Questions for the End of Quarter

End of quarter. I know.

Is Your Problem Above the Funnel

Do you have enough hunters? Are you giving them enough time to hunt? Or are your hunters really farmers? Do they do more order taking than they do opportunity creating?

Do you have a hunter’s culture? Do you emphasize, reward, and recognize new client and new opportunity creation? Or do you reward (or tolerate) a lack of opportunity creating activities?

Is your pipeline providing you enough coverage? Can you make your numbers when the big deal you’re counting on falls out? Or are you exposed?

How much of a typical day is spent on opportunity creation? How much time is spent face-to-face or on the telephone pursuing opportunities? As an overall percentage, how much time is spent on opportunity creation and how much is spent on email? How do you change the emphasis?

Is Your Problem In the Middle of the Funnel

Is your process being followed? Is it being followed well enough that you can predict with any certainty when deals will be won? Who determines what date an opportunity will close?

Do you go from commitment to commitment, always creating or advancing an opportunity during every interaction with a client or prospect? Do you release yourself from calls where no value is being created?

Do know at what stage your buyers are in their process? Do you know what they need or expect from you in the way of value in order to agree to the commitment you are asking for?

Do you have all of the stakeholders you need in every opportunity to get to a decision? Have you helped your power sponsors build consensus?

End Game

There isn’t any reason to write about the end of the funnel. If you get the answers to the above questions right, you won’t find yourself in a bad position during the end game. But if you get the answer to these questions wrong, the end of quarter can be a difficult time.

The truth is that you can’t get there without enough opportunities. And you can’t get there without doing what is necessary once you have the opportunities.