Outreach and sales

Sales pipeline

Also called Pipeline.

A sales pipeline is the list of all your open deals, sorted by how close each one is to buying.

Common stages: contacted, replied, discovery call, proposal sent, then won or lost. Each deal sits in one stage. After each conversation, you move it forward or close it as lost.

A full pipeline is the goal of your outreach. If it is empty, send more: 100 messages a day keeps new deals coming. Review it every Sunday, and send a follow-up to every deal that has not moved in a week. Keep it in a CRM, and use it to get your first B2B clients.

Go deeper

How to get your first B2B clientsB2BGet your first B2B clients once your own contacts run out: ask everyone you know for one introduction, add 100 named buyers a day, send 100 short personal messages a day from a safe email setup, quote the same day, and count conversations and orders every Sunday.
How to move from spreadsheets to a CRMMove from spreadsheets to a CRM in one afternoon, for free: put everyone who replied into a five-stage pipeline, log every reply the same day, and review your deals every Sunday.
How to run a discovery callRun a discovery call that leads to a sale: book every yes within 2 days, open with the time and the goal, ask 12 questions about their problem and let them talk more than half the call, check 4 signs they fit, say your price, book a dated next step before you hang up, send the recap within 24 hours, and count your calls every Sunday.

Related terms

CRM
Discovery call
Follow-up
Decision-maker

All glossary terms, A to Z