Master the Pipe

perfect and master your pipeline generation

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

Hello Friends…

There are a few things front and center on my mind this week. Among others:

⛳️ MASTERS WEEK (Hello friends)

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PIPELINE.

I’ve tried and failed- (please chime in if you’ve got one) - to come up with a cool Golf + Sales Pipeline analogy.

But the fact is - with each new year or new quarter, the one thing I can guarantee sales leaders, reps, and founders are focused on is PIPELINE.

❓Do we have enough pipeline to hit our number this quarter and this year?

❓Are we moving through (and out of) our pipe fast enough?

❓Where are deals stalling in our pipeline and why?

In this week’s edition of Stretch Weekly -

• Dave Kellogg talks about an underappreciated metric to follow in the never-ending quest to build a healthy pipeline.

And don’t miss this week’s snippets to help master your pipeline generation.

New to STRETCH WEEKLY? Check out past editions on building pipeline here:

👉 Filling the Pipe

👉 Process and Pipeline

👉 Prospecting for Pipeline

THANKS for reading!!

-Grant

And lastly - as always, if you find this newsletter valuable- subscribe or share it with someone who might as well 👊.

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STRETCH SHARES

Do We Have Enough Pipeline? The One Simple Metric Many Folks Forget

Photo by Choong Deng Xiang on Unsplash

If you haven’t already - familiarize yourself with David Kellogg. He’s one of the better follows for real, tactical SaaS sales guidance and his track record speaks for itself.

This latest post of his talks about an underappreciated metric to follow in the never-ending quest to build pipeline.

With pipeline coverage being one of the more measured metrics - David is on record recommending measurement by quarter but also offers an alternative - opportunities by rep - measured by this quarter.

Per David:

Hopefully, I’ve made the case that going forward, while you should keep tracking pipeline on an ARR basis and looking at ARR conversion rates, you should add opportunity count and opportunity count / salesrep to your reports on the current-quarter and the all-quarters pipeline.  It’s the easiest and most intuitive way to understand the amount of your pipeline relative to your ability to process it.

Full post HERE

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STRETCH SNIPPETS

• 👀 Check out Scott Barker’s six plays to help you hit your pipeline targets:

  • 1. The Podcast Play.

  • 2. Executive Roundtable Play

  • 3. High Touch Executive Dinner Play

  • 4. The Social Unstick Play

  • 5. LinkedIn Takeovers

  • 6. Big Deal Review Calls.

• 📈 Because pipeline cures all ills! Mark Kosoglow talks about his method for outbound prospecting and how he increased meetings set by 75%!

• ✅ David Katz with Storyblock gives us the formula for calculating and improving pipeline velocity along with four key levers:

  • 1. Increasing the number of sales-qualified leads.

  • 2. Increasing average deal size.

  • 3. Increase your overall win rate.

  • 4. Decrease the length of the sales cycle.

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🧠 Mindset

Steve Young @SteveYoungQB

What separates the good from the great is the ability to orchestrate a team — not just to post gains however you can, but to do it in a way that involves everyone and inspires them toward collective greatness. Over time I've also learned that the same is true in life.

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Thanks for reading!

My hope is if you find this valuable, consider sharing it with friends (or signing up if you haven’t already).

— Grant 👋

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About stretch vp: confessions, learnings, and insights from sales leaders in SaaS

Compiled and aggregated from a network of sales leaders in SaaS, Stretch VP showcases learnings, insights, and experiences as well as best practices to overcome common hurdles, obstacles, and setbacks in your quest for excellence as a sales leader in SaaS.

Are you a VP, Director, thought leader, or content producer in the SaaS space? We’d love to have you contribute. Just reply to this email and I’ll be in touch.

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