Deal Management – How to Effectively Manage a Complex Sales Pipeline
Deal management is about the procedures and practices that help an organization carry out its investment strategy. The objective is to manage the sales process in a complex manner as well as standardize practices, increase deal quality, and ultimately boost conversions.
To establish a successful deal-management process, you need to first be aware of the responsibilities and objectives of each position in the sales cycle. Then, ensure that the roles have clear handoffs. This ensures that the right individuals are working on the correct deals and that their responsibilities don’t overlap too significantly. This can cause confusion or conflict, which can ultimately slow down the sales process.
A good deal management procedure should also include a schedule for each stage, as well as the criteria that must be met before moving on to the next. This will enable teams to identify any bottlenecks and then take steps to eliminate them. A solid process should provide for a consistent communication among all parties involved in the deal, which includes external partners like brokers or investment managers.
In a complex setting there are multiple people involved in the sales process. This is especially true in the mid-market and business segments with multiple decision makers features, requests for feature, critical dependencies, and more. Deal management requires greater transparency and oversight, most likely via a technology solution like Revenue Grid that provides the level of visibility and oversight necessary to ensure that the appropriate people are working on the issues they should be working on.
