Mark Wainwright shares his thoughts on the intersection where certainty ends and partners’ “night sweats” often begin — your sales pipeline.
Jason Mlicki, agency leader, and Jeff McKay, former global CMO, discuss growth, marketing, and life in professional services in this weekly podcast. The duo offers divergent thoughts on solving the issues practice leaders and marketers confront—or probably should—including stupid sh*t Marketing should NOT do, how Marketing ruins everything, the BS of professional services, and unleashing your Young Turks. Executive guests and industry experts join frequently to share their insights and experiences. It’s all served up with humor and a refreshing dose of reality from two guys who know how to grow firms.
Mark Wainwright shares his thoughts on the intersection where certainty ends and partners’ “night sweats” often begin — your sales pipeline.
The post The Pipeline Cliff — An Interview with Mark Wainwright on Sales Planning for Doer/Sellers appeared first on Rattle and Pedal.
Most professional services firms fail to understand the basic concepts of backlog and pipeline. As discussed in this episode, firms must work to stay far away from the revenue “cliff” often hiding just out of sight beyond their contracted backlog and their thinning sales pipeline.
Listen to this episode with the player above or follow this link to the recording and transcript for the 28-minute episode. Recorded in early 2020, it hit just a few weeks prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The podcast references an article on the same subject, titled Backlog, Pipeline, and the Cliff.
An excerpt from the podcast:
“So the pipeline is what extends beyond your contracted work. And there’s a lot of firms out there [where] it’s a fog. There could be six people chasing after different things. There’s some RFPs in the mix. There’s some contract renewal pending. There’s six referrals out there that people aren’t tracking down. It’s kind of a mess. Firms pay a ton of attention to their contracted work… But their pipeline is a bit of a mystery.”
The Pipeline Cliff was featured on Jeff McKay’s post titled From the Bike: The Best of R&P, a collection of Jeff’s favorite episodes from Rattle & Pedal, and a fine group of which to be a part.
About Rattle & Pedal
Rattle & Pedal is a podcast by Jason Mlicki and Jeff McKay that lives up to its tagline, “Divergent Thinking on Marketing and Growing Professional Services Firms“. Jason is Principal of Rattleback, a recognized leader in professional services marketing. Jeff is a former CMO and the founder of strategy consultancy, Prudent Pedal.
If you enjoyed this podcast…
Hosted by John Tyreman and Mark Wainwright, the Breaking BizDev podcast explores business development in professional services firms. Each episode pulls apart and highlights critical marketing and sales activities and strategies that “BD” often overlooks. Breaking BizDev works over the commonly seen yet ill-advised practices in all types of expert firms. And then provides clarity on how firms can think and act differently in their marketing and sales efforts.
If you host a podcast and wish to have Mark join you as a guest, then please send an email. Mark focuses on sales in professional services firms and help busy practitioners sell with confidence. And if you’re so inclined, your thoughts and feedback on these podcasts
Wainwright Insight provides fractional sales management and sales consulting to organizations who want to take control of their pipeline and build future sales leaders—but could use a little, part-time expertise. I work with professional services firms, and the experts in those firms, who need to get better at chasing and winning big deals when the stakes are high.