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Sales pipeline

A sales pipeline provides a visual representation of the different stages of a sales process. This helps the salesperson keep an overview of where each prospect is in the sales cycle. It also helps to estimate how much the salespeople will sell and thus what the sales will be for, say, the next month.

Other than a sales forecast, where it looks to the future, pipeline focuses on the present. The salesperson can use it as a handhold to see what is happening now and what to do for each prospect or customer.

Components of the sales pipeline

The pipeline consists of the following phases:

  • Propecting
  • Lead qualification
  • Sales call or demo
  • Proposal
  • Negotiation and commitment
  • Sign contract
  • After-sales service

To be sure not to lose track of anything, it can be useful to house your sales pipelines in a tracking system. There are plenty of CRM tools to support you in this.

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