How to Manage Your Lead Pipeline 101 – RevBoss

What does it take to keep your agency’s lead pipeline healthy?

According to research by Vantage Point, 72% of sales managers hold sales pipeline review meetings with their sales reps several times monthly. However, 63% of respondents say their companies poorly manage their sales pipelines.

If a lead pipeline focuses on nurturing potential customers, poorly managing it will hurt your sales pipeline down the road. That’s because you’ll end up with poor-fit leads that are tough (if not impossible) to close.

Of course, lead leaks aren’t just about poor management – they come with many challenges. Today, we’ll look at these obstacles and help you manage your agency’s lead pipeline.

Key Takeaways

Agencies face unique challenges in managing lead pipelines, like high volumes and team coordination.

Use lead scoring to prioritize valuable leads and let go of dead ends to keep your pipeline efficient.

Regularly review and update your pipeline with both sales and marketing teams to ensure constant progress.

Create content for each stage of your pipeline to engage leads from all corners.

Monitor key metrics like lead generation rate, conversion rate, and drop-off stages to optimize your pipeline.

Personalize your outreach using data insights for more impactful engagement.

Consider partnering with an outbound lead gen agency to scale your lead efforts effectively and sustainably.

What is a Lead Pipeline, and Why Should You Keep Yours Full with the Right Leads?

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By definition, a pipeline is a long pipe. A lead pipeline is the journey taken from the first point of contact to becoming a qualified lead.

However, as you know, pipes tend to become clogged. Until you clear them, whatever’s supposed to be flowing through them will be stuck. So, the more qualified leads you have in your pipeline, the easier it is to improve your chances of closing deals and growing your revenue.

The key is to keep your pipeline stocked with the right leads – those who are genuinely interested in your services and have the potential to become long-term paying customers.

Lead Pipeline Management Is Especially Challenging for Agencies

In itself, managing a lead pipeline involves juggling many moving parts. Without the right systems and processes in place, it becomes borderline impossible.

For agencies, there’s another layer of difficulty because…

They often have multiple team members working on different aspects of the lead pipeline. Coordinating efforts and ensuring effective communication can be complex.
They need to balance being persistent without being overbearing.
Having sales and marketing teams stay aligned on goals, strategies, and messaging can be challenging.
Agencies need to allocate their resources efficiently to maximize lead generation efforts without overextending their team and blowing budgets.

Agencies can follow best practices to smooth out those bumps and create a reliable, repeatable system.

Best Practices for Lead Pipeline Management

Identifying Leads Worth Pursuing

Some leads are gold – high potential, ready to buy, and a perfect fit for your product. Others are just covered in gold paint. You need to learn to tell the difference.

Understanding which leads are most valuable allows you to allocate your resources better and avoid wasting time on low-potential prospects.

Here’s how to determine their value and where to focus your energy:

Use Lead Scoring to assign points based on specific criteria like demographics, behavior, and engagement. Higher scores indicate higher value. Here’s how to build a Lead Scoring model that works for you.
Does this lead match your ICP? If not, they generally aren’t worth pursuing. Note that this depends on how accurately your ICP is pinned down.
How engaged is the lead with your content and communications? Higher engagement often signals higher interest.

Letting Go of Cold Leads

You need to let go of leads that aren’t going anywhere because they divert attention from prospects who have real potential. Here’s how to let them go:

Periodically review your pipeline to identify stalled leads (those who haven’t progressed to the next stage in a standard amount of time).
Set criteria for when a lead should be considered “dead” (e.g., no engagement after multiple follow-ups).
When applicable, politely inform the lead that you’ll be closing their file but are available if they have future needs. For example…

You could use an attention-grabbing subject similar to “Closing your file – here to help in the future.”

Followed by something like the example below, in your brand’s voice…

“Hi (Lead’s Name),

I hope you’re doing well. Since we haven’t heard back from you regarding ( service or product), we’ll be closing your file for now.

If your needs change or if there’s anything else we can assist you with, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re always here to help!”

Best,

(Your name)

(Your position)

(Your contact information)

(Your company)

Ensuring Teams Review and Manage Leads Constantly

Your pipeline isn’t a static entity. Everyone involved, including sales and marketing teams, needs constant attention and management.

This calls for a systematized approach where your team regularly reviews and updates their leads’ status.

To keep things on track, you can schedule weekly or bi-weekly reviews to discuss lead status and next steps. Ideally, you should also hold your team accountable for maintaining their part of the pipeline. Regular updates should be part of their daily routine.

Creating Content for Every Stage of the Pipeline

Each stage of the pipeline requires different types of content to move leads to the next step, ensuring you’re providing value at every stage and nurturing leads until they’re ready to convert.

But here’s the thing: just like each lead is different, the content funnel varies for different companies. The typical breakdown for creating content at different stages is as follows:

Top of the Funnel (TOFU): Blog posts, social media updates, and educational content to attract and inform potential leads.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU): Case studies, whitepapers, and webinars that provide deeper insights and address specific pain points.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU): Product demos, free trials, and detailed proposals to help leads make their final decision.

While these are great starting points, you also need to know what your ICP needs to see to move forward.

Even if you create the perfect “nurturing” content, if your ICP isn’t into long ebooks, you’ll have a problem. If they prefer short, snappy videos over dense whitepapers, go that route. Knowing your audience’s preferences is key to keeping your pipeline flowing.

Know Your Funnel to a T

Similarly, the typical buyer funnel usually looks like:

Awareness
Consideration
Decision

Again, this is a great starting point. But if you’re familiar with Google’s definition of the “messy middle,” you know the path toward conversions isn’t always that linear. Your ideal prospects might be just about to close when they decide to check out the competitors one more time.

Knowing how exactly each prospect will go through the funnel is impossible, as each experience is unique.

However, your metrics can give you an educated bird’s-eye view on which to base your content creation and overall sales process. They’ll help you map the customer journey and identify key touchpoints where you can engage and nurture your leads.

And speaking of metrics…

Monitor Key Pipeline Metrics

You need to regularly monitor specific metrics that give you a clear picture of your pipeline’s health and highlight areas for improvement.

Lead generation rate: How many leads are entering your pipeline?
Conversion rate: What percentage of leads are converting into customers?
Drop-off stage: At which stage are leads dropping off?
Sales velocity: How quickly are leads moving through the pipeline?

Review and Improve Your Pipeline Constantly

Besides analyzing your metrics, you should always gather feedback from your sales and marketing teams and identify bottlenecks, such as…

Are leads getting stuck at a particular stage?
Are there common objections that need addressing?
Is there a significant drop in the conversion rate between stages?
Are many leads dropping out of the pipeline at the same stage?
Are there fluctuations in the number of leads entering the pipeline?
Is the time to convert a lead into a customer increasing?
Are sales targets regularly being missed?
Are leads not being followed up promptly or at all?
Is there accurate or complete data about leads and their interactions?

Use this information to refine your process and make necessary adjustments.

Personalize Your Outreach

The data you gather can transform your outreach from a send-and-pray approach into a well-informed strategy. It gives you the insights to capture your prospects’ attention and engage them meaningfully with the right messages at exactly the right moment.

If you’re reaching out via email, segmentation is non-negotiable. It allows for targeting and personalization to happen at scale, dismissing the excruciating job of individual messaging.
You should always A/B test your outreach emails for continuous, data-driven improvement.
Data can also guide the frequency and content of your follow-up messages. Track how recipients respond to different follow-up intervals and content types to determine the best time frame.

How the Right Outbound Lead Gen Partner Can Help

If your agency has been relying solely on inbound efforts and finds itself stuck in a feast-and-famine cycle, this is a prime indicator that outsourcing could be helpful.

From targeted lead sourcing to lead qualification to pipeline metrics monitoring, outbound lead agencies have the expertise and systems to generate high-quality leads consistently. This lets your internal team focus on closing deals rather than chasing after leads.

Ultimately, outbound sales aim to close deals as quickly and as often as possible.

What Does the Right Agency Look Like?

The right agencies have the resources and people to handle more leads. They can help you scale your efforts without stretching your team too thin. Usually, they also have a specialized team of account managers.

While they can handle a huge volume of leads, a top-notch lead gen agency doesn’t just send out mass AI-generated outreach messages. They take the time and tools to understand your business and adjust their approach to your target audience.

Most importantly, they’re honest about the challenges and realistic about the results. Beware of agencies that promise quick and easy returns. A good agency will focus on building sustainable strategies that deliver long-term results, even if it takes months for those results to become visible.

Pipeline Management Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Managing a lead pipeline is essential for your agency’s growth and success. By understanding your funnel, monitoring key metrics, aligning marketing and sales, and personalizing your outreach, you can keep your pipeline full and well-functioning.

And if you find yourself overwhelmed or stuck, that’s normal. You’re running an agency, after all! Don’t hesitate to seek help from an outbound lead generation agency. With an agency like RevBoss by your side, you can proactively grow your pipeline and focus on what you do best – wowing prospects.

Schedule a quick call today to learn how we can help you win more clients.