If you are not sure about your sales pipeline, take a long time to follow up on opportunities, and have no clue about the wings loose ratio, your business does not have robust sales opportunity management.
Lack of sales opportunity management leads to the slipping away of potential deals. Tracking sales opportunities while they move through the sales pipeline is called sales opportunity management.
A study by Steve W Martin suggests that up to 50% of high-performing companies have their sales processes closely monitored and automated instead of 28% of the under-performing organizations.
Opportunity Management
Managing and organizing potential sales can be called opportunity management. Sales opportunity management helps prioritize the efforts based on the high-value deals that are most likely to go positively. Sales opportunity management helps to improve sales efficiency. A better understanding of the customers and prioritizing interactions with them based on the sales potential helps to improve the business.
Leads and opportunities
Sales prospects are called leads, and opportunities are those potential deals with a higher chance of conversion into a customer. Thus, a sales opportunity is where there is a potential to sell the product. A lead, however, means someone with an interest in the product/ services.
Interesting Read: 5 Secrets to Successful Sales Team Management
Converting potential customers into recurring revenue is opportunity management. Sales managers with an excellent system that helps track opportunities throughout the pipeline progress are essential for the success of a sales team.
A study suggests that companies with a perfect sales process have recorded up to 28% of improvement in revenue.
Benefits of opportunity management
- It helps to standardize the sales process
- Improve conversion rate through the application of suitable sales techniques.
- Enables to gauge the most relevant opportunities.
CRM for opportunity management
- Streamline finances
- Captures sales prospects
- Up To date information
- Lead management
- Complete information about potential customers
No matter which CRM you choose, best practices are essential to managing the sales pipeline effectively.
Stages of a sales process
- Qualification (pre-established criteria)
- Challenges (Find out the pain points of a potential lead)
- Identification of Key decision-makers
- Personalized quote
- Closure
Best practices for sales opportunity management
1. Research
Authority, budget, purchase process, and responsiveness are a few key factors that should undergo deep research before considering a lead. These data points help the sales team identify the sales techniques used by the sales reps.
In addition, the CRM enables tracking the sales pipeline on a staged basis that gets updated as per the sales process in the respective industry.
2 . Focus on the most relevant opportunities
There are tons of relevant leads; however, it is vital to prioritize the most relevant ones. Thorough research on the potential leads helps to identify the most promising ones and invest time accordingly.
The highest revenue, most engaged decision-makers, and deals in the closure stage can be considered top priorities. Identifying the deals that need special attention is the key to success. CRM – probability percentage X value of the opportunity = potential revenue in the pipeline.
3.Constant contact with the prospects
Time to respond is the key to success. Closure of a prospective lead is 21 times higher when the leads are contacted in less than five minutes instead of after thirty minutes. Waiting for too long to follow up with the existing prospects in the pipeline may lead to the prospect moving to a different brand.
Interesting Read: How to Succeed as a Sales Development Representative as a Fresher?
Constant contact plays a vital role in converting prospective leads. Follow-up activity at each step of the pipeline like an email, phone, or other modes of communication is key for conversion. A CRM helps to track the sales activities and ensures process adherence.
4.Estimation
Sending an estimate after a positive discussion is essential, without which you may end up losing a valuable customer.
A CRM enables you to send estimates with accurate details. Failing to respond with an estimation to the prospective customer means there is no clarity in the opportunity management system.
The estimation details also come in handy when the deal is closed with an invoice.
5. Evaluate the opportunity management process
Reviewing the existing process to identify the areas of improvement helps to make relevant changes at regular intervals and helps track progress. In addition, they are gaining more insight into the process and helping to optimize it better.
Win-lose ratio, the average size of the deal per sales representative, and revenue amount per sales rep are a few key metrics to consider for opportunity management.
Follow-ups per opportunity, length of the sales cycle, and lead satisfaction are a few other metrics that enable a deep dive.
Conclusion
A well-streamlined opportunity management process offers insights into potential customers. Tracking interactions with the prospective lead, quick view of the sales pipeline, prioritization of the most valuable lead, and much more is possible with sales opportunity management.
The sales pipeline is the most vital part of a business. That is why creating a sales pipeline and tracking all aspects, and streamlining it with a process is critical for the success of any business.
While a CRM tool could work wonders to streamline the sales pipeline, it is essential to choose the best suitable tool from the market.
Cost, usage, features, and a few other factors should be a part of the decision. The above-mentioned best practices for sales opportunity management are helpful to prioritize the most valuable leads and manage time efficiently to maximize lead conversion.
