Without Pipeline, There Are No Sales.
Every day you should be thinking PG. Pipeline Generation is your number one job. A healthy pipeline cures many ills. A bad one forces you into bad decisions. This issue is about building it right.
| 01 — THE STORY
I Never Had a BDR. Here's What I Did Instead.
Demand Generation. Pipeline Generation. New logo. New product. Whatever your organization calls it - I lived it every day of my sales career. I never had the support of a BDR or SDR. Yes, we had marketing. Yes, there were leads. But my ability to succeed came down to one thing: my ability to hunt.
The first lesson I learned was that a healthy pipeline cured many ills. That meant I had to commit to Pipeline Generation every single day. Not when I felt like it. Every day.
Now, nobody likes making cold calls. But to get through it, I gamified it. I set targets that made sense to me: number of calls, number of contacts added to my CRM, how many hospitals or financial services in my region to contact. Complete 10 calls. Add 5 new accounts. Put one month's quota worth of pipeline in every week.
Without a goal, all you have is activity - and activity without benchmarks is just noise. We used to call the resistance "doorknob fever." The mysterious illness that struck right before you had to pick up the phone. You know it. Maybe today the phones are "mysteriously out." The excuses are different. The problem is the same.
When you have pipeline, you have choices. You can qualify out. You can walk away from a deal that will hurt you later. When you don't have it, you're hostage to every conversation in your funnel, and the customer knows it.
| 02 — THE TOOL
Two Frameworks That Will Make You Better on the Phone Today
Commitment gets you on the phone. These frameworks make the time worth something.
Note from Paddy: The last thing you want to do in Pipeline Generation is sell on the phone. You'll sound like every other rep. Share information that makes the prospect think: "My company can use that." Let them take it forward and get credit internally. You may be building a Champion. More on that in a future issue.
| 03 — THE CHALLENGE
Set Your PG Number. Then Go Hit It.
This week, before you make a single prospecting call, do two things:
Set a number - not "I'll try to make some calls." A real number. Calls, new accounts touched, new contacts added. Pick your metric and commit before your week starts. Write it down.
Apply BRP to every dial — before each call, ask yourself: Am I being Brief? Am I being Relevant to this specific person? Am I being Professional? If you can't answer yes to all three, you're not ready to make the call.
Come back next week with your number and what happened. That's the deal.
See you next week. Come ready.
— Paddy Mac
PaddyMacSays · Sales is a contact sport.