A sales pipeline is a series of events from identifying a potential customer to maintaining a customer account after a sale closes. It is divided into four phases: opportunity development, needs assessment, fulfillment, and maintenance. The goal is to turn the process into a discipline that can be measured, studied, and taught.
A sales pipeline, or sales process, is the series of events that occur from identifying a potential customer to maintaining a customer account after a sale closes. As the culminating event in a business transaction, a sale is the most important process that defines the status of the deal. Theorists have tried to break the sales pipeline into knowable steps to turn the process into a discipline that can be measured, studied, and taught, rather than something that simply happens at will to a customer.
Most people who study the sales pipeline divide the process into four phases, which include several steps. The names of the phases and stages may change depending on the terminology of the person conducting the study, but the underlying theory is basically the same throughout the sales cycle. Opportunity development, needs assessment, fulfillment, and maintenance comprise the four major contact categories that move a sale from identification to close.
Opportunity development includes two steps. A seller must identify a new opportunity and initiate communications. This often includes applying a set of tuning criteria to a random group of sales leads. Only when a lead is confirmed as a good fit or prospect does the sales pipeline process begin.
The needs assessment category contains steps that determine the customer’s expressed and unexpressed needs. A salesperson might have the customer fill out an application or a survey. Common interactions might include developing a scope of work or viewing samples. The intended result is to have a qualified buyer with needs that have been identified and agreed upon.
The service includes the development and proposal of the solution that will meet the customer’s needs. Next steps include evaluating the sales proposal and negotiating. Finally, this process culminates in a sell order and cash exchange. This is the typical end of the sales order process because the interaction resulted in a tangible sale, but it is not the end of the sales pipeline.
Some sales pipeline studies identify a fourth category of interaction involved in account maintenance. Customers always have the potential to become repeat customers and can be a source of referrals. The steps involved in maintenance include periodic follow-up and developing an ongoing relationship that may result in a pipeline restart.
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