Deal flow refers to the number of potential sales deals that are moving through the sales pipeline at any given time. For a sales operations professional, monitoring and managing deal flow is a crucial part of the job. The sales ops team needs to have visibility into deal flow in order to forecast revenue, ensure sales processes are running smoothly, and identify any bottlenecks that could prevent deals from closing.
Some key responsibilities related to managing deal flow include:
- Tracking deal stages – Knowing which deals are in each stage of the pipeline (prospecting, qualification, proposal, negotiation etc.) and how long they typically spend in each stage. This helps ops identify sticking points.
- Managing lead handoffs – Ensuring new leads are properly handed off from marketing to sales and that sales reps follow up in a timely manner to keep deals progressing.
- Forecasting – Using historic data and assumptions about win rates and deal cycles to predict how many potential deals will likely close each month/quarter. Accuracy is important for setting goals.
- Reporting – Compiling deal flow reports for sales leadership to give visibility into the quantity and health of deals by rep, product, region, etc. Helps identify high performers.
- Process improvement – Analyzing trends in deal flow to detect inefficiencies. Look for ways to accelerate deal cycles or reduce fall out at certain stages through better processes and tools.
- Managing special situations – Stepping in to help progress difficult, high-value deals that need extra attention to push through to close.
The sales operations team is like the control tower managing planes coming in for a landing. By maintaining a clear picture of deal flow and minimizing obstacles, ops enables sales reps to focus on selling while ensuring a consistent pipeline and predictable revenue.
