We all know every business and salesman are unique. However, one thing that is consistent in all high performing companies and sales teams is operational sales process rigor. High amounts of contacts, follow ups, and following a structured process will consistently bring in the results you expect. So do you have it in place today?

If you are still not getting results, it is likely because you just don’t have enough pipeline. To calculate your pipeline you just need a few statistics to get started, and funny enough, your CRM can calculate these for you.

Vantage Point Performance and the Sales Management Association revealed that 44% of executives think their organization is ineffective at managing their sales pipeline.

• Target – What is your quota?

• Average Deal Size (Revenue / # Sales) – What amount should you expect each deal to be?

• Close ratio (Total number of opps won+loss / won) – What percent of deals are you closing?

Once you have these numbers it is just a matter of calculating what you need. Let’s take the follow example

Sample data and calculations:

Target: $200K

Avg Deal Size: $10K

Close Ratio: 10%

# Deals needed to close = Target / Average Deal Size

—- $200K / $10K = 20 —-

# Deals needed in pipeline = # Deals needed / Close Ratio

—- 20 / 10% = 200 —–

Value of opps in pipeline = # Deals needed * Avg Deal Size

—- 200 * $10K = $2M —-

Sales teams that follow a defined sales process average more than 33% in production and revenue than sales teams that don’t (Cheif Sales Officers Insights).

We never like to admit that we are not doing enough. Most people do not have a enough in their pipeline to close the period successfully. The need of pipeline is way more than we normally have already in place. Statistics used are your statistics so don’t trying to improve them is honorable but not a successful strategy. Heros are not born they are made. Preparation and pipeline will make you the hero.