Effective Pipeline Meetings

We can always improve our pipeline meetings to help us more effectively forecast the year ahead. Here are some thought-starters...

1. Discussing an outreach campaign is different than talking about scheduled prospect meetings that you've had or have coming up. Separate the hypothetical from what’s actually taking shape in your pipeline. Don't mix or conflate the two pursuits.

2. In pipeline meetings about active opportunities, I really like to use this framing device: What do we know, what don't we know, and what's next? When you're facilitating a meeting with your team, make sure that everyone answers these questions about a prospect: What have we uncovered about their compelling reason to change, the true decision-makers, and why we're talking right now? What have we not yet uncovered that we need to prioritize and address in our upcoming conversation? What have we agreed to as a next step?

3. It's all about getting the truth. Some people see pipeline conversations as a performance to flex what they have going on and how great it is. Notice when that happens to you or others on your team. Remember, these meetings are not about looking good—stick to real data and focus on what's next in as few words as possible. If everyone's talking too much and too excitedly, that usually indicates there's not a lot of actual progress happening.

4. As part of any regular pipeline meeting, I like to talk about wins, losses, and learnings. What were some victories? What did we lose, and what did we learn from it? Everyone is afraid to talk about losses, yet the best learning comes from missed opportunities and rejections. And growth is only possible if we’re constantly learning from our efforts.

Pipeline meetings are an essential way to get informed, organized, and motivated, but only if you make the effort to get real. When put into practice, these tips will help you be more effective, more efficient, and better able to forecast based on what you truly have going on.

Onward.
Tom

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