Strategic Appointment Setting & Successful Pipeline Management

Many growing digital media companies say that their main problem is 'closing' salesopportunities. They get shortlisted in a competitive pitch and stake the next wave of plans on aone in three chance of winning. OK so maybe the whole company won't sink or swim if one bidis lost, but the reliance most digital media and technology businesses place on closing a smallnumber of key deals presents a big problem - if you lose one, there's nothing to fill the void.In the world of selling there's a tried and tested way of hedging against this situation -successful pipeline management. One thing that we know for sure is that the moreopportunities you have, the more you are likely to win. Simple law of averages really. Grantedyou have to make sure that your sales campaigns are water tight and that you do all the thingsyou're going to need to, but the fact remains that every single sales led company the worldover protects against over reliance on winning major projects by ensuring that the supportingpipeline is kept full at all times.So, what does pipeline management mean? Well, conversion rates will vary by company andsector but a prudent approach to win ratios will stand anyone in good stead. Typically, youneed to think in terms of a 3:1 ratio of 'closing' deals, i.e - of three final stage (shortlisted)pitches, you'll win one. Taking this further back in the sales cycle, the 'times three' effect oftenworks well. So, to get three opportunities to the point of final pitch, you'll need nine to get tothe stage of formal proposal. To get nine to formal proposal, you'll more than likely need 27(yes twenty seven!) 'value proposition' meetings or presentations. Blimey. Now finally considerthat you'll then need almost 100 (OK so 81 using my maths so far) active 'prospects', socompanies who you are talking to and/or are aware of your proposition. Numbers getting scarynow? Don't worry, as you'd expect I'm about to offer some solutions :)Of course all of this doesn't unfold overnight. Generating and maintaining a healthy salespipeline is ongoing and for many business the very shortest time-frame from prospect to win isthree to six months. With that in mind it makes sense to take a long term view and getstrategic about outbound prospecting for new business.To get yourself in the nice position of boasting a fat and healthy pipeline you'll need to spendsome money. Setting aside other elements of your marketing and client acquisition strategy(search engines, events & exhibitions etc) the single most effective way to generate interest inyour proposition is to contact target punters directly. To do this you'll need a highly trained,motivated and rewarded (and thus effective) resource to do the job. And therein lies anotherproblem - they don't grow on trees.