Strategies are based on asking the right questions. Any successful business leader understands that inquiry in the right direction opens channels for a positive outcome.

But, framing the correct questions can be challenging, as is the norm for strategy. There are a lot of considerations a business and its teams must understand to enquire in the right direction. For SaaS companies that mainly work on a B2B model, asking the right question means the difference between success and failure.

After all, lead generation is anticipating problems (questions) of potential buyers and presenting solutions for them. And a major roadblock for most teams is prospects that go nowhere.

Why does this occur?

There is a good chance that the leads your teams are chasing might be losing points in the qualifying round.

The Role of Qualification in the Sales Funnel

Here, the value of asking the right questions is apparent. From marketing to sales teams, your campaigns should be designed to qualify your leads and push them through the sales funnel.

Frameworks such as BANT, MEDDIC, and ANUM help sales teams qualify their prospects. And it is necessary to implement them to help sales teams close more deals.

But there is a caveat: sales prospects also go beyond these basic frameworks to tailor their pitch for the prospect.

And that begins by listening.

Qualifying Frameworks Overview

BANT and other frameworks that help sales teams close more deals.

Qualifiers are vital for a lead generation strategy to work. A rich sales pipeline is based on the quality of leads generated.

But all leads are not the same. While some leads may be window shopping, others might not be relevant at all. MQLs can be generated in quantity, but if they are not up to the mark on quality, they will hamper future sales and profits. For any organization, that is a blow.

Marketing and sales are the gatekeepers of an organization’s success. These two teams are in charge of the qualifying questions.

As we know, there are a few methodologies that organizations should use to qualify the prospect.

Understanding the Key Sales Qualification Frameworks

First, let us touch on the basics. These frameworks are: –

What is BANT?

BANT is the most famous framework. It is a simple yet powerful concept developed by the sales team at IBM in the 50s. Sales teams can quickly identify if their lead meets the criteria. And it is easy to remember. For those who do not know, BANT stands for: –

1. B- Budget
2. A- Authority
3. N-Need
4. T-Time

It helps an SDR understand if: –

1. an organization can afford its product
2. the person they are speaking to has the authority needed to buy
3. the organization has a need
4. and if the requirement matches both organizations’ timeframes.

It is an exceptional and old qualifier, still used today and accepted by large organizations as a gold standard. All other qualifying frameworks are variations of BANT.

What is MEDDIC?

MEDDIC is a newer framework that adds more dimensions based on the BANT framework. It helps sales teams open up more possibilities for inquiry.

It stands for: –

1. M- Metrics.
2. E- Economic Buyer.
3. D-Decision Criteria
4. D- Decision Process
5. I- Identifying Pain
6. C- Champion

The MEDDIC framework goes a step beyond understanding the buyer with more depth. Essentially, it helps your SDR identify: –

1. The KPIs the buyer wants to meet and if your product can align with that vision.
2. Is the prospect you are talking to an economic buyer (or decision-maker)?
3. What are the make-or-break decision criteria for the buyer?
4. The decision process of the buyer and the people involved in the buying
5. A champion within the organization. Someone to vouch for you inside the target account.

MEDDIC offers a view into a different structure of asking questions. SDRs and Chief Sales Officers have realized the value of asking varied questions.

As the buying process becomes more complex, the need for such frameworks has become necessary.

What is NOTE?

Another effective yet simple framework is the NOTE. Coined by Sean Burke, this method takes on an empathetic role in selling.

It stands for: –

1. N – Need
2. O- Opportunity
3. T- Team
4. E- Effect

The NOTE framework helps SDRs by identifying-

1. If the buyer need our services at this point?
2. What are the potential opportunities and growth levers that your product will offer?
3. Who or which teams will be affected by the integration of the product?
4. What are the effects (economic) of this strategic partnership?

The NOTE framework presents a shift in the dynamic between SaaS organizations. Towards a more customer-centric approach. The market has been shifting towards the customer’s side for a while now.

And it will continue to do so as buyers self-direct themselves through the buying journey. Complexities are a norm in the SaaS market. The saturated snapshot of the current landscape has made the buyer cautious.

They cannot help but be overwhelmed by the choice. Frameworks are integral for SDR success. But what happens when the number of qualified leads drops, and sales teams find that MQLs will not go anywhere?

It is time for marketing to step up.

Marketing’s role in sales

High-quality content is said to be the biggest draw-in for a potential buyer. Yet, according to HubSpot’s 2024 sales report, SDRs have reported low-quality leads as their biggest problem.

MQLs are not up to the mark. Or the nurtured leads were not properly qualified before being handed into sales.

Marketing teams must improve their attribution if they see success. It means going beyond the basics and understanding the intent behind prospects’ behavior.

While CDPs and marketing automation tools have become beneficial in doing so. There are three things marketing teams must do:

1. Orchestrate buyer experiences to attract a relevant audience
2. Identify the behavior of most likely candidates by analyzing past behavior
3. Defining a lead with sales.

Sales and marketing alignment has been a buzzword for a long time. The two teams cannot work in silos anymore. It is expected of sales teams to listen to the buyer, and that has given them an edge over marketing.

Marketing teams must listen, too. And not just for sales but also for the buyer. When decision-makers interact on socials and on content, what do they look for?

For marketing teams, the best qualifier is their gated content and the rich history of data use. Data will reveal whether a buyer will qualify. Lead scoring can go a long way in helping marketing and sales align their goals together.

The main question here is: What matters?

Asking the right questions is crucial.

What are the right questions? Once marketing and sales teams have aligned and understood the buyer, they will have questions beyond the obvious.

The questions only come by enquiring into the industry they are selling to and learning everything possible about their ICPs.

One of the most important questions we have identified is: In their opinion, has their organization reached its potential?

It opens up all possibilities because every organization has room for further growth and improvement. And it lets you know where the organization is headed in terms of leadership and vision.

A potent indicator of growth.

With the right questions, SDRs can craft a personalized pitch for the right buyer and save time from the irrelevant ones.

On the other hand, marketing teams can craft market-resonating messages by asking the right questions and understanding the audience they are providing content.

Sales and Marketing is about listening.

BANT, MEDDIC, and NOTE are all designed to listen. The buyer has their needs and wants a remedy or risk-mitigating solution that will empower them to avoid risk in the market.

This need for growth can be fueled by marketing and sales teams listening to their ICPs and providing the right questions for them. By asking the right questions, marketing and sales teams will create intrigue in the buyers’ minds and help them break free of analysis paralysis.

By using the frameworks, sales, and marketing open up possibilities that go beyond the obvious.

In the marketing landscape, MOFU is an opportunity to build meaningful relationships, increasing lead conversion. How can you make the most of this phase?

With the ongoing digitization, the buyer’s journey continues to shift and evolve. When you are at the MOFU phase, your potential customers have gone past the initial awareness stage. They are now at a point where they are seriously considering purchasing your offerings. In this middle stage between TOFU and BOFU, potential prospects know your brand and have shown interest in your product or service. But they are looking at various options to make the best purchase. It is also the phase where they perform a comparative analysis with the competitors. For this reason, MOFU is known as the consideration phase of the sales funnel.  

At this point, supplying some information that will help them make an informed decision. Your marketing strategy targeting the mid-funnel must balance a solid foundation with flexible strategies.

Utilizing the potential of middle-of-the-funnel

The key ingredient of acing MOFU marketing comprises delivering content that conveys the right solution to your prospects. You need to provide them with detailed information about your offerings, or some added value to engage them. Amplify your mid-funnel content by making it more helpful and informative, without being too sales-y. Your target audience must feel like your offerings are providing some value. And it’s not some aggressive sales pitch. When you launch relevant and value-rich content, prospects are likely to respond positively to them.

While providing useful data, focus on building relationships with potential customers. You can achieve this through personalized emails or social media messages. Using these initiatives, you want your prospects to become excited or motivated to read the messages or posts. Building strong relationships with your prospects cultivates trust in your brand, making them more likely to purchase your offerings.

Mid-funnel buyers involve more thorough research from the prospects’ end before they go ahead and leap into that final decision to buy. Utilize this crucial point to stand out from the other brands, so the prospects choose you over the competitors. The mid-funnel content should revolve around delivering solutions that address the audience’s pain points. You should be able to help the MOFU buyers find the right solution through your content.

MOFU Marketing Tactics

Prospects entering the middle-of-the-funnel may not be familiar with your products or services. So, your main objective here is to enhance customer-brand relationships. By implementing this approach, your team can establish its authority in the market. The mid-funnel phase is also the perfect time for you to start nurturing leads who may not be ready for a sales discussion yet. Implementing a robust content marketing strategy can be a great tool to showcase the value of your brand. To accomplish this, your marketing strategy should be research-based and involve educational content, thought leadership, and case studies.

An effective MOFU content marketing helps you close the gap between the initial curiosity the audience feels when they engage with a brand’s content and the final sale. The leads you have at this stage are in the consideration phase of the customer journey. Your marketing team needs to produce educational content that engages the audience to your brand, increasing the lead conversion.

Key Elements of Successful Mid-Funnel Content

An effective mid-funnel content must be educational and highly persuasive while being target-specific. When you create materials with all these components, there is a better chance that your customers will resonate with your brand, causing them to convert into leads. Let’s look at each of these elements more closely.

Educational and brand-specific

Considering the prospects in your MOFU, they already have a solid understanding of your brand and its offerings. But what they need to dive into is how your company is different from the competitors and why they should go for your product/service. That is why, when creating content, make sure it is more sophisticated and informative, discussing your USPs.

Highly-Targeted Content

At its core, middle-of-the-funnel is your chance to add prospects in your sales cycle who are already interested in your offerings. Utilize this aspect of the sales process as an opportunity to drive more organic traffic to your site through engaging content. However, there is a stark difference between actionable insights and consumers casually seeking a solution. To garner customers likely to convert into paying accounts, you will want to create targeted content, supplying them with specific information that adds value and addresses a problem faced. 

Engaging Content

In the MOFU phase, your content needs to hook prospects for the long haul, inviting them to explore more about your company and its products or services. When developing your content plan for the mid-funnel phase, ensure that you provide enough data that gives them confidence in your brand to solve their problems. Showcase your unique capabilities and publish various forms of content demonstrating your expertise. A gentle push is all you need at this stage to convert into leads.

Types of content for effective MOFU marketing

Middle-of-the-funnel marketing requires certain forms of content to create an impact. These are some examples to educate your audience with the resources they need.

Case Studies

Through case studies, you can offer insightful explanations of how your offerings will make a difference and what new it is providing that other brands are now. You can highlight success stories or discuss applications of your products or services. This will let potential customers understand how you helped their existing clients achieve business goals. When creating case studies, demonstrate data such that your customers feel connected. They will want to see how the success of other brands can relate to them.

White Papers

The core mission of launching whitepapers is to draw light on a specific pain point and promote an approach you used to overcome the hurdle. As a brand that wants to stand out, you must publish white papers on your website and share them in your email campaigns. You must ensure they contain valuable, concrete facts, and statistical data that give your offerings a steady skeleton. If engrained with the right ingredients, white papers allow your prospects to grasp first-hand the benefits of your solutions.

Email Campaigns

Target-specific email campaigns provide an easy and effective route to reach many prospects. For instance, if you can garner more email open rates, it implies that your email marketing campaigns are making an impression to lead to actions. You can also look into email newsletters to compile value-added information to provide details about your brand. These campaigns can be curated to provide insights to move leads further into the funnel. The standout feature of emailers is they allow you to send multiple messages in one go.

Blog Posts

Whether you are a new brand or have established your brand voice strongly in the market, blogs are a useful catalyst to amp up your sales funnel. You can curate articles as per your audience, trying out different lengths and formats while you do so. Each blog is customizable plus easy to consume. The best part of blogs is updating informational content that your prospects will consume. If your blogs have unique insights, they also give you a cutting edge. Enrich your blogs by adding more SEO keywords and relevant links to increase search rates.

News Articles

Publishing curated news pieces could open another doorway of communication with your target audience. While launching this content form, obtain a content license from a trusted source that helps you share timely and reliable updates. In this way, you can enhance brand credibility among your prospects.

Summing up,

The middle-of-the-funnel is one step ahead in the sales funnel. Your prospects have surpassed the getting-acquainted-with-your-brand phase and are seriously considering choosing your brand. This phase is all about them researching and comparing across competitors to decipher which brand makes the best fit for them. The way for your brand to shine in this stage is to provide content that enlightens them on how your brand’s offerings will solve their pain point. You can retain more leads past the MOFU phase by launching value-rich content that highlights your services and offerings. It is a great stage in the funnel to increase lead conversion by planning and delivering content that matters.

Weaknesses in your sales pipeline are detrimental. Can the right sales pipeline metrics help elevate the buyer’s journey?

Numbers and data, when isolated from each other, are meaningless. They exist within specific contexts.

We turn them into a quantifiable metric by tracking, analyzing, and comparing them to churn out meaning. This is how metrics help us gauge the effectiveness of a method.

Across the marketing and sales landscape, metrics help us assess and measure performance or production. It quantifies your marketing efforts to measure their effectiveness in boosting conversion rates and lead sales velocity.

Sales pipeline metrics operate in the same manner.

Sales pipeline: The basic understanding.

Sales pipeline is a visual representation of how your prospects move through the different stages in the funnel, i.e., from initial contact to closing a deal. Simply put, it helps analyze the overall buyer journey – what’s causing the drop-offs or why it’s taking so long to close a deal.

Sales pipelines are unique for every business and industry. What it generally looks like depends on the buyer’s journey, depending on their interests, preferences, priorities, and research.

Each buyer moves distinctly to accommodate the pipeline according to their journey, i.e., personalizing and making it effective. More than being sturdy, the pipeline is elastic and adapts to the prospective movements.

It generally includes three processes: lead generation, lead nurturing, and deal closing.

And, these are broader stages covered within the sales pipeline:

Prospecting ⇒ Lead qualification ⇒ Initial contact ⇒ Official proposal ⇒ Negotiation ⇒ Closing the deal

The most crucial objective here is that the pipeline should be able to handle the volume of leads without compromising the engagement quality or performance. If your brand is witnessing low conversion rates, certain challenges within your pipeline should be addressed.

Some of the common challenges your sales and marketing team may encounter include:

• Lack of historical data on closed deals
• Off-market target audience guiding leads off-base
• Absence of measurable targets
• Lack of visibility or knowledge regarding the status of the sales pipeline
• No use of effective CRM tools to track leads
• Not following up on cold leads
• Inadequate conversion status updates
• Neglected workable and high-quality leads

These are the potential weak spots of your sales pipeline.

So, how do we overcome them?

The Importance of Sales Pipeline Metrics in Driving Success

Certain metrics let us assess how to alleviate these concerns and improve the different stages across the sales journey.

Pipeline metrics are crucial.

Each team member should familiarize themselves with tracking them regularly. Even if the sales pipeline metrics vary for businesses, some general ones should still be tracked by your team.

Understanding what drives your prospects to close a deal in a win or what makes them drop off midway through these metrics also offers significant opportunities for improvement.

This is why choosing the relevant metrics takes precedence.

How can you choose the right sales pipeline metrics that align with your business goals?

1. Align metrics with the business goal you wish to achieve.

Don’t just track numbers; ensure that these numbers boost you closer to your business goals. This data, when siloed, doesn’t mean anything. But within the right context, they mark your progress towards your objectives.

For example, if your goal is to elevate the organization’s market share, then total revenue wouldn’t offer you the nuanced picture. Here, tracking the share of wallet and sales per territory makes more sense.

The crucial factor here is taking a granular approach. If you are dominating the market, how do you ensure that it remains ten years down the line?

2. Leverage a balanced approach.

Identifying bottlenecks is as vital as predicting the success of your sales strategies. To get a more molecular insight into where the lacks and gaps are most prevalent, you can’t just focus on certain metrics while dismissing the rest.

It’s true that the approach must revamp in today’s modern sales landscape. But traditionally relevant metrics take as much precedence as implementing new ones.

This means taking a balanced approach to choosing the right metrics.

Your strategic framework should entail a mix of lagging and leading indicators – one that demonstrates the past performance (closed deals) and ones that forecast (qualified leads).

A balance between them can help your marketing and sales teams to revisit, review, strategize, and analyze accurately.

3. Assess periodically and update your metrics.

One of the most strategic means of selecting the right sales pipeline metrics is assessing what’s working and what isn’t, and updating the list.

It’s crucial to start from somewhere. Each data point can give you the slightest idea into what your sales strategy needs to rework on.

What worked before might not work today. Don’t let the stale metrics prove your efforts ineffective. So, review them periodically to ascertain that they align with the current business challenges and requirements.

4. Get a comprehensive understanding of the entire customer journey.

Numbers wouldn’t always tell you where the rupture is. Most often, sales hit the wall while making a sale or post it.

This is because most only focus on pre-sale metrics and interactions. This damages the customer experience and leads to missed opportunities.

To avoid this, it’s necessary to track the customer experience, too. Metrics, such as sales cycle length, can offer you a 360-degree insight into what’s truly going wrong.

The bottom line?

The sales pipeline metrics you end up choosing must be actionable. If they aren’t, it poses a significant obstacle for you.

These metrics should illustrate a specific behavior – what is happening, what has changed, and what can be done about this.

The right sales metrics don’t merely offer postmortem pipeline analysis. They allow you to proactively make informed decisions and offer clarity into nuggets that often go unnoticed.

Don’t measure everything. Focus on those that align with your goals.

Fundamental sales pipeline metrics to amplify your efforts

Opportunities

The total number of opportunities matters because it portrays the results of your lead generation efforts. Your lead generation efforts should target prospects fitting the ICP, i.e., the ideal customer profile.

What factors qualify prospects as opportunities? There are some criteria that most businesses focus on.

• Demographics – age, gender, income, family structure, education, occupation, etc.
• Firmographics – company size, ownership, market share, location, sales cycle stage, financial performance, etc.
• Psychographics – value proposition, goals, interests, lifestyle choices, etc.

A prospect does not have to follow each criterion, as they vary according to the organization.

To track this, teams must prioritize lead quality because it aptly demonstrates which leads are the most valuable and can easily convert into opportunities.

By analyzing which accounts you count as an opportunity, your team can optimize its marketing efforts and improve lead-nurturing processes to keep them engaged as they move through the pipeline.

How can we assess lead quality?

To simplify this, your sales team can use the BANT or MEDICC lead qualification framework.

The opportunities should be tracked and assessed weekly, monthly, or bimonthly, depending on the preferences of your company. However, it can also be done regularly in case of rapid market fluctuations, multiplying lead volumes, or during push season due to an event.

New Leads

The number of new leads entering your pipeline offers an overview of the success of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, it helps outline your brand’s market reach and offers quantifiable data to back your efforts.

It is necessary to highlight these new leads to establish whether your lead generation strategies are efficient.

Once in a while, we should question whether we are chasing hollow leads with no future potential and wasting our resources.

The end solution follows a comprehensive tracking system and establishes a timeframe depending on the pace and volume of generated leads. Document the number of leads, segment them, analyze the trends, and then compare the different lead-gen efforts to help optimize your strategies.

Overall, lead quality reflects your sales and marketing efforts – how effective they are. But it could largely differ from business size to industry to marketing strategies.

Hence, there’s nothing as simple as “good” or “bad” leads.

By documenting the acquired leads regularly against how many of them actually convert, the results will automatically indicate the performance of your strategies.

MQL to SQL Conversion Rates

This conversion rate calculates the number of marketing-qualified leads who convert into sales-qualified leads. They show interest, sign up, provide their contact info, and subscribe for a demo period to further inspect the solutions offered to them.

These metrics highlight the performance of your lead qualification strategies.

An effective lead-nurturing process will eventually illustrate high engagement results, which may translate to high conversion rates. This indicates a healthy alignment between the sales and marketing teams.

How often do we assess MQL to SQL conversion rates?

Calculate MQL to SQL conversion rates monthly. With this, you will allow the lead qualification processes to work at their own pace, enabling you to make adjustments and understand if they are returning the desired outcomes.

The acceptable range for this conversion rate depends on the industry, business objectives, and past performance – your MQL-SQL conversion rate benchmarks.

Lead Velocity Rate

Velocity measures whether an object is accelerating or decelerating. This applies to a sales pipeline. The lead velocity rate compares the leads generated in the current business period to the previous one.

The velocity rate calculates qualified leads, helping you analyze whether your lead-generation efforts are fruitful and effective. It aids in strategic resource allocation and sales processes, amplifying your efforts.

This metric is crucial to understanding your business revenue growth.

If the number of generated leads for the latest sales cycle remains similar or lower than the previous sales cycle, you know you’re doing something wrong. Thus, it should be assessed monthly or quarterly, depending on your company’s needs.

There is no acceptable velocity rate.

It depends on the industry and your business. Remember, you are your biggest competition.

In every sales cycle, the target should be to generate more leads through improved strategies compared to the previous one.

Average Deal Size

Average deal size is another significant factor that measures the health of your sales pipeline. It represents the monetary value ascribed to a sale.

Tracking the average deal size your business is partaking in helps with sales and demand forecasting.

In the long term, regularly tracking average deal sizes can assist in optimizing and streamlining strategies for marketing and sales initiatives. It is important to reach your brand targets and meet broader market conditions.

Sales Cycle Duration

Analyzing the monetary value of a sale is as significant as calculating the duration of the deal. This metric focuses on the details. It offers an insight into how a deal got stuck and why, with ways to improve it.

Sales cycle duration is the average time a deal spends at every specific stage of the sales cycle. Tracking minute errors resulting in potential delays is easier by calculating the sales cycle duration.

Additionally, this provides crucial insight into the sales cycle length, i.e., the time it takes from the initial contact to the lead being closed. This is also one of the sales pipeline metrics to track.

After all, this also affects the time a deal takes to close.

There are three metrics that we are addressing – average sales cycle duration, sales cycle length, and time taken to close.

These three metrics also help sales forecasting, so your brand can establish practical targets.

A long sales duration can cause a huddle in your pipeline, resulting in relatively high lost deals or drop-offs.

Both these metrics depend on diverse factors, such as the complexity of the product or service. The sales cycles across the B2B landscape are generally longer due to the several decision-makers in the buying committee. And this might delay the purchase as each of them holds their interests and pain points.

You should curate your marketing techniques based on your target market to overcome such hiccups.

• Establish priority and build trust regarding the prospects.
• Conduct customer research and feedback programs.
• Provide social proof through value propositions that align with the prospect’s preferences and pain points.
• Time-sensitive offers that urge prospects to take action.
• Streamline and integrate your lead nurturing and sales enablement strategies to retarget interested leads and stay on their tail.

These sales pipeline KPIs are mutually dependent on each other to some extent. But their goal remains the same, i.e., measuring how efficiently your sales and marketing efforts convert leads into paying customers.

Number of Deals Won

This pipeline metric tracks the number of successful deals. This is relative to the total number of opportunities during a specific period.

Conversion rates are crucial to drive business growth.

The higher the conversion rates, the faster your business can attain its goals. This is why conversion rates are one of the most crucial sales metrics.

If the conversion rates are low or don’t align with industry benchmarks, you can outline fresher roadmaps by identifying the areas of improvement.

What factors contribute to a successful deal? What have you done differently to win a deal than the one dropped off?

These are the questions you ask your sales and marketing team while analyzing the conversion rates and other trends in your data.

Most often, the opportunities may be high, but the win rates are low, signifying a major lack in the closing stages of the pipeline.

Age of a Deal

This is one of the effective and simple metrics you can use when a deal is taking an unnecessarily long time to move through the pipeline, or the prospect themselves are taking too long to make a decision.

With an increasingly long decision-making period, it is less likely that a prospect converts.

You need to assess why the lead didn’t convert and where they got stuck.

How do you avoid this? – Identify the bottlenecks, remove them, and boost the sales velocity.

To move this forward, your company should equip the sales representatives with the right resources and sales enablement or acceleration tools to drive the purchasing process.

By accelerating the sales processes, the age of the deal will automatically reduce, offering space for more successful closes.

Sales Rep Activity

This metric offers insight into the sales team members’ sales performance. Measuring this helps foster team productivity and takes team accountability.

It outlines how your sales team performs through outreach emails sent, the number of calls made, and the meetings booked by each sales representative. Track the sales and categorize them based on factors such as rep, team, region, product/service(s), etc. using efficient CRM tools.

Through the results, your team can assess whether the sales rep is compensated for their contributions. And once analyzed, underperformers can be equipped with more resources and support from their superiors.

How do you improve the number of top performers, boost sales rep activity, and amplify sales?

The lack of correct skills and knowledge is a huge obstacle. To improve this, offering regular training and coaching sessions to newbies is a way to go.

The training should include actively engaging with prospects and staying updated with industry trends. Actively assessing and improving individual sales per rep will help boost the sales team’s productivity.

Total Pipeline Value

This sales pipeline metric measures the total value of deals in your pipeline. The total pipeline value depends on the value of the sales opportunity, the pipeline stage, and the time taken to close it.

By tracking the value of the current opportunity, it is possible to measure the total forecasted business revenue. Hence, it is a valuable metric for sales forecasting.

If you compare your total pipeline value with your win rates, it can help you forecast how much sales revenue could be generated at the end of the sales cycle. If combined with the sales cycle length, it can help analyze the total revenue potential.

To calculate TPV, each opportunity is provided with a specific monetary value, helping to estimate the total sales amount.

Customer Churn Rate

Also known as the customer turnover rate, it’s the number of customers you’re losing or drop-off from the purchasing journey.

This can be quite a requisite KPI for businesses, as it indicates customers are losing interest in your product or service.

However, this might not be the actual case.

Drop-off rates are as important as win rates. It becomes difficult to identify the improvement areas without highlighting the weak points.

Customer churn rate is a necessary metric in subscription business models.

It calculates the customer percentage that doesn’t renew and cancels their subscription services within a month or a year. Hence, this pipeline metric is significant for companies that rely on a recurring pricing model like SaaS or subscription services.

Implement CRM tools to determine how to boost the workings of your subscription models. And highlight the number of paying customers currently compared to the beginning.

⇒ Customer churn rate formula = (the number of customers lost/total customers at the beginning of the period) *100

For the broader picture, the customer churn rate helps highlight the forecasted revenue, improve customer loyalty, prioritize customer success, and enhance marketing strategies.

Average Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost signifies the company’s expenditure on acquiring new customers. It includes marketing and sales expenses, salaries, overheads, commissions, bonuses, etc.

However, CAC in marketing implies something different.

The main expenses entail the content, training, software, and other overhead costs. The goal is to prioritize investments that generate regular returns with minimum maintenance costs, such as curating content-specific blog posts.

It helps you assess the profitability, i.e., the amount you spend on a customer compared to the profit you make from selling your services to the customer.

This metric helps with resource allocation, making your customer acquisition process efficient and simpler. Simply put, there is no significant need to focus too long on this process. Sometimes, an expensive customer might not mean that they are equally profitable.

Your sales and marketing teams should incorporate smart and streamlined strategies. An uncommonly high CAC might mean inefficiencies that require vigilance to enable long-term stability.

Remember to research your target audience. Host automated testing regularly to maximize your ROI using the existing customer acquisition efforts.

How can you calculate the customer acquisition cost?

First, add all the sales and marketing expenses. Then, divide this total by the number of new customers.

⇒ CAC = (sales expenses + marketing expenses)/total number of new customers

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

After spending an ample amount on your cost acquisition efforts, how do you assess whether it is profitable?

Through customer lifetime value.

This metric calculates the value the customer brings to your business, including the amount they spend on your services, their time as customers, and their purchase frequencies.

By taking individual CLV into account, you can analyze the value of your entire customer base. It will offer insight into how much effort you should spend on customer acquisition.

To enhance CLV, focus on customer retention.

Implement new customer service strategies promptly, addressing their concerns to build a strong professional relationship. When the customers are satisfied and happy, they are likely to remain loyal and purchase your services.

The most significant strategy for driving customer lifetime value is improving customer service, personalized recommendations, discount offers, user-friendly websites, etc.

So, finding a solution based on the metrics can help you improve your sales and marketing strategies. One of which would be to reduce the stages in the sales funnel that are unnecessarily time-consuming.

Now that we have listed the most significant and common sales pipeline KPIs, why is it important to track the right pipeline metrics?

Because even the slightest mistakes can render their efforts ineffective, hampering the ROI, and congesting the pipeline.

Fundamental mistakes teams make while tracking sales pipeline metrics

We’ve established that the right sales pipeline metrics go beyond conversion rates and total revenue. The actual challenge lies in aligning the metrics with business needs and the growth stage.

A majority of teams overlook the nuances, leading to a conundrum. This creates obvious mistakes that fester, especially due to a significant knowledge gap.

What are some of the fundamental ones?

• Isolated focus on vanity metrics: Even today, businesses continue to prioritize numbers that look good in theory but don’t represent the actual performance. This could create a false sense of progress, while deeper performance issues remain overlooked. And even mislead or confuse the stakeholders.

• Misaligned or irrelevant metrics: Most teams don’t take the time to understand the broader objectives and how they align with sales performance. This can easily derail your focus, not making any significant contributions to your business’s current priorities. And SDRs might end up pushing low-margin deals, delaying crucial shifts.

• Overlooking the context: It’s context that takes precedence over raw numbers. Metrics should be segmented by channel type, customer profiles, etc., to spotlight performance gaps. An inaccurate picture can lead to strategies that only work for a specific segment. Marketing and sales must fine-tune their approach accordingly.

Each of the above mistakes can have a compounding effect while tracking your sales pipeline metrics. They distort the overall assessment that impacts how the resources are allocated and how strategies are executed.

But there’s an antidote: intentional, agile, and goal-aligned metrics that align with the evolving sales and growth model.

A healthy sales pipeline is like a cocktail glass.

Jeff Hoffman, an entrepreneur and sales executive, argues that a sales pipeline is a cocktail glass rather than a funnel, stating that the latter is inaccurate. Most prospect drop-offs happen near the top in the first stage when the lead comes across a demo, trial, or sign-up.

After passing through this milestone, the opportunity pool should remain approximately the same, and the probability that the opportunity is won is highly likely. This is the make-up of a healthy sales pipeline.

To some extent, we may think about how the shape of the sales pipeline aligns with reality.

The stages and shape of this movement vary according to the buyers, industry, and sales processes.

Why is sales pipeline analysis crucial? To optimize your sales performance, client experience, and drive business growth.

Maintaining a simple and efficient sales pipeline is healthy for your business and sales revenue. But how do we know what “healthy” looks like?

FAQs

1. How can you effectively assess your sales pipeline?

A. Assessing your sales pipeline isn’t about counting closed deals or appointments booked. It’s about deal velocity and step-by-step conversion rate, among others.

To effectively assess its health, your teams must dive into comprehensive reports to spotlight bottlenecks and performance gaps. And segregate the metrics’ analysis by deal type or client profiles, or lead source, etc., to identify hidden ruptures.

2. What are sales pipeline metrics?

A. Sales pipeline metrics are qualitative and quantitative values that track the number and quality of created opportunities. These are crucial to demonstrate the health of your sales pipeline – whether your sales strategies are bearing the desired outcomes.

The common metrics are pipeline value, customer acquisition cost, customer churn rate, deal age, number of deals won, etc. A mix of both lagging and leading metrics provides a curious insight into what’s happening and the revenue potential.

3. How can you track sales pipeline metrics?

A. Generally, sales pipeline metrics can be tracked through your CRM systems through detailed reports and comprehensive dashboards. Your focus should be directed towards updating the deal progression, individual sales rep performance, sales cycle length, etc, ones that actually align with your core business goals.

Regularly tracking these metrics can help you tweak your sales strategies to elevate their effectiveness. And improve revenue forecasting.

4. What benchmarks or industry standards should I compare my sales funnel metrics with?

Industry benchmarks such as a 25-30% win rate and a 3x pipeline coverage ratio can add an advantageous starting point for you. And one of the most relevant benchmarks to compare with is your organization’s historical data.

While focusing on the competitor can help you outline a strategic edge, prioritizing your internal metrics can highlight what needs tweaking, whether it’s cross-departmental alignment or an update in infrastructure.

5. What are the most common pitfalls businesses face in tracking sales funnel metrics?

One of the most common pitfalls is depending on inaccurate data that doesn’t offer any useful insights. They can be misleading for your teams as well as stakeholders. Additionally, most businesses make the mistake of tracking the wrong metrics, overlooking segmentation, or merely focusing on lagging metrics.

With an undefined sales strategy, reaching the critical mile may seem like an endless struggle. These 5 steps map out the route to closing more deals.

The success of your brand relies on a solid sales foundation. Without knowing the critical markers, it is hard to measure sales performance. The lack of a clearly defined sales strategy may be why 45% of surveyed sellers believe their biggest challenge is incomplete data. When your sales team follows a system, it allows them to take the right actions at the right time. The 5-step sales process is a structure to improve the efficiency of your closed deals. It is a guideline to ensure that you are on track and open to tweaking your sales approach.

While the sales approach requires tailoring as per your product or services, the five-step sales process lays a strong foundation to get the pipeline moving. Your sales team can utilize this linear approach to move through each step efficiently. These sales steps allow you to seamlessly monitor the performance and identify gaps that require improvement.  

Mastering this framework makes it easier to tweak or modify your sales process strategy in alignment with your goals and the client’s needs.

Step 1: Prospecting

Prospecting involves developing a list of prospects likely to convert into paying accounts. This step has everything to do with researching potential leads and knowing them as much as possible. Understanding the target niche is the stepping stone to drive a sales strategy that yields the results. Focus on your ICP instead of randomly targeting a pool of audience and going nowhere in the journey.

Step 2. Connecting with the customers

Ace the first impression with your target audience. While interacting with the prospects, work toward not making the conversation sales-y. The goal of this step is to transform from a generic call to schedule a first appointment that could potentially close a deal. So, setting the tone right is of utmost importance here.  Building a strong relationship with your client can go a long way.

Step 3: Identifying the pain points

Spend enough time figuring out the challenges of your target audience. You can begin by asking relevant questions to draw out the problem and understand how your offering could address the pain points. As you do your research, also find out their preferred solutions and whether they have budget constraints. Communicate your understanding of their problem and how your solution can help. When doing so, emphasize the winning points while at the same time not sounding too sales-centric.

Step 4: Sealing the Deal

Closing a deal involves a series of discussions and reasonings. As you move towards the final step, make sure you walk through the right questions. Talk about the details of your sales flow chart and be open to handling questions and client objections. Have a clear plan in place as to what you will do if the client objects or if they are not ready to commit yet. Such preparation will pave the way for overcoming roadblocks swiftly.

Step 5: Keeping up with the Follow-up

The journey doesn’t stop at signing a deal. Once you have closed a sale, make sure to follow up with the client. You need to make sure that the client receives the product/service as discussed and the whole experience simulates customer satisfaction. This small initiative can work in your favor, promoting brand loyalty. A happy client is likely to be loyal to your brand. At this stage, do not hesitate to ask for referrals to generate new leads.

Wrapping up

Sales are centered around fulfilling milestones. Every aspect of the sales cycle revolves around garnering the right clients, identifying their pain points, strengthening bonds with them, and offering an ideal solution. These 5 steps can be a real game-changer for your business, aligning with your vision and adding structure to an otherwise complex sales process. You gain clarity and can deliver the best solution to address the customer’s pain points.

Sales prospecting tools are driving a massive change in the industry. Is your organization well-equipped for the future?

The advent and widespread use of sophisticated sales prospecting tools are driving a sea change in the sales industry as we go ahead in the year 2025. A more efficient and successful sales process is needed more and more in this day and age when finding and interacting with potential leads can take up a lot of time for salespeople.

This is why, tools for sales prospecting have gone from being optional to crucial to any effective sales plan. They provide an opportunity to enhance contacts between sales teams and prospective customers while simultaneously saving valuable time. Based on insights gathered from LinkedIn, 55% of surveyed sales leaders think that leveraging data and analytics can significantly boost the productivity of sales teams, which easily comes from sales tools.

The message is starting to stand out: choosing the right sales prospecting tool may do wonders for your organization and its position in the market, either propelling you ahead or dragging you behind. This article dives into the leading sales prospecting tools that will likely revolutionize sales strategies in 2025, analyzing their unique features, advantages, and more.

Sales Prospecting Tools: What are they and how they’re helpful to organizations like yours

Meeting and exceeding expectations is an ongoing struggle in today’s competitive sales climate. The emergence of sales prospecting software is an important development in this regard. With these tools, sales teams can achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, accuracy, and overall effectiveness, among other advantages. Innovations like this in sales technology reshape how departments in charge of making sales spend their time and energy. Let’s look at some of the many benefits that come with adopting sales

Sales prospecting tools

Automating Lead Identification to Boost Sales Team Efficiency

To begin with, salespeople no longer have to manually do the arduous process of lead identification, thanks to the automation aspects of these tools. A huge step forward in task management has been the automation of formerly manual operations, freeing up salespeople to focus on what they do best: building relationships and closing deals. According to the research done by Hubspot, 81% of sales leaders believe that AI has the potential to reduce their time spent on manual tasks.

Leveraging Advanced Analytics for Deeper Customer Insights

Moreover, these software systems offer insights that have never been seen before. With the use of advanced analytics and machine learning, sales teams can obtain detailed profiles of potential customers. This allows them to understand their needs, preferences, and obstacles even before they reach out to them. Having the capability to tailor outreach efforts to individual clients is now essential in today’s corporate world, as clients demand and value personalized interactions.

Seamless Integration: Connecting Sales Tools with Your Digital Ecosystem

One other major perk is how well these tools work with preexisting digital infrastructures. It is critical to ensure smooth data transfer across social media, email providers, and customer relationship management systems in this era of ever-growing connectivity between sales, marketing, and customer service. Since integrating these tools ensures a consistent and personalized customer experience across all touchpoints, the chances of successful conversions are substantially increased.

Real-Time Analytics: Driving Agile and Data-Driven Sales Strategies

Finally, sales prospecting software’s strategic true value is shown by its ability to provide real-time analytics and insights. Organizations in sales may monitor their performance, assess customer involvement, and adjust their strategies with lightning speed and pinpoint accuracy. Sales activities are responsive and strategically aligned with developing market conditions and consumer expectations because of the capacity to iteratively improve techniques in reaction to real-time data.

Latest Sales Prospecting Tools for 2025

As the sales landscape evolves, so does the arsenal of tools at the disposal of sales teams. In the following section, we’re looking at the best sales prospecting tools for 2025, their unique features, and also their advantages, drawbacks, and pricing:-

1. LeadGenius

LeadGenius is a tool for B2B firms focused on improving interactions with key accounts, shortening the sales cycle, and elevating their revenue generation. 

Advantages:

• Precision in targeting through AI algorithms along with human computation, minimizing time on unqualified leads.
• Facilitates global market penetration with its extensive international data access.
• Easy to use website, allows users to easily navigate and get what they need without much hassle

Limitations:

• May bring out unwanted, unusable, or old leads at times
• Can’t be easily integrated into CRM platforms such as Hubspot
• It is mostly automated and one may wish for a more human touch while interacting with the interface

Cost Overview: Pricing is tailored, necessitating direct consultation for accurate quotes, reflecting the solution’s bespoke nature but complicating upfront cost comparisons.

2. HubSpot Sales

Seamlessly integrated with HubSpot CRM, Hubspot Sales offers a suite of tools for streamlined sales processes, featuring an intuitive interface designed to minimize administrative tasks.

Advantages:

• Intuitive Design: Significantly reduces the learning curve with minimal training required.
• Comprehensive Pipeline Management: Organizes entire sales pipeline information efficiently.
• Facilitates Collaboration: Easy task assignment among team members enhances productivity.

Limitations:

• Advanced functionality requires upgrading to significantly more costly tiers.
• Missing Functionalities: Lacks email templates, calling capabilities, and LinkedIn outreach automation.
• Frequent Upselling: Constant prompts to upgrade for access to features can hinder user experience.

Cost Overview: Offers two packages – Professional at $450/month and Enterprise for $1500/month

3. Salesforce Sales Cloud

This CRM powerhouse offers unmatched customization, allowing businesses to mold the platform to their unique workflows, enriched with AI-driven insights for strategic decision-making.

Advantages:

• Seamless External Integrations: Excellently integrates with external and proprietary systems, streamlining CRM functionalities.
• Tailor-made Customization: Offers a wide range of adaptability options to mold the platform according to business-specific requirements, including enhanced data analysis features.
• Extensive Suite of Features: Facilitates comprehensive management of the customer’s journey from lead to settlement, bolstered by data insights from tools like Einstein Analytics.

Limitations:

• Complex Interface for Beginners: New users may find the platform’s interface and design challenging to navigate, necessitating a substantial learning period.
• High Cost: The platform’s pricing can be prohibitive, especially for expanding needs or accessing more sophisticated capabilities, which may limit its use among smaller enterprises.
• Significant Training Required: Given its wide array of features and customization potential, users often face a considerable learning curve, requiring in-depth training or technical expertise.

Cost Overview: Entry-level plans start from $25 per user per month, with escalating prices up to $165 for advanced functionalities and customization capabilities.

4. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Tapping into LinkedIn’s extensive professional network, this tool aids in identifying and engaging potential leads with advanced search filters and personalized outreach through InMail.

Advantages:

• Consent-Focused Engagement: Employs InMail for voluntary recipient interaction, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR.
• Updated Professional Profiles: Provides access to current employment details, facilitating accurate lead targeting and seamless direct outreach.
• Robust B2B Functionality: Equipped with advanced search options, insightful lead generation, and capabilities for fostering direct connections with potential clients, pivotal for B2B sales activities.

Limitations:

• Bulk Activity Limitations: Its commitment to reducing spam restricts large-scale outreach efforts, potentially impacting broad marketing strategies.
• Subscription Expense: Positioned at a premium price point, with a cap on monthly direct messages, posing budgetary considerations.
• User Experience and Information Reliability: Presents a steep learning curve with a wealth of features, while the accuracy of data is dependent on user updates, sometimes necessitating external resources for comprehensive lead contact details.

Cost Overview: Individual plans commence at $99.99 per month, with additional features for team and enterprise packages of up to $1600 a year, meriting evaluation based on LinkedIn dependency for lead generation.

5. ZoomInfo SalesOS

Offering an extensive B2B database, ZoomInfo facilitates targeted sales efforts with rich company and contact information, augmented by intent data and buying signals for timely engagement.

Advantages:

• Reliable Data Reservoir: Distinguished for its precise and trustworthy database, enhancing the process of pinpointing crucial organizational figures.
• Intuitive Usability: Boasts a straightforward layout and seamless connectivity with tools like Outreach, simplifying contact management.
• Insightful Engagement Resources: Delivers in-depth analyses on account activities, technological adoption, and prospective buyer behaviors, supporting customized engagement approaches.

Limitations:

• Inconsistencies in Global Data: Encounters accuracy issues within emerging markets, affecting its applicability for internationally operating enterprises.
• Operational Quotas: The presence of monthly usage caps necessitates judicious planning to fully leverage the platform’s capabilities.

Cost Overview: Customized pricing based on usage scale and feature access, requiring direct engagement for quotation, which allows for tailored solutions but complicates budget planning.

6. Overloop

As a versatile sales automation platform, Overloop simplifies prospecting and follow-up, boasting a user-friendly interface and efficient task automation to boost productivity.

Advantages:

• Simplified management of sales pipelines and campaigns through an intuitive interface.
• Automation of repetitive tasks accelerates the prospecting phase and follow-up efficiency.
• Compatibility with a wide array of software enhances its utility within a sales tech stack.

Limitations:

• Adjusting to the rebranded platform may require a transition period for existing users.
• Advanced features are gated behind higher subscription levels.

Cost Overview: Pricing initiates at around $49 per user per month, offering accessibility for small to medium businesses while providing scalability options for growing operations, going up to $125 per month per user for enterprises.

7. Owler Max

Delivering competitive intelligence, Owler Max equips sales teams with timely news alerts, comprehensive company insights, and trend analysis, fostering a strategic approach to market engagement.

Advantages:

• Effortless Monitoring: Simplifies tracking the latest updates and news on key accounts, enhancing market awareness without manual effort.
• Valuable Industry Insights: Offers personal insights and competitive comparisons from professionals across various industries, aiding in strategic planning.
• User-Friendly Experience: Features an easy-to-use interface, with a free version available for initial exploration and a straightforward sign-in process, making it accessible for regular use in prospecting activities.

Limitations:

• Limited Free Version: While the free version is beneficial, the limitation to tracking a certain number of competitors compared to premium accounts restricts comprehensive market analysis.
• Data Accuracy Concerns: Challenges with ensuring the reliability of user-contributed company information, such as employee numbers and income, which can detract from its utility as a data source.

Cost Overview: Offers a free community package for personal use and starts its professional plans from $35 per month.

Conclusion

Selecting the appropriate sales prospecting tool involves striking a harmony between recognizing the distinct requirements of your sales process and evaluating the prospective return on investment. Each tool brings its own set of advantages, yet it’s equally important to account for their constraints. As we move into 2025, achieving success in sales will depend on the strategic use of technology — not merely to chase after the latest innovations but to truly boost the productivity and impact of sales activities.