Wouldn’t it be exciting to see a sales pipeline fill automatically every month? The question itself is so overly mesmerizing that we know it’s not something that’s going to happen ever!

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On the contrary, we all are aware that a sales pipeline will not fill by itself overnight and it’s you, the MSPs, who are responsible to get your pipeline up and working. You need to implement and deploy strategies so much to the point where everything seems automatic. 

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And to begin with, you must eradicate complacency, think bigger and get hungry- not for the sales but for the techniques you learn. 

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So, what is it that you’re responsible to grow which would let your manager or manager’s manager make better decisions? - sales pipeline. And this pipeline lets managers or the MSPs make a sales forecast.

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Difference?

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Most of us confuse a sales pipeline with the sales forecast. However, a pipeline consists of all opportunities handled by a team whereas, the forecast is the calculation of all potential opportunities that will close over a period of time, sooner or later. 

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And therefore, I hope, as per your designation and responsibilities, you know what your priority is. 

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Again, the difference between a sales pipeline and a sales funnel?

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These two terms sound so familiar. It’s like the entire world believes that these are the same. Unfortunately, not. 

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Sales funnel is the representation of a prospect’s journey from one stage to the other until they become our customers. Whereas, the sales pipeline represents opportunities to target potential prospects. 

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The priority for MSPs? Sales funnel, sales forecast or sales pipeline?

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Of course, the sales pipeline (without which the remaining are insubstantial). 

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And thus, we bring to you certain habits which let you have a full sales pipeline so that you never run out of opportunities. 

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Get the Zomentum platform

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Before you explore ways to keep your pipeline full, get access to this amazing sales platform which would make your work easier. Fill, track, monitor and make decisions as per the deal opportunities that you feed into the pipeline. Gain insights and uphold conversations that add worth to your organization. 

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Double your sales pipeline

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People tend to slow down or relax when nearing the finishing line or the end. But an MSP must never take time for granted. It is expected out of you to have a pipeline that’s full of prospects. And this technique also stands true. After all, would you like to answer your boss’s silly questions if your pipeline is empty? Rather, double your pipeline so that you have a surplus, maybe for the next week, month or the quarter. 

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Test and tweak your pipeline

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Nothing in this world is constant and neither is the sales pipeline. The greatest salesperson (or an MSP who manages their sales) already knows that as the game is changing, new companies are shaking things, shifting the economy and turning the trends upside down. 

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Therefore, adapting to changes and finding ways to optimize your sales pipeline is the key. Your pitch can never be the same for all your customers. Similarly, your sales pipeline should not look one-size-fits-all. The moment you consider your pipeline least important for an upgrade, your forecast might just go wrong. 

Maintain and hit your touchpoints

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Every MSP must know and set touchpoint numbers. These are the numbers where you interact with your prospect over a period of a few weeks; to build trust and brand value. As per a report by Mailshake, a larger sales organization has an average of 16 touchpoints over a span of two to four weeks per user. 

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And this does not mean that you spam your prospect. For sure you must contact them but if they sound disinterested, just STOP. Consider an omnichannel approach where you first call, then send an email, later connect on social media. Probably, the remaining days you could go about liking their posts, sharing some useful readable content or get connected over a 2-minute call. 

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If you maintain your touchpoints well, your momentum of being in sales would be good. You could see your success factor growing. Irrespective of their chances of becoming a customer, you get to increase your contacts and a fair shot to ask for referrals.

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Have your plan of actions set

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In any industry that you work for, a plan of action is a general set of guidelines or lists of activities that you must take care of on a particular day. But do you run away from the ones that seem difficult and have a high risk of failure? Probably the answer is YES to a few. 

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Your plan of action should be set every day and met. As an MSP or MSP salesperson, targets are all that you work by. Even if you have many things on your plate, attend to the ones that require the highest attention. Rather than dreading all day with the difficult task, strive and get it done by eating the frog first. 

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Automate and delegate

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Have you ever thought to be a salesperson who can achieve 10x tasks? But with the capacity to achieve only a 1x task, do you think 10x tasks would be easy? Sometimes, when you want to be a salesperson who achieves their numbers wonderfully, you need to get out of the manual task’s loop and adopt automation. 

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You can use an MSP CRM or a proposal builder system to attend to tasks that can be done by a platform or an application. And you can focus on prioritizing your tasks as per the warm and the cold leads, outline strategies, and close deals.  

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Ask for referrals

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Asking for referrals might be a difficult task but it’s worth the effort. Get started with your referral campaigns and ideate on the prize. Personalize your customer’s gifts and let them know of the value of their time. Referrals can do wonders when done right. Your high-quality customers can definitely help you crack a few more- that’s the trust you must have. Of course, the process would be slower, but patience is the key when you play the referral game. 

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Close leads with real-time read receipts

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When you send emails to your customer’s list, what about those who read the emails and yet neither respond nor convert? Email marketing or reaching your customers via an email is not an easy process. There are times when 80 percent of your emails are unopened while a few amongst the rest, open the email and yet not respond. 

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To track the status of your emails, you must use reliable email tracking applications that will help you understand the status of your campaigns. Accordingly, you can target, re-target and perform A/B tests on your customers depending on their actions. 

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Switch to upselling than generating new leads

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Approaching your existing customers is easier than convincing newer clients. With new clients, you need to build your brand value and trust while with the existing clients, they already know you and trust you. So, you accomplish half of your work at the first step. Therefore, take time to regularly check on your existing clients and try to make a few successful deals and identify win-win opportunities by upselling. 

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Takeaways 

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The art to keep your sales pipeline full is every MSP’s or MSP salesperson’s priority. But doing it the right way to stay at the top of your game without much cascading effect is the mantra. When your sales pipeline is full, you’ll not be tempted towards bad sales tactics like pressuring the prospects, offering discounts or overselling. 

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You will be very confident every single day that you walk into the office. A full pipeline lets you sell with integrity and a positive attitude. Thus you can spread about your exciting services through word-of-mouth, referrals, upselling, etc - to get better clients and deals.