The Seven Stages of Sales Pipelines Explained

January 4, 2021in Salesforce

Customers embark on a journey from initial discovery to becoming repeat buyers, progressing through seven essential sales pipeline stages:

Prospecting: Potential customers discover your business through ads, public relations, and promotional activities. Targeting parameters are applied to reach potential buyers matching your existing client base and ideal customer profile.
Lead Qualification: Move leads downstream by offering lead magnets such as e-books, white papers, or webinars to gauge the prospect’s interest in your products and services.
Demo or Meeting: Schedule a demo or meeting to introduce potential buyers to your offerings, evaluating if there’s a strong business case for proposing your services.
Proposal: Summarize in the sales pipeline cycle where you’ll identify to your proposal the unique advantages of your product or service that helps differentiate your proposal from competitors in the market. Be sure to summarize how your company can address the customer’s needs, highlighting the value your prices provide. Emphasize competitive advantages to differentiate your proposal.
Negotiation and Commitment: Discuss scope adjustments, pricing changes, and expectations management to reach a mutually beneficial partnership.
Opportunity Won: Close the sale and proceed towards order fulfillment.
Post-Purchase: Consider the sale closed at the contract signing. Focus on providing exceptional service during onboarding, monitoring account progress, cross-selling new services, upselling premium solutions, exploring renewal options, and seeking referrals from satisfied clients.

Throughout the sales pipeline stages, sales leaders can identify opportunities to better engage customers and enhance the likelihood of successful purchases.

Contact Tectonic today to discover how Salesforce can help fill your sales pipeline.