Acting on the Pursue/Discard Decision is What Enables Scale.
In a CRM world full of automation, why is the standard method of determining which opportunities to pursue or discard so manual? Why is this decision, so critical to our territory and resource management strategy, determined solely by “manual over ride?”
One of the most critical problems we see among enterprise software sales companies is deals that stay in the pipeline too long. Deals that should never have been considered for forecast somehow seem to survive down to the end of the quarter and many times for subsequent quarters as well. The truth is that the markers that reveal whether a deal should or should not be in the pipeline are connected to what should be early stage interactions with the prospect. So realistically speaking, we should know very early in a sales cycle if a deal should be killed off ("discarded") and replaced with another potentially better deal.
Ridding the top of the pipeline of deals that markers say should not be there is what enables scale; in fact, this is the only thing that enables scale.
Even the robust Salesforce and HubSpot systems leave this decision in the hands of manual discretion, instead of providing more guidance in this area. Sure, we can run “Stuck and Stale” dashboards and reports that indicate which opportunities seem to linger in the pipeline. These systems can also provide notifications when opportunities don’t advance after a set period of time or have neglected critical sales activities.
Finally, there is a system that scores a value for each deal that drives the pursue/discard decision, while allowing for manual over ride by exception, rather than as the rule. The MOIC Pipeline Grader, through its WARD (Wins Against Replacement Deal) approach, can systematically drive the pursue/discard decision by categorizing deals (discard/on the bubble/retain/pursue) based on a score that incorporates the elapsed time of key sales steps (markers) to make this decision.
While this approach likely is accurate 90% of the time, the “management over ride” remains an option, by exception, to accommodate “one off” situations. By reducing these over rides from 100% to 10%, sales teams can focus on the right opportunities and not waste time or resources on deals unlikely to ever close.
From a financial standpoint, systematically making the pursue/discard decision can improve win rates, keep from over hiring, along with other benefits. If your sales team struggles with this pursue/discard decision and, as a result, negatively affects overall sales effectiveness, email dave@moicpartners.com. Learn how you can be certain your pipeline is filled with only the most viable deals (apply here to improve your forecast accuracy).
