At one of the many companies we have transformed with social, we help "de-risk" the pipeline.  We de-risk the pipeline that is leading up to be closed and the current quarter.

I am writing this in August, so if you have a calendar Financial year, you will be in closing quarter 3, which we will de-risk and we will also work with you to de-risk quarter 4.

As with any forecast and closing process, we want to make sure there are no surprises.

De-Risking The Forecast

The first thing we do is using (one of your licences) of Sales Navigator is we check whom in your business is connected to whom in the target account.

It is amazing how many times a sales person says "this deal is closing" and they have no connection and therefore we can assume no relationship in that account.  Gartner reckon that at least 10 people are part of the buying process, so sales people must be connected to at least, 10 people in any target account.

De-Risking The CRM

CRMs are all very "interesting" but they tend to be used by management for reporting.  What we do, is lift conversations on accounts onto social, here at DLA Ignite, we use Slack. 

What we do is get everybody associated with the account into channels to get them to collaborate, regardless of location.  This allows the companies to break away from the "copy all" email fatigue. 

Forecast calls are lead by the sales leader and they do this from the conversations on social.

The "trick" is very simple, lot's of conversations, this deal will close, no conversation, this deal is at risk.

Time maybe for you to use social in your deal review process, it will increase the accuracy of your forecast. 

I'm here if you want to chat

https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyhughessocialselling/