From pipe dream to profit

Welcome to The Lonely Marketer. A sanctuary for those of us navigating the marketing landscape solo or wearing multiple hats within our organization.

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Today I want to cover a topic that is so important as a modern B2B marketer.

Some may call it disposition the pipeline, pipeline review, or just pipeline meeting.

Call it whatever you’d like, but make sure you’re doing it.

It’s one of the most impactful ways to build trust with your sales team, understand prospects, increase velocity, and focus on revenue generating activities.

Let’s jump in and talk about the purpose of this meeting, how to run the meeting, and the benefits of why it’s so important.

What exactly is this meeting all about?

Simply put, it’s a regular meeting between the marketing and sales teams to review the current sales pipeline, clean up deals that are dead or not going to close (bummer!), and strategize on the path forward to revenue.

When run effectively here are a few of the benefits.

Clean up dead or non-closing deals. I’ve run into a lot of marketers who are hesitant to “Closed-Lost” a deal. I get it, we have a number to hit and we want pipeline to look as juicy as possible.

The problem is … a dead deal is just that, dead. ☠️

Keeping it open in your pipeline isn’t helping anyone. It’s giving an inaccurate representation of actual opportunities, hurting your sales velocity metric, and distracting the sales team from selling to ripe opportunities.

By identifying and removing these deals, you and your sales leader can have a clearer and more realistic view of your pipeline, enabling you to make more informed decisions and allocate resources more effectively.

Aligns sales and marketing teams. When the marketing and sales teams operate in silos, it can lead to miscommunications, misaligned goals, and ultimately, missed opportunities.

Regular pipeline meetings facilitate open communication between the two teams, ensuring everyone is on the same page about the status of current deals and the strategies needed to move them forward. This alignment is key to creating a seamless and efficient process that drives revenue growth.

Provides a path forward to revenue. By reviewing the pipeline together, you’ll be able to identify bottlenecks and strategize on how to overcome them.

Whether it's a matter of nurturing leads more effectively, adjusting the messaging, or identifying new target accounts, these meetings provide a dedicated forum for brainstorming and problem-solving. Together, you can develop a clear and actionable plan for driving revenue growth.

Enables accurate forecasting. Knowing how much pipeline you need to generate to hit your quarterly or annual goal is crucial for planning and executing your marketing and sales strategies.

Regularly cleaning up the pipeline and aligning on the path forward allows you to accurately forecast how much business you can expect to close in a given period and how much new pipeline you need to generate to hit your goals.

On paper, this all looks great, right? Right.

But without proper ownership of the meeting and the agenda, it will quickly turn into a value detractor, not a value add.

That brings me to another point.

Who owns this meeting?

There are different schools of thought here. But I’m adamant about the marketing leader owning this one.

Marketing is accountable for pipeline coverage. As a marketer, you need to make sure you’re generating enough of the right opportunities for the sales team to close in order to hit the number.

If you’re in a larger organization it’s typically the VP/Director of Revenue Marketing or the Director of Demand Gen.

Here are a few quick tips to making sure this meeting is successful.

Set a regular cadence. Most things in marketing require cadence, this is no exception. Establish a regular cadence for this meeting. It can be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Do what is best for your team and your business.

For me, as a solo marketer/small team I hold this meeting weekly. With a rapid sales cycle and high velocity of deals it’s important to have a constant pulse on the pipeline. Consistency is key to maintaining an accurate and up-to-date view of your pipeline.

Come prepared. This is true for any meeting, but especially this one. In most organizations this is a VERY expensive meeting. Typically you have multiple executives and sales reps.

Both the marketing and sales teams should come prepared to the meeting with a list of deals in their pipeline, their current status, and any challenges or roadblocks they are facing. This will help facilitate a productive and efficient discussion.

Establish clear objectives. At the start of the meeting, establish clear objectives for what you want to accomplish. Whether it's cleaning up dead deals, identifying bottlenecks, or strategizing on new opportunities, having clear objectives will keep the meeting focused and productive.

Stick to the agenda, but allow space for flexibility. Again, this is an expensive meeting. Set an agenda and follow it closely, but allow space for discussion and feedback. If anything needs deeper discussion you can always take the meeting offline with the relevant people.

I dropped a sample agenda at the end of this. Feel free to grab it and tailor it for your specific needs.

Foster open communication. Encourage open and honest communication during the meeting. Both teams should feel comfortable sharing their perspectives, challenges, and ideas. This will build a collaborative and supportive environment that will ultimately lead to better outcomes.

Develop an action plan. At the end of the meeting, develop a clear and actionable plan for moving forward. Assign responsibilities, set deadlines, and establish clear next steps for both teams. This is important to keep things moving forward and hold everyone accountable.

Remember, the goal of this meeting is not to point fingers or assign blame. It’s about partnering to optimize the pipeline and drive revenue growth.

If you're not already holding these meetings, I highly encourage you to start. The benefits are well worth the effort.

Cheers,

JK Sparks

P.S. Here is a sample agenda for you to take and make your own. Each organization will have nuances based on your needs. But this is a great place to start.