Today we are releasing Pipeliner CRM Collection—another milestone for CRM users throughout the world!

With the release of our last version—Pipeliner Automata—we took a major stride in addressing today’s sales complexity with the very first CRM application to utilize the simplifying science of cybernetics.

The complexity of today’s sales landscape has of course continued—and so we have continued our trend of simplifying it with Pipeliner Collection.

This version takes its name from an 8-volume work written by ancient Greek mathematician Pappus of Alexandria in about 340 AD. Pappus’s Collection contained a systematically arranged account of the most important results obtained by his predecessors in the field of mathematics. It also included notes explaining and expanding on previous discoveries.

In a way similar to Pappus’s work, with Pipeliner CRM Collection we have consolidated and streamlined a number of Pipeliner’s already advanced data methods—taking vital features and rendering them even more efficient. We’re collecting data and visualizing it in an intelligent, mathematical form so that people can better grasp it.

The result is an even faster, more empowering Pipeliner CRM!

New Features

Associating and Consolidating Multiple Accounts

In today’s business world, several accounts can be related to each other. XYZ Company might own ABC Company, for example, and might require ABC Company to obtain approval prior to any major purchase. In Pipeliner, however, these 2 companies could be separately entered simply because they are different companies.

A sales rep on ABC’s account might discover that XYZ owns ABC, and would want that information known, especially since it affect’s ABC’s purchase process. Pipeliner’s new Parent Account allows you to assign a parent account to an existing account—in our example, XYZ Company would be assigned as a parent account to ABC Company. This new functionality also allows assignment, under one account, of multiple accounts.

Additionally a user can aggregate data from multiple accounts in a single selected account.

Merging Accounts and Contacts

What can you do if you discover that 2 Pipeliner accounts or contacts contain different data but actually belong in 1? With Pipeliner CRM Collection, you can simply merge 2 contacts or accounts into a single contact or account.

Compact View Expanded

Pipeliner’s unique Compact View was introduced in Pipeliner Phaenomena (version 7.5). This functionality allows you to, at a glance, see the last time a prospect was touched, the sales opportunities in which that prospect is involved, and activity from their running feed (latest social CRM updates, emails or internal messages).

With Pipeliner Collection, Compact View is expanded to include leads, opportunities, and opportunities within the Archive.

New KPI Dashboard Report

Pipeliner’s visual KPI Dashboard Reports is a primary feature that sets Pipeliner CRM far beyond its competitors. We have now added Pipeline Conversion Rates Chart—which provides conversion rates of a single rep or multiple reps within a team, at a glance.

Additional Enhancements

As with every new release, in Pipeliner Collection we have provided many additional enhancements to make Pipeliner CRM Collection the best possible choice for your company and sales team:

• View accounts or contacts on Google Maps
• Major advancements to our Pipeliner-exclusive CRM filter features
• Major advancements and upgrades to reporting features
• Major advancements and upgrades to Pipeliner Mobile

With Pipeliner Collection, Pipeliner CRM once again leaps ahead of the competition with even sleeker, more powerful Instant Intelligence, Visualized!

10 Questions You Must Ask Yourself When Managing Your Sales Pipeline

We see a lot of articles on sales enablement and progression, but few address the importance of pipeline management and its specific contribution in helping sales teams to step up their game in terms of success and efficiency. So let’s take a look at 10 questions that sales managers should ask themselves about how to effectively manage their sales pipeline, and improve the overall performance of their sales team:

#1: How big should the pipeline be?

Truthfully, the answer really depends on the industry, and how many calls it takes to close a sale. Let’s take a simple example. The workings below are based on an outbound salesperson who does 50 calls a day, taking an average of 5 calls to close a sale. Here, the salesperson needs 200 sales leads in their pipeline.

In my experience, I have managed salespeople with over 2,000 leads in their pipeline. Due to sheer volume, this meant that they never managed these leads effectively and many of them went cold. I’ve also managed salespeople with less than 100 leads in the pipeline, resulting in an inability to hit their targets. By knowing the size of a pipeline, it gives salespeople a much better understanding of how to hit their targets. For a team leader, knowing the size of the pipeline will also help them to manage their team more effectively.

#2: How do I manage the pipeline stages and KPIs?

It’s important to know how every salesperson is progressing along their sales cycle. The first thing to do is create each stage of the pipeline (the number of stages will depend on each company), and understand how the sales process works. KPIs must be assigned to each stage, and only 10% of the salesperson’s overall pipeline should be at the point of ‘the first contact.’ If this number is closer to 50%, then the salesperson is either a new hire, they aren’t making enough calls, or they have an issue getting past the gatekeeper!

Here’s an example of good sales pipeline progression:

And here’s an example of poor progression:

Creating the pipeline stages and setting KPIs will help a sales manager to assess whether their salesperson needs coaching and if they will hit their sales targets that month.

#3: How can I create a sales forecast?

A sales forecast is a projection of revenue as a sales team will look like at the end of each week, month, quarter etc. By using a CRM system, salespeople can keep track of their entire sales process. They can create leads or opportunities that encompass different stages, with each representing a milestone as they work towards winning the customer. In the software world, for example, stages in a pipeline might look like something like this:

• First Contact
• Decision Call
• Demo
• Signed on trial
• Quote
• Closed

Sales leaders can create a basic forecast by multiplying the amount associated to each opportunity by each opportunity’s probability of closing, for those opportunities expected to close this period (i.e. those with a close date set in the CRM system during this period). Here’s an example:

#4: How do I know which sales leads are ready to close?

One of the biggest investments a company can make is for a CRM system. Some CRMs are better than others, but if managed well, salespeople should easily be able to run reports showing the stage life cycle, last contact date, confidence level, and which leads are almost ready to close. For visual competence, ease of onboarding, and sales performance management, Pipeliner CRM ticks the boxes.

The team also needs to look at its sales process and focus on the ‘almost ready to buy’ prospects. They must understand what they need to do to gently move the prospect to the final close stage.

#5: How can I plan my pipeline?

It’s essential to plan a sales pipeline. Failure to plan means less productivity, fewer sales, and less commission. Here are 8 key activities to consider:

1. Review any daily tasks scheduled for that day
2. Review any sales leads not contacted in the last 72 hours and book them into the calendar to be contacted that day
3. Review any ‘hot leads’ on a daily basis which are due to close that week
4. Try to book an outbound sales call into the calendar every 15 minutes
5. Flag which leads in the pipeline are better to be contacted early in the morning or late in the evening, as not every person can be contacted during working hours
6. Update the sales lead/opportunity in the CRM system after every call
7. Schedule demos immediately once the call is finished
8. Complete a weekly sales forecast

#6: Who should I close first?

Not all customers are the same. Some will be bigger or smaller than others, and some could be very successful brand names that are critical to a company’s success. The leads that should take primary focus are the ones which are ready to close, and the ones critical to company success. It’s also important to note that it may not always be the quick win that should be closed first, as the value of the lead could be very small. Not every customer is worth winning. If a customer’s cost to serve exceeds their value to the business, they shouldn’t be pursued. Some customers will eat up a salesperson’s time after they sign up, causing them to lose out on administration and support that could be spent winning more customers.

#7: Is there too much administration?

New data from the State of Sales Productivity Report by Docurated reveals that:

• Sales reps spend less than one third (32%) of their time selling and pitching prospects
• They spend a near-equal amount of time (31%) searching for sales collateral or creating their own branded content
• Salespeople waste one fifth (20%) of their working hours managing their CRM, tackling administrative tasks and producing reports

Where possible, team leaders should work with salespeople to prepare templates that can be uploaded to the CRM system for everyone to use. This will reduce the amount of time spent by salespeople on creating reports and other content. Sales teams should also work with marketing to prepare product videos that can be easily embedded into sales email templates. Any efforts made to remove administration tasks from a salesperson will reap benefits in closing deals and increasing revenue.

#8: Is the sales team burning leads?

This is a common complaint to sales managers. Typically, salespeople will burn a lead when there’s contact information missing, incorrect contact data, or they have failed to reach the contact after several attempts. In this case, it’s recommended that all ‘close loss’ should be routed automatically through the CRM for the team leader to evaluate whether the sales lead is indeed lost. By reviewing the close lost lead in a timely manner, this can help the sales leader evaluate if the sale person is burning sales leads or closing leads as genuinely the sale cannot be won. This will also help the Sales Manager/ Leader to see if the salesperson needs more coaching on one of the pipeline stage.

#9: Is my CRM system up to date?

If a company is using a CRM system, it’s important that the pipeline is managed in the CRM and not in Excel or on other spreadsheets software.  If the pipeline is being updated offline, there’s no way for a sales forecast to be prepared for the team, or evaluate whether a salesperson is burning leads. Consider buying a CRM that has email integration set up to minimize the level of administration needed by the sales team.

#10: How do I avoid pipeline duplication?

Duplication is a serious pain point for all sales teams. Too often, resources are wasted by salespeople calling prospects that have previously been contacted. This can lead to sales forecasts being overstated and customers becoming dissatisfied with mixed messages. The easiest way to resolve duplication is to assign every lead and opportunity a unique identifier, e.g. the website address of the company in a B2B scenario, or the customer’s account number (B2C). By using a unique identifier, the lead/prospect can only be entered once. It may also be a good idea to appoint someone to manage lead generation and enter the sales leads into the CRM system. Either this person or a manager can then allocate the leads to the sales team and avoid any duplication.

Conclusion

Without pipeline management, sales teams are exposed to a litany of problems, such as missing targets, poor sales progression, poor time management, burning leads, and duplication. The best way to manage a sales pipeline is with a CRM system. It’s important to set up the pipeline stages correctly, set KPIs for each stage, create reports, carry out weekly forecasts, and meet with the sales team daily. For any companies currently using spreadsheets, I recommend you start looking for a good CRM. if you’re in B2B selling, consider one that supports both outbound and inbound sales. Managing a pipeline is crucial in leading a sales team to success. A good way to ascertain whether you have a handle on your pipeline is to ask yourself the above 10 questions and see how your answers stack up.

At Pipeliner we have for quite some time been discussing and promoting principles which we have adopted for our company and made part of our product Pipeliner CRM. These are sound economic and business principles, proven over 150 years of practical use, taken from the Austrian School of Economic Thought, as well as from educator and author Peter Drucker and Fredmund Malik, developer of the Malik Management approach.

At the same time, we’ve seen many other companies talk about their values. What is the difference between values and principles, and why have we chosen the latter?

A Value

A value is something that is generally abstract. In order for it to be put to any sort of practical use, it has to be contextualized into a certain area, a certain society, a certain region, a certain profession or the like. Conversely, values often arise directly from one or more of these and are applicable only to that from which it has arisen. Values can even vary from person to person. Someone can say, “I have a value” and someone else can say, “I have a different value.”

As an example, some societies place high value on bickering and bartering in trade—and consider someone who doesn’t fiercely attempt to lower a price or strike a bargain to be a worthless businessperson. This value would not apply in other social settings where such conduct is considered rude. This is a value, which could also be likened to an attitude or mental stance.

A Principle

A principle, on the other hand, is something that has immediate and universal applicability. The principle expressed in the 7th of the 10 commandments, “Thou shalt not steal” would mean the same anywhere regardless of race, creed, custom or anything else. If a society or a group adapts that principle, it means exactly what it says every time.

At Pipeliner we have adapted business principles, which we also teach through our books, articles and materials—and these can be applied in any country or social structure.

For example, one of the principles we utilize ourselves, and which we’ve made part of Pipeliner CRM, is “Focus on results.” It means to always keep in mind the target you’re trying to attain. This is something that could be immediately applied to any business, in any country, in any language.

The other main principles we apply are:

• Contribution to the whole
• Concentration on a few things
• Utilizing strengths
• Positive thinking
• Trust

For a more comprehensive look at these principles and how they are applied within Pipeliner, download and read our free ebook Theory Made Real: Pipeliner CRM Puts Principles Into Practice.

Pipeliner is the only CRM solution based in such sound principles—not simply and only on a list of features we think salespeople and sales managers need.  Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Digital is the main reason just over half of the companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000.

–Pierre Nanterme, CEO of Accenture

Why is it that companies that fail to adopt technology fade away?

Fundamental Transformation

First, there is a fundamental transformation happening—actually one that’s been happening for a number of years now but which has reached mammoth proportions and only continues. That is the evolution of the digital world.

50 years ago who would have thought that a person could type something on a computer keyboard in Bangkok, and an instant later it would show up in Boston? Who would have imagined that you could instantly find out everything you needed to know about a company that was trying to sell you something, so that you could really evaluate their offer? Who would have thought that you could gather a majority of opinions from the world over regarding a product or service, in minutes?

That’s the way it is today. And every kind of entity, from an individual all the way up through the mega-corporation, is having to make plentiful allowances for the digital world.

A primary focus of the digital world is processes. A process is the optimization of a task or a set of tasks, either for humans or for automation. Tasks which can be automated surely will be, as we’re seeing with the continuous advancement in robotics. Other sets of tasks, such as with sales processes, are meant for human interaction and use. Processes are what make it possible to operate at optimum speed so as to compete in today’s business world.

Another very important focus is the harnessing and use of data trends. For example, medical analysts can watch data trends for certain types of medicine being sold in a certain area, and be able to state with certainty that a flu is going around in that region, and act accordingly. With Google Trends anyone can see what is trending near them or in any place throughout the world as regards searches. Businesses take advantage of this kind of functionality for everything from marketing to product development.

Overwhelming Complexity

But there is another, radical change brought about by the digital world that must be dealt with head-on, as it will overrun anyone who doesn’t.

While the whole world has become interconnected, that means that all the information coming from everywhere is literally available to everyone, practically as soon as it is released. What kind of information overload can that lead to?

One might also ask how easy it is to stay abreast of information just in one’s own area of expertise. Several centuries ago, the major information possessed by the entire world was at the fingertips of the leading minds of the day. This was so true that someone like Leonardo da Vinci could be a leading light in many different fields; he was a painter, an inventor, an architect, an astronomer, a scientist, a writer and a number of others.

Today, though, simply trying to keep current on the latest information in one of these fields would require more time than the average human has in a day—even if they never slept.

There are 2 drivers to this major problem:

1. The speed of innovation
2. The exponential growth of every area of life

For an example of the mind-boggling complexity that is coming at us every day, let’s return to a discovery made all the way back in 2003. 13 years ago, with the use of the Hubble telescope, calculations took place that demonstrated to us the approximate number of galaxies in the universe.

With the Hubble telescope, the entire visible sky was mapped. Remember, the Hubble telescope is in space, so the “entire visible sky” is the entire sphere of space, visible in every direction. The sky was mapped using Hubble deep field squares. After examination, it was estimated that each of the 65,000 deep field squares contained 10,000 galaxies. Multiplied out, that makes for an estimated 16.5 billion galaxies. That totally boggles the mind! We haven’t discovered a tiny fraction of 1 percent of the universe.

So as you can see, just in our lifetimes things have been discovered that are beyond the ability of us to imagine. There are surely many more to come.

Pipeliner CRM

Along with the rest of the world, sales has become increasingly complex, too. Where once there was simply a couple basic hats—a “salesman” and the manager—today we have field sales, inside sales, SDR sales, vertical sales, horizontal sales, and much more. Because of the digital age, we also have many more times the sales channels we once had.

In addition to applying sound and proven business principles, at Pipeliner we have also been searching for a way to address today’s overwhelming complexity. We weren’t going to go the way of many other applications, and display hundreds of charts and graphs (as, for example, financial market applications do). Interestingly, our legacy CRM competitors have always dealt with sales complexity in this way. In so doing they have made sales next to impossible to truly bring under control.

Not long ago I was on an international flight and found myself seated next to a Boeing 747 cargo pilot (traveling as a passenger). I told him that I was fascinated with the cockpit of an airliner, just because there were well over a hundred instruments there. I then asked him what he did under extreme circumstances—how many instruments would he really be paying attention to? He told me, “Not more than 4 or 5.”

The human mind cannot track hundreds or even dozens of indicators—so in day-to-day management, what is the answer?

For that, Pipeliner CRM turned to cybernetics, the specific science applied in dealing with complexity. Cybernetics pioneer W. Ross Ashby referred to cybernetics as the “science of simplification.” The first application of cybernetics to Pipeliner came with our last release, in which we added our Navigator feature.

With its breakthrough Navigator functionality, Pipeliner CRM moves far beyond the standard concept of a CRM dashboard. We have brought more focused and innovative ways of bringing instant intelligence to all users, no matter their function in the organization—intelligence that cuts out the noise for users, allowing them to easily navigate complexity and focus immediately, and in real-time, on what is most important.

We aim to assist sales managers and salespeople navigate the complexity of today’s sales world. And by doing so, we are greatly helping them to master it and succeed.

Pipeliner CRM is the perfect CRM for competing and succeeding in today’s digital world.  Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

With Pipeliner CRM, our main focus has never been to make it more possible to control salespeople (as seemed to be the mission of many CRM applications), but to empower them and, with every release, make it increasingly more possible for them to sell.

We do this because we actually believe in salespeople. We’re not only here to greatly boost the positive reputation of salespeople, but more importantly to boost their self-esteem, and help them to believe in themselves.

Reputation

Going back in time, salespeople have had a bit of an issue with their reputation. There was always a suspicion that a salesperson was going to try and take unfair advantage of a prospect, push something on them that they didn’t want or downright cheat them. To some extent this is still true today—salespeople are still regarded with a degree of mistrust.

The reasons for this lie in the fact that the dishonest actions of a few have tarnished the positive efforts of the many. There have been salespeople that were pushy, or provided inaccurate or only partial information about a product or service, just in the effort to bring in that sale.

It didn’t help that ill-intentioned companies used decent salespeople to push faulty products on unsuspecting customers. In such a case the salesperson wasn’t wholly to blame, and some of them didn’t even know.

At the same time, people have realized that the life of a salesperson is certainly not easy—witness the extreme popularity of Arthur Miller’s award-winning play Death of a Salesman, which opened in 1949 and is still being performed today. People knew it was a tough way to go.

The Internet and Transparency

Today, the honest salespeople—whom I believe are in the far majority—are winning out. Why? It’s much more difficult for dishonest salespeople to succeed today.

The broad proliferation of the internet has brought transparency to commerce and business. When a product is not worthy, word spreads almost instantly, and people will stop buying it. When a company is guilty of unfair practices, the world is going to know about it very quickly, and the company won’t be around for very much longer unless they change. Companies are now becoming wise to this, and many are changing their ways for the better.

The same is true of salespeople. If a salesperson is routinely cheating prospects and customers, a bad reputation is going to rather quickly extinguish that salesperson’s career.
For the same reason that dishonest salespeople aren’t succeeding today—transparency—the honest ones are succeeding. Their reputation precedes them. Through social media, reviews, and word of mouth, great salespeople become known as product experts and people that provide genuine help.

It can also be seen that one of the three of these things—a company, a product or a salesperson—being illicit or unfair can taint the other three. That’s because today, people tend to think of all three as a single unit. For that reason companies should manage, market and brand all three together—with a positive emphasis on all 3 as 1.

Network Selling

In an effort to assist the majority of salespeople—the honest ones—in today’s interconnected world, here is a graphic that we came up with to illustrate what we call today’s Network Selling.

As you can see, the elements the seller brings to the table are:

• Self-aware
• Confident
• Business Acumen
• Value-oriented

The buyer, on the other hand, brings:

• Recommendations
• Reviews
• Referrals

Additionally, the buyer acts as a networked multiplier—experiences good or bad are going to be passed along to friends and colleagues. As you can see, that seller is only going to succeed if that shared data reflects positively on the seller.

You can see in this graphic that the elements shared between the seller and the buyer are those things one which they both must firmly agree for the sale to be a total success and, more importantly, for further successes to follow:

• Business Solutions
• Empathy
• Respect
• Trust
• Win/Win
• Enjoyable

Of paramount importance is that second to the last item, “Win/Win.” In today’s networked selling environment, both the buyer and the seller have to win for sales to be a real success.

Seller-Buyer Transfer of Knowledge

We read today that a big part of the change in today’s sales landscape is that of the buyer—that 60 – 80% of a buyer’s decision is made before ever contacting a salesperson, and therefore a salesperson is no longer responsible for any transfer of knowledge to the buyer.

I strongly disagree with this assessment. Given the components in the Network Selling graphic above, the inherent knowledge that a salesperson brings to the table can never be replaced, even by computer algorithms. This is especially true in B2B sales.

At that moment when knowledge is involved, a buyer can’t make fully informed decisions—this process of knowledge transfer is needed, and is more important than ever.

Pipeliner CRM

So how does Pipeliner CRM fit into all of this?

We have developed Pipeliner from the very beginning from the perspective of the salesperson who is honest, self-responsible, and who is not to be controlled like a machine. We believe that the majority of salespeople are honest and are out to do right by prospects and customers.

We believe people can be self-responsible. It oftentimes happens that the system (as with legacy CRM applications) robs them of their responsibility and attempts to make them into machines, so they can be controlled, manipulated and pushed.

We believe that self-responsible salespeople are capable of thinking logically. For that reason we have developed Pipeliner to be totally visual in all of its features—it allows salespeople and sales managers to instantly grasp sales opportunities and statuses, and act on them.

Unlike many CRM developers of the past, we didn’t develop Pipeliner to better control salespeople, but to liberate them. Pipeliner makes it far more possible for salespeople to see how they’re progressing, and for sales managers to accurately coach and mentor them.

In days past a sales manager had a lot of figures in front of him showing a salesperson’s performance, that the salesperson was not privy to. Hence the sales manager was giving the salesperson instructions or orders, and the salesperson had no idea why.

Today, both the sales manager and the salesperson have the same data regarding the salesperson. I believe that both the sales manager and the salesperson will make correct decisions if they have accurate data in front of them.

I’ve said repeatedly that the world can be changed through sales. Well, if we are to change the world through salespeople, it will only be through self-responsible salespeople, never machines.

Pipeliner is the only CRM solution based in such sound principles—not simply and only on a list of features we think salespeople and sales managers need.  Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

LinkedIn recently released its State of Sales in 2016 report—which found that Salespeople rely on a variety of sales technologies, but spend the most time using CRM solutions and social selling tools, and believe both deliver the highest value.

Through our blogs, ebooks and even through our recent product releases, we at Pipeliner have been, for the last few months, pointing out the crucial need for CRM in addressing the frantic pace and level of confusion in today’s business world. Our most recent release, Automata, actually employs the science of cybernetics to assist salespeople and sales managers in navigating the incredible complexity of today’s sales landscape. Our next release, scheduled for July of this year, brings even more simplifying tools and benefits to salespeople everywhere.

It is evident that LinkedIn, through this report, has come to similar conclusions with regard to the need for CRM.

Specifics

When it came to highlighting the amount of time spent with CRM, the report found that one-third (33 percent) of CRM users spend 3-5 hours per week using CRM tools. Almost one quarter (24 percent) spend more than 10 hours per week using CRM tools.

Sizes of businesses also played a role in CRM usage, at least according to this report. 44 percent of employees at medium-sized companies (100-999 employees) use CRM tools in comparison to only 23 percent of employees of small companies (under 100 employees) and 27 percent at large companies.

The report was based on a survey commissioned by LinkedIn, and conducted on 1,017 sales or business development professionals in the United States in December 2015/January 2016 by Market Cube, a research panel company.

Pipeliner is the best possible CRM solution for navigating today’s sales complexity. It is Instant Intelligence, Visualized! 

All that helps today is that we have a better idea, and the better idea is a fight against the bad idea. The weapons that we have are not armored. We have no hymns, we have no flags, we have no rifles. The only thing we have is our idea, and we bring that idea into the light. And when people understand it, the better idea will one day succeed.

– Ludwig von Mises
Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow

Here at Pipeliner, we have taken what von Mises says totally to heart. We believe that education with ideas is the most important activity in which we are engaged. We believe that if we keep pushing out a great idea, one day people will say, “That makes sense! 2 plus 2 is 4!”

Once more, you can see that we’re not just about the Pipeliner CRM solution only.

Education and Sales

Why would the developer of a sales tool believe so much in education? And why do we believe education is so closely tied to sales?

The original purpose of sales—though it may not be so obvious today—was education. The salesperson educated the potential buyer about a product or service. Once that education was complete, the buyer would either say, “You’ve educated me for nothing! I see no value!” or “You have educated me on something that will help me, and that is why I will buy your product.” Education clearly showed the buyer the inherent value of the product or service.

Education in Sales Still Needed?

Today there is an enormous amount being written about the changes in buyer behavior. The gist of it is, buyers are educating themselves online about products, and by the time they contact a salesperson they’ve already made 70- 80% of their decision. Therefore a salesperson is no longer in the business of educating prospects.

As someone engaged in the business of sales, as well as being engaged in the business of providing a software product for salespeople, I politely beg to differ.

For one thing, as products move up the scale of complexity, there is much that cannot be quickly or adequately described in web pages or online materials. Where are prospects going to turn for information on these? Sales reps, who are today’s product experts.

But even with products that aren’t so complex, for a full understanding of how they might be applied within that prospect’s business or with their particular application, it would still be very beneficial for a prospect to be educated by a salesperson.

Empathy

A noteworthy point is that, whenever a salesperson is educating a prospect, the salesperson should remain at “eye level” with the prospect. In other words, not “looking down” at the prospect or being condescending.

This is where empathy comes into the sales process. In order to really empathize with a prospect and fully understand what they are going through, a salesperson must do everything they can to put themselves in the place of the prospect—that’s what empathy actually is.

Interestingly, that is also where empathy comes into education itself.

Pipeliner and Education

If you look through our web site, you’ll see we have created a tremendous number of educational materials. These include blog articles, tips and tricks, ebooks and ebooklets, videos, white papers, infographics and much more. We have even built education into the Pipeliner CRM product itself.

To say the least, we are big believers in education—not just about our product, but about sales, leadership and anything else relevant to the world of business in which we can help. Most of our materials are provided free of charge—we really want to help educate and change the business world for the better.

Education and Application

In looking through our educational materials, you’ll see that they are totally geared toward application. If you read or learn something, we believe you should be able to turn around and apply it. Otherwise, why learn it?

I personally believe that this is the future of education in general—it will move away from being so theory-oriented and will be completely structured around applicability.

At Pipeliner we believe in having data arranged around a goal, just as we have done in our product. The goal is that you do something that brings you a benefit, and you learn because the data is proven on principles. And it’s not theoretical, it’s practical.

That is where the Pipeliner Knowledge Factory enters in.

Pipeliner Knowledge Factory

This issue of theoretical versus practical instruction might be best expressed in this humorous quote attributed to Mark Twain: “Never let schooling interfere with your education.”

In keeping with our commitment to practically applicable education, we have begun the Pipeliner Knowledge Factory. We have given our educational division this name because sales—the main subject of our works—is a production activity, not a theoretical one.

Why didn’t we call it a school? Because when people speak of school, you find that many didn’t like it. Many had bad experiences there—most weren’t returning home from school every day and saying, “Wow! That’s fantastic!” For them it was boring and even sometimes tragic. This attitude has certainly been expressed in music throughout the years, a classic example being 1979’s The Logical Song by Supertramp:

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

We also didn’t call our educational effort a university, because the university in the real world has a different agenda—one that is more theoretical and reflective. And while we feel it is important that people receive a university education, most of what is taught there is not immediately applicable. For similar reasons, we didn’t use the word academy.

In a factory, you can learn a craft, which has specific steps and can be precisely taught, as opposed to an art, which is far more instinctive and nebulous. Sales, as we’ve said many times, is a craft.

The focus of the Pipeliner Knowledge Factory is to produce information that can be instantly used. While the knowledge we are imparting comes out of business principles, it is practical in its application. It assists in business success by helping minimize risk and leverage opportunities.

Pipeliner is the only CRM solution based in such sound principles—not simply and only on a list of features we think salespeople and sales managers need.

Trade has many benefits—to economies, to families, to individuals. It provides jobs, it provides incomes, it provides life to a culture and society.

I think we can all agree that trade is a highly beneficial activity. But it has a far more significant role than you might at first think.

Keeping Peace

It’s not just because our product Pipeliner CRM empowers sales that we feel that trade is vitally important—it goes far beyond that. As has been pointed out by several leaders in the Austrian School of Economic Thought over the last 150 years, trade has a peacekeeping element. 2 parties engaged in trade cannot engage in war.

I’m sure you’ve already noticed how important peace is to our planet, especially in these times. We live on a tiny island in this universe. At least currently, we have nowhere else to go. So it well behooves all of us to engage in peace. Fortunately we as a race are finally learning that war never leads to peace, as proven by 2 titanic and devastating conflicts of the 20th century. World War I and World War II were both touted as “the war that would end war forever,” which they very obviously did not.

Finally we are seeing the truth—that the most practical route to peace is through trade.

Fair Trade

You might notice that today there is a great amount of attention not just on trade, but on fair trade. Fair trade is the primary fuel of debate and discussion, for example, over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the proposed trade agreement between the US and the European Union. Why has fairness in trade become such a focus?

Let’s make an example of something familiar to any big fan of Italian food: parmesan cheese. It was recently discovered that some of the grated parmesan cheese being sold in US stores contained more wood pulp than actual cheese—and it retailed for considerably less than the pure grated parmesan cheese which people thought they were actually buying.

This is a capital example of unfair trade, in which some company selling an inferior product comes into a market and undercuts the real product. On a larger scale it has happened throughout the world—mega-corporations have come into a countries and vastly undercut local products with inferior substitutes, wrecking local economies. A prime example is GMO corn planted in Mexico by American companies, practically forcing local corn farmers out of business.

Fair trade, by its intrinsic definition, would mean honesty—fairness to people purchasing the product or service, and fairness within the marketplace. But by today’s definition, it goes beyond these. It also includes fair wages to the employees of producers, and benefit to the environment in which products are produced. Using this standard, you can see how vitally important fair trade is in today’s world, in which not only war is a threat, but also environmental ruin and depletion of resources.

Economic and Social Stability

As we’ve already touched upon, fair trade is capable of bringing economic stability to a city, country or region. Economic stability can also bring civil stability, as can be readily observed in places throughout the world where economic stability has prevailed over time.

What is the first thing that happens when conflict arises between one or more nations? The borders close. Trade ceases. When free trade is prevented, that sweet stability disappears. If it disappears too drastically or for too long, a percentage of the population will end up leaving. Where do they go? Places where they can find economic stability and fair trade. Just look to Sweden, Germany and Austria where refugees have been coming for years from eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and other volatile economic environments.

When enough people decide they can no longer tolerate living in a particular place because fair trade has vanished, it becomes a crisis that must be borne by many others in the world, as we’ve seen with the Syrian refugee situation. I have personally observed this crisis in action in Vienna. When the Syrian refugees were first arriving there in September of last year, there were banners welcoming them, and people were meeting them in Vienna’s central railway station and providing them food, clothing and other necessities. When I returned to Vienna 4 months later (I currently reside in the US), all of those banners were gone, replaced by much smaller ones demanding that the refugees leave.

When large segments of a population simply move from one place to another, it simply taxes the resources of the new place in which they arrive. This type of scenario was discussed by philosopher Hans Jonas all the way back in 1984, in his work The Principle of Responsibility. Jonas pointed out the continuous cycle of depletion of resources by population segments moving from one place to the next.

When fair trade is denied people long enough, revolutions are also ignited—something else we’ve seen far too much of in recent history. Unfortunately most revolutions end up being the subject, in the future, of more revolutions. So which is more effective: revolution or trade?

Extremely Sustainable

We have arrived today in a digital world, in which many things are transparent that weren’t before. One of these is trade. Unfair trade—in which substandard products, price gouging or one of an endless variety of unfair practices are engaged in—comes to light very quickly, and word travels throughout the world instantaneously. The sales of a product or service can be shut down almost instantly.

This same transparency is what makes fair trade extremely sustainable. When a reputation is good, everyone knows it. When buyers research products or services, they find out who they should trust. A great product, service, company and sales team all have reputations that spread out like ripples in a pond, only infinitely vaster and with far more impact.

Because of this transparency, the company, the product and the seller appear as a single entity to the buyer. For that reason they should be considered as a unit by the company—and should always be created, united and branded with fairness as a goal.

This type of totally transparent operation is exemplified by online clothing retailer Everlane who, on their website, proclaim: “Radical Transparency—know your factories. Know your costs. Always ask why.” This type of data is totally available, through the company’s web site, to all who seek it. That is the transparency of the digital world, and of today and the future.

Salespeople: Agents of Peace

Now, how does sales fit into all of this? Simple: Trade is conducted by salespeople. As you might see, salespeople are, in fact, a major force in keeping peace throughout the world.

For this and for many other reasons (including their extremely unique talents) we have always maintained that salespeople should be respected and supported in their efforts. That is why we have worked so hard to provide a CRM solution that truly empowers salespeople to sell.

Sales is, in fact, our best chance to make a difference in the future.

Pipeliner CRM is based on the principles described in this article. Try a free trial today.