I’m hearing sob stories from leaders and individuals everywhere who are waking up to the cold, hard truth that they are staring down the barrel of a thin or empty pipeline.
If you are in this situation and don’t have enough pipe to cover your number—either for this month or the first quarter—then you need to take action now to close that gap because getting behind your number at the beginning of the year means loads of stress and chasing your tail - for the rest of the quarter or the entire year if you get too far behind.
Your Empty Pipeline Started Last Month
Stepping back for a moment, the reason your pipeline is empty today can usually be traced back to your sales activity in November or December.
Some teams get tunnel vision in the fourth quarter. They focus on closing deals and finishing the year strong but fail to balance that with prospecting activity for the future.
Other folks just get distracted by the holidays and let the final weeks of the year slip by without prospecting to fill the pipe with enough new opportunities to cover January.
In other cases, the pipeline opportunities that you were counting on this month—the ones that pushed decisions until after the holidays - have suddenly gone silent and are ghosting you. You’re finding out the hard way that it is very, very difficult to reignite these deals once you’ve allowed this much time to pass.
I’m not going to sugarcoat this because the truth is the truth. No matter what got you to this point, you need to get to work right now to turn this around.
So the question is, how do you do this?
Block Time for Prospecting
One of the biggest pitfalls I see is that when pipelines are empty, salespeople get overwhelmed and paralyzed. They don’t know where to begin, so they waste time worrying and “getting organized.” They "plan to plan to plan" to prospect but don’t get any actual prospecting done.
There’s an old saying that goes, “When you’re in a hole, stop digging.” Likewise, the first rule of an empty pipeline is: When have one, start prospecting. That’s it. There’s no magic to it. It's a blinding flash of common sense.
Therefore step one is to block one to two hours at the start of your day specifically for prospecting. Close your email and company chat, put devices on do not disturb, and place a singular focus on picking up the phone and calling potential customers.
Put these morning blocks on your calendar as an immovable meeting. No excuses, no last-minute changes. Keep this time sacred for outbound prospecting.
Why first thing in the morning? Because that’s when you’re fresh, your prospects are fresh and neither of you have gotten buried in your day yet. And the truth is, if you put off prospecting until the afternoon, your willpower is often depleted and you are more likely not to do it.
Fast vs Slow Prospecting
Next you need to focus on the right kind of prospecting. This isn’t the time for a slow, meandering approach in which you cultivate long-term opportunities on LinkedIn and through networking. While building the future through slow prospecting activities is important, right now you need to move fast.
You need to target, engage, interrupt and convert prospects that can move into your pipeline as viable opportunities, right now.
By “interrupt,” I mean dialing the phone, knocking on doors, sending personalized emails, text messages, video messages and direct messages —whatever it takes to get attention and engage in conversations with high potential, high probability prospects.
5 Sources for Targeted Prospecting Lists
When I say target, I mean not random. Randomness is the enemy of effectiveness. At this moment in time, spray and pray will not turn your pipeline around. You need a rifle rather than a shotgun approach.
The key is building a targeted list because the better your list you, the better your prospecting outcomes. There are five sources for building a targeted prospecting list,
