Pipeline Development & Hitting Quota

Over the course of the past 24+ years in software sales, I have observed a few trends that I think are the foundation for revenue growth within any organization. I hope to showcase a few of these trends in this article.

As a sales leader and observing teams (especially when I am new into the job) who don't look at pipeline development as the foundation for the revenue engine. Here are a few quote's I have heard hundreds of times over the years.

"We don't have enough brand awareness"

"Marketing isn't doing enough to build pipeline in my territory/segment"

"BDR's don't deliver enough qualified leads"

"My job is to close the deal, not source the deal"

Setting proper expectations is crucial to mitigating this in order to set the stage for the growth engine.

An important observation is that top sales performance is usually sustained by self generated pipeline, and the icing on the cake is what partners, market and BDR's bring to the table.

Times have changed, and software solutions traditionally used by marketing are now available to be put into the hands of selling organizations. For example, Account Based Marketing was a solution designed to drive account focused messaging and ads to a specific account creating a new way to drive engagement with prospects. Not only is ABM a software tool but also a selling strategy.

In 2024 vendors like 6sense , ZoomInfo , Demandbase and many others are turning this on it's side. Sellers can now leverage key intelligence factors that can early detect companies researching your organization & key topics that lead us to believe who we should be targeting.

I have developed a simple framework for sellers to drive pipeline.

CUE Framework:

As a seller, especially in the Enterprise or Upper Mid-Market, this methodology can help you get started.

C - Collect:

Using key platforms, it is easier than ever to collect 1st party and 3rd party signals about prospects in your territory and vendors like 6sense make this easier than ever. Companies show high intent signals for the topics you wish to track, coupled with engagement on your web properties, gives sellers a wealth of knowledge about who's in market. After doing this in practice, the list is typically pretty long and it can give you valuable insight into where to focus your prospecting energy. Another key source of data is LinkedIn where the Sales Navigator Platform gives you critical engagement data about your prospects. Taking this collection of data will help you find the target company's to focus on.

U - Understand:

Now you have the target list, you don't just batch and blast them or I guess you can. I think taking time to understand key information about target accounts so you can simplify engagement. Some examples of this are:

• Does anyone work there that came from a customer?
• What does their annual report tell us about their business challenges?
• What competitors are already deployed there and what can we assess about the success or failure of this solutions?
• Who are my economic buyers and what can I assess about them?

The knowledge you gain about the companies on this list will help you to crafty a specific and personalized message to drive engagement.

E - Engagement:

I think it's important to note that marketing will have a strategy around engagement of key accounts surfacing via ABM, but I believe its our job to go a level deeper and create an engagement that has meaning and purpose from the selling organization. Engagement/messaging should be decided amongst BDR & selling teams to ensure no wires get crossed. Knowing which platform you are going to engage with is critical for example: Phone, Outlook, Salesloft , In-Mail or something else will help drive outcomes. Putting a strategy around your engagement as an Account Based Marketing Strategy will help improve performance.

I understand that CUE is super high-level in this article, but the essence of having a foundation to develop sustainable pipeline is crucial to hitting your goals and targets.

Sellers, if you find yourself at the end of a quarter, one deal to go and you are playing a game of binary (one's and zero's), think months in the past and what you did to affect your performance by the development of pipeline.

Align with marketing, know what programs they are running, who the target audience is and make sure lines of communication are wide open to drive this success.

Make time for prospecting, this sacred time will help you establish success in the future and allow you to hit your quota and targets for the year!

Good Selling!