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Full Funnel

How Marketing Future-Proofs Your Sales Pipeline

The Reality & Importance of the Sales Pipeline

For starters, you might be wondering why a marketing agency is talking about growing a sales pipeline. Isn’t that the job of sales? Yes and no.

YES — In one sense, the new business pipeline is owned and reported on by your sales team. Deals won. Deals lost. Size of opportunity. Etc.

NO — But we believe that marketing and sales both play a complementary role in the revenue function of a business. They certainly ought not to be competitors. Therefore, effective marketing must have a positive impact on the sales pipeline, even if that effect is indirect. More on that in a second.

In fact, I might even say that the sales team fills the pipeline, but the marketing team should grow the pipeline.

Consider this common scenario: The sales team works hard in 1st Quarter to work through their target prospects in search of leads, referrals, and new business. At some point, there are so many opportunities in the pipeline that it’s ‘all hands on deck’ to see those deals turn into contracts.

Everyone wants a full pipeline, but there can be a future downside to a full pipeline. If the sales person or sales team spends most of their time closing deals rather than prospecting and networking to re-fill the pipeline, it likely will create a gap in the future pipeline which cannot be easily filled. For project companies especially, this results in lost opportunity for the business if there are gaps in the pipeline.

How Marketing Fuels Future Pipeline Growth

As previously mentioned, marketing and sales are complementary functions for the purpose of revenue growth. Marketing is unique in that it can do work that pays dividends in 9 months, 12 months, 18 months that slowly matures over time. Sales doesn’t typically have the luxury of living that far in the future.

To be specific, here are 2 ways Marketing Grows the Future Pipeline:

  1. Marketing builds the company brand with prospects who are not currently in ‘Buy Mode.’
    If you’re a B2B company, it’s likely that only a fraction of companies who can buy from you (prospects) are currently actively engaged in a buying conversation. Most of your prospects are not. We would say that these prospects are in the ‘Top of the Funnel.’ This is critical to understand.

    If you are only working with prospects who have expressed an interest in buying, the reality is, you aren’t talking to the rest of your prospects who will likely buy at some point. Not marketing to the top of the funnel signals danger for your future pipeline. It makes you overly dependent on deals that come to you.
    However, marketing should be targeting those prospects who aren’t currently in ‘buy mode’ while sales focused on the prospects who are in ‘buy mode.’ This keeps your brand perpetually in front of your target customer in relevant ways, without requiring a sales person picking up the phone.
  2. Marketing creates new demand for your product or service.
    ‘Demand’ simply refers to customers in the market actively seeking out your solution to their problem. For example, there is no current demand for real estate on the moon, as intriguing as that might sound.

    Marketing to your prospect who isn’t currently searching for your solution requires a different approach. It isn’t “Buy Now” or “Schedule a Demo.”

    Marketing to the top of the funnel involves targeted messaging about the issues that your prospect is facing, for which they haven’t started looking for a solution yet. It may be that they don’t even consider it a problem yet. Or possibly, they have accepted a challenge as the new normal.

    So, you aren’t asking them to ‘Buy Now.’ You are connecting your company’s brand to the issue or challenge they’re currently facing. You are giving examples of how you have solved customer challenges that may resemble the ones they’re currently facing, or will face in the near future.
    Marketing grows a bigger pipeline by establishing your brand with a larger number of prospects on a consistent basis. This is work that sales isn’t really able to do. This is why growing companies have fully functioning sales and marketing functions in the business.

Nathan Woehr

Developer

Nathan works with Alex to maintain our servers and websites. He monitors sites for problems, backs up website data, and updates software to keep everything running smoothly and safely. He also builds some of our smaller websites. A Computer Engineering grad, Nathan enjoys programming & robotics on the side.

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Alex Woehr

Lead Developer

Need your site to handle a complex database, do tricks when you hover your mouse over a graphic, or go where no widget has gone before? Alex, our resident Code Jedi, explores the realm of tech possibilities. If a solution doesn’t already exist, he’ll build you a custom one.

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Will Haltiwanger

Account Coordinator

Will loves connecting with others in a way that truly understands who they are, where they are coming from, and where they wish to be going. As the Account Coordinator at 3Fold, he embodies this through his work in client services, ensuring that your needs are received, communicated, executed, and delivered in full, all while striving to build effective partnerships along the way.

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Mika Hearn

Digital Manager

With over eleven years of agency experience, Mika has worn many hats, including digital marketer, web strategist, and front-end developer. Mika uses her broad experience and interdisciplinary approach towards problem solving to arrive at successful solutions.

Mika is driven by a strong desire to deliver the best results and experience to clients, and to help move the needle forward on their endeavors.

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Ken Ratcliffe

Executive Creative Director

Ken’s been a creative director on three continents. He’s reported to everyone from author/CCO James Patterson to ad guru David Droga to comedian Jimmy Kimmel. While he’s done the whole “sitting-on-the-beach-in-Cannes” award thing, his real focus is on moving the needle, and he’s done that for some of the biggest brands in the world.

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Gustavo Nieves

Principal & COO

Gustavo is a serial entrepreneur and an accounting and operations specialist. Since 2006, Gustavo has owned companies in the IT, web, advertising, accounting, tax, and food service industries. At 3Fold, Gustavo oversees operations, finance, and accounting.

In his spare time, Gustavo serves on the board of directors for Community Works Carolina and the Sigal Music Museum and volunteers with the SC Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

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Rommel Acosta

Operations Assistant

Driven by keeping things organized and watching projects develop, Rommel takes pride in managing projects that will benefit others. As the Operations Assistant, his goals include delivering on time and keeping the production team united during the process. While knowing the client’s expectations, Rommel makes sure communication is clear and resources are available for production.

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Josh McCarnan

Agency Director

Josh brings decades of experience to 3Fold’s leadership team. For more than 20 years, Josh has combined creative and strategic thinking, helping for-profit and non-profit organizations find their audiences and tell their stories with clarity. 

At 3Fold, Josh leads a team that excels at learning a client’s needs, understanding why the client is stuck, and helping create solutions that shepherd sustained growth.

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