elements are important, and delivering one or the other is not an option. When you have a healthy sales pipeline that is regularly monitored, both can be easy to achieve.

Sales management is an art that requires a delicate balance between the present and the future.

The key to success lies in mastering the art of balancing the pending vs pipeline. This means managing your current deals while also prospecting for new ones. As a sales manager, you must be able to prioritize your time and resources effectively to ensure that you are not only closing deals today but also building a strong pipeline for tomorrow.

In this highly competitive market, mastering this art is essential for any business that wants to stay ahead of the curve. In this article, we’ll explore the key strategies that will help you strike the perfect balance between the pending and pipeline, and take your sales management skills to the next level.

Whether you are a seasoned sales professional or a newbie in the game, read on to learn how to master the art of sales management.

Pipeline tracking is essential for any sales team that wants to stay on top of their customer relationships and close more deals.

It helps to ensure your sales process is as efficient, effective, and streamlined as possible. By tracking every step of your sales process, from lead generation to customer onboarding, you can ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

With that in mind, here are some best practices for pipeline tracking that will help you make the most of your sales process and achieve the best results. With these tips and tricks, you'll be able to maximize your sales process and close more deals with ease.

Holding people accountable is tough.

You have to be tough and sometimes even be a jerk, right?

Keeping a clean pipeline for your sales team provides incredible insight into several areas of your sales department. It takes a particular discipline to stay on top of the pipeline, and it is well worth the effort. 

To start, you need a tool that will allow you to access your pipeline at any time. At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), we use HubSpot. The deal stages provide tremendous insight into seller activity and success and show signs of potential derailments to a deal.

Having a robust sales pipeline may help the sales team, sales managers, and the C-suite sleep better at night. But if there’s little or slow movement of those deals through the pipeline, everyone will spend more time counting sheep than counting money.

After all, opportunities in the pipeline don’t pay the bills. Only closed/won deals produce revenue.

So generating leads is only part of the equation for successful sales and marketing organizations. Keeping those leads moving through the pipeline and shorting the sales cycle is equally important.