This blog is about creating a healthy company pipeline for you and your team. Here are two extremes your company can easily fall into if you are not strategic:

Extreme 1: Full Work Stage

• In this phase of work, your company has just sold a burst of jobs so you and your team are now trying to get them all done.
• You and your team might be stretched thin trying to complete each job causing your bandwidth may be stretched.
• The person in charge of sales re-targets his/her focus off of sales and onto helping the team complete each phase.
• You may not be focused on pursuing leads the way you would when you have less work.

Extreme 2: Dry Work Stage

• In this phase of work, you and your team have just finished the rush of jobs.
• You may realize that your sales team was not focused on generating more sales during the full work stage, so you are now left with a less than impressive pipeline for a few months.
• The person in charge of sales is now retargeting their efforts to secure more sales which may propel you back into the full work stage listed above.

Which stage are you in?

This cycle can be detrimental to you and your company as each scenario comes with a different demand and stress level. Our solution is to be aware of this trend, and develop a company culture that supports the sales process by keeping the sales team out of working in the field and going to service jobs.

It is important for your sales team to be confident that someone in your company has their back and their word is on the line as well. A healthy work ratio would be 80% sales and 20% of other company tasks.

How does your current company culture and or team operate with this perspective in mind? If you are currently in one of the two extremes listed above, you can take steps to correct it. Some simple tips to stay consistent:

• Develop a system to keep your team members accountable to the work they are best served doing. For example, keep your sales team working sales!
• Outsource the parts of your company that do not fall under your scope of work. For example hire an accounting service to do your books, or a cleaning service to maintain your office. There may be other parts of your business that your company is not very efficient in which may be beneficial to outsource as well.
• Be sure to have clearly defined roles for each of your team members. Any sort of fuzziness will lead to confusion and lack of productivity.
• Consider a business consulting firm to help you develop a winning strategy to organize your workforce.