Pipeline management for freelancers

What is pipeline management for freelancers?

Pipeline management is basically about thinking ahead in your business and structuring your company's sales method.

This is done by creating an overview of current customers, possible leads and where in the process they are.

With pipeline management, you can easily identify and manage the steps you go through when selling your product or service to leads.

That way you can optimize yours customer flow, and get an overview of possible improvement points in your sales method.

3 basic principles 

There are 3 basic principles, which you should consider when designing your pipeline management method.

Depending on what your business looks like and what you offer, you can adapt your pipeline to suit your business.

1. Build a CRM

The first step towards a bulletproof pipeline is to implement a CRM, or Client Relationship Management. It is a system which, in all its simplicity, is used to collect information about current and potential customers. The digital and modern rolodex if you will.

In other words; a map of your customers, potential customers and their status.

There are a ton of free and paid tools out there, and you can really get started with a simple Google Sheet.

If you are looking for some of the best CRM tools for freelancers, we can recommend the following tools for CRM:

1. Notion.so
2. Hubspot.com
3. Monday.com

2. Clear pipeline stages

In your pipeline management process, it is important to define your pipeline stages to create clarity and an overview.

Below you will find examples of different pipeline stages, but of course it depends entirely on you and your business:

1. Outreach

At the prospect stage are all the potential customers that you can reach out to.

This stage involves both customers that you want to contact and also the specific tasks that you can offer, for example Upwork, Worksome, LinkedIn, Facebook or similar.

2. Discovery call

Here are the customers who have agreed to know more about your solutions, products or services.

These are the customers who are willing to hear more either in a phone call, a meeting or via email.

3. Demo

Some potential customers may drop out along the way, and that is completely normal.

At this stage you can insert the customers who have agreed to see or be sent a demo of what you are selling.

That way, they can see what their world will look like with your product in hand.

4. Offers

Those customers who are interested in more after your demo move on to this stage. Here you will receive a specific offer for your product or service.

5. Closed

This stage belongs to the customers that you end up with to close a deal with.

In other words, it is the customers who buy your service - i.e. your new and current customers.

Start with stages that suit your freelance business

The stages in your pipeline may vary depending on your business type, but the above are examples that you can use as a starting point to organize your leads and follow up with potential customers.

From your pipeline, you can go back to find data and get the necessary information about current and potential customers.

For some customers, it can be a longer process before they decide to buy your service. With a structured pipeline, you avoid them being lost or forgotten.

You can thus also see which stage most customers jump from, and this is most likely where you need to optimize your sales method.

3. Conduct regular pipeline reviews

A pipeline review means that you specifically go back and review your previous pipeline stages and look at each individual potential customer. What can you do to move them to the next stage in your pipeline?

Here you can assess whether your pipeline review is in line with the overarching goal for the company.

This is also where you can see where your customers might need a little push to move forward in your pipeline. Or take a closer look at what you can do to improve your sales method to the customer.

The better you become at pipeline management, the easier it will be to identify your customers and adapt your sales method to optimize your customer flow.

pystem for old leads

Before you get started with pipeline management, we would like to offer one last piece of advice. 

Although you may have along the way in your pipeline lost some customers or leads, then there is no point in returning to them, as their situation may have changed as well.

You can assess the leads that have stalled based on whether they are cold, lukewarm or warm. 

Cold leads

If you consider a lead to be cold, your potential customer may have been dismissive of your approach and jumped off at an early stage in your pipeline. 

Here you can advantageously reach out to your lead again after 4-6 months with an e-mail or a call.

Lukewarm leads

If a lead is lukewarm, the prospect may have shown interest in the past and been open to your service, but dropped out midway through your pipeline. 

Here you can advantageously contact your potential customer every quarter either by e-mail or telephone.

Warm leads

If a lead is hot, the prospect is very interested, but something has kept your lead from investing, and they may have bounced at one of the last stages in your pipeline. 

You can advantageously contact your potential customer once a month via an e-mail or a phone call.

Note that a warm lead can easily be changed to a cold lead if they are later adverse to your service. 

Similarly, a cold lead that suddenly shows interest in your product again can turn into a lukewarm or warm lead. That way, you can constantly update your pipeline to keep track of your potential customers.

Get started with pipeline management

As you can probably see, there are several advantages to using pipeline management – especially if you have more leads and customers. 

Depending on how your business is structured and what you offer, you can adapt your pipeline to your particular business and the stages of your sales process. 

It gives you a good overview of your current and potential customers, so you avoid losing a potential sale on the floor. 

With pipeline management, you get a feel for where your future customers are in the process and where you may need to optimize your sales method. 

Achieve your business goals based on your pipeline

Pipeline management also allows you to calculate how many customers you need to close in order to reach your company's overall revenue goals. 

In addition, you can appear more professional by following up with the customers you have contacted and addressing them with a view to exactly the stage they are at. 

Therefore, pipeline management can have an influence on whether a sale is lost or closed, and how your future sales process should be optimized.