The Sales Pipeline

Sales Pipeline = Digital Sales and Marketing Roadmap

The sales pipeline is the cornerstone of revenue growth for every industrial company. The sales pipeline, by definition, captures every dollar opportunity the business has that is in the various stages of the selling process.

Therefore, for an industrial company to grow, either the pipeline dollars or the HIT rate (% of deals won) must increase. If a company invests in new products, training, expanded sales resources, or doubles the marketing budget … the result must either expand the pipeline or improve the HIT rate. If neither of these impacts occurs, the investment will not grow revenue(s).

The typical HIT rate for an industrial business is 20%, or 1 out of 5 proposals/quotes that are actually purchased are won by the company. Therefore, the digital sales and marketing roadmap must be built around the following fundamental principles (A + B = C):

A. Digital Sales = Pipeline Optimization

Actions that improve HIT rate by 10% from 20% to 22% will grow revenue by 10%. Actions that improve HIT rate by 20% will increase revenue by 20%, assuming the size of the pipeline is constant. These key ideas are explained here.

B. Digital Marketing = Digital Branding Optimization

Actions that expand the pipeline by 10% will increase revenue by 10%. Actions that expand the pipeline by 20% will increase revenue by 20% assuming the HIT rate is constant. These key ideas are explained here.

C. Brand, Configure and Execute Your Digital Sales and Marketing Platform

Actions that improve the HIT rate and expand the pipeline by 10% each will increase revenue by 21%. Actions that improve HIT rate and expand the pipeline by 20% each will increase revenue by 44%. These key ideas are explained here.

The major actions that either grow the pipeline or improve HIT rate are listed below:

Actions that grow the pipeline total dollars ($)

• New product developments/competitiveness
• Expand brand awareness / SEO results
• Add sales resources / channels
• Expand scope of supply
• Expand marketing activities / lead generation
• Train sales team to self develop leads
• Acquire new companies, product lines, geographic coverage
• Enter new markets, geographies

Actions that improve your HIT rate percentage (%)

• Partner enablement tools
• Sales enablement tools
• Improve sales rep selling skills
• Improve product competitiveness
• Improve company competitiveness
• Sales team collaboration
• Sales playbooks
• Competitive intelligence
• Improve product support competitiveness
• E-commerce / e-proposals and agreements
• Operational performance – quality, on time performance