Streamlining Your MSP Sales Process: A Guide to Pipeline Stages and Operational Alignment

  • 10/10/2024
  • Posted by: Ben Spector
  • Category: MSP Sales
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As MSP owners and sales leaders, one of the key challenges is ensuring your sales process flows smoothly while aligning operational responsibilities. In this article, I’ll break down how visualising deal progression through clear pipeline stages not only helps track sales but also shows whose “court” the ball is in at any given point. This makes it easier for teams to know what actions are required and prioritise efficiently. Whether you’re using tools like HubSpot, Autotask, or Zomentum, this approach can help streamline your sales process.

The Sales Pipeline as a Visual Guide

Sales pipelines are not just about tracking deal progression—they help your entire team understand what needs to happen and who is responsible for it. A well-designed pipeline can be broken down into stages that align with both your sales process and operational workflow. Each stage should clearly define entry and exit criteria to avoid ambiguity and ensure accountability.

Example pipeline stages presented on a kanban board in Zomentum

Each stage is not only a progress marker but also indicates ownership. For example, in the “Solution Design” stage, your technical team may take full responsibility, while in the “Prepare Quote/Proposal” stage, the sales rep handles the next steps. Let’s walk through each stage and its corresponding entry and exit criteria.

Breaking Down the Stages

  1. Identified
    Responsibility: Sales Representative
    The first stage where a potential client is identified, and they’ve expressed interest in discussing their problem.
    • Entry: A potential client has been identified, and there is a confirmed business problem or need. The client has expressed interest in having a conversation.
    • Exit: A first-time appointment (FTA) has been scheduled to discuss the problem and potential solutions.
  2. FTA Scheduled
    Responsibility: Sales Representative
    The deal progresses once the first appointment is booked with the client. Here, the sales rep controls the scheduling and follow-up.
    • Entry: The first appointment is successfully scheduled with the prospect.
    • Exit: The first appointment has been completed, with follow-up actions (usually a discovery call) agreed upon or pending.
  3. FTA Complete
    Responsibility: Sales Representative
    After the first appointment, the next steps are clarified, often leading to the scheduling of a discovery meeting.
    • Entry: The first appointment has been conducted, and next steps, such as scheduling a discovery call, are being decided.
    • Exit: The discovery call has been scheduled, or other required actions are set.
  4. Discovery Scheduled
    Responsibility: Sales Representative
    The meeting is on the calendar to fully understand the prospect’s needs. At this stage, it’s critical to document everything.
    • Entry: A discovery meeting has been scheduled to explore the prospect’s requirements in detail.
    • Exit: The discovery meeting is complete, and the sales team has a full understanding of the prospect’s requirements and next steps.
  5. Discovery Complete
    Responsibility: Solution Design Team
    After this, the technical team has everything they need to propose a solution. It’s crucial here to define the proposal scope and any customisation that needs to be done.
    • Entry: The discovery meeting is complete, and the team has all necessary information to proceed with designing the solution or preparing the quote/proposal.
    • Exit: The solution design is necessary, and it moves to the design team.
  6. Solution Design Required
    Responsibility: Solution Design Team
    The technical team designs the solution. This stage is entirely within the technical department’s domain and may be prioritised by deal value or complexity.
    • Entry: The technical team is tasked with designing the solution based on the client’s requirements.
    • Exit: The design is complete, and the proposal or quote is ready to be prepared.
  7. Prepare Quote/Proposal
    Responsibility: Sales Representative
    The responsibility shifts back to the sales rep to prepare and send the proposal. At this point, the solution is already designed, so the focus is on ensuring the proposal is client-ready.
    • Entry: The solution design is finalised, and now the proposal or quote is being drafted.
    • Exit: The proposal or quote is ready and sent to the prospect.
  8. Quote/Proposal Sent
    Responsibility: Prospect
    Once sent, the prospect has the ball. This is an ideal time for the sales rep to stay in touch and address any queries the client might have.
    • Entry: The proposal has been sent to the prospect for review.
    • Exit: The prospect provides feedback, requests changes, or gives verbal commitment to move forward.
  9. On Hold
    Responsibility: Sales Representative
    The client has verbally committed but is not yet ready to sign. It’s essential to manage expectations and maintain communication while waiting for a signature.
    • Entry: The prospect has verbally committed to the proposal but is not yet ready to sign.
    • Exit: The prospect signs the agreement, or the deal is closed.
  10. Signed
    Responsibility: Sales Representative/Finance Team
    Once signed, any deposits are paid, and the deal moves toward fulfillment. This stage could trigger other systems like a PSA for onboarding the client, automating project management, and setting up billing.
    • Entry: The prospect has signed the agreement and paid any required deposit.
    • Exit: The deal moves to operational handover.
  11. Won
    Responsibility: Entire Team
    When the opportunity is marked as won, processes are triggered for handover to operations.
    • Entry: The opportunity is marked as won after necessary paperwork is completed.
    • Exit: N/A – this stage marks a successful deal.
  12. Lost
    Responsibility: Sales Representative
    The opportunity is closed but not in your favor. Document lessons learned for future improvement.
    • Entry: The prospect decides not to proceed.
    • Exit: N/A – this marks the closure of the opportunity.

Aligning Teams for Seamless Transitions

One of the critical aspects of this sales process is ensuring that everyone knows who is responsible at each stage. Clear ownership and handover points reduce friction. For example, once a deal moves into “Solution Design,” the technical team takes full control. This stage becomes their queue, and they can prioritise it based on strategic factors like deal value or resource availability.

On the flip side, when the proposal is sent back to the prospect, the sales team can step back while still maintaining the relationship, knowing that the client is reviewing the proposal. If you’re using a sales CRM like Zomentum or HubSpot, these tools can help automate notifications, ensuring no stage is neglected.

Flexibility Based on Business Size

The process can vary depending on the size and complexity of your MSP. Larger organisations may require additional stages or more granular tracking, while smaller MSPs may opt for a streamlined version of the pipeline. For example, a smaller MSP might skip the “Solution Design” stage altogether if the sales rep is responsible for both quoting and technical requirements. Larger MSPs, however, benefit from adding stages that reflect specialised roles within the business.

Skipping Pipeline Stages

While having a clearly defined sales pipeline helps align your team, it’s important to recognize that not every deal will follow the exact same path. Some opportunities may not need to pass through every stage, especially if they’re more straightforward.

In certain cases, a deal might skip stages if fewer steps are necessary to close it. For example:

  • Small Deals: When selling to a smaller organisation or when the deal is simple and well-defined, you might bypass the “Discovery” or “Solution Design” stages altogether if the client’s requirements are already well-understood and you’re ready to prepare a quote.
  • Repeat Clients: If the client has previously gone through the process, you might skip early stages like “Discovery”.

Tools and Platforms to Support the Process

MSPs can greatly benefit from using integrated tools to manage these pipeline stages. For example, tools like HubSpot or Zomentum provide seamless transitions from sales to operations, while PSAs like Autotask manage the client handover and ongoing service delivery. In my blog on HubSpot and Autotask Integration, I discuss how these systems streamline quoting and workflow management, ensuring no step is missed.

If you’re looking to automate this process, check out my article on the 4 tools every MSP needs, where I dive into platforms like HubSpot, Zomentum, and Autotask.

Conclusion

Managing an MSP sales pipeline is about more than tracking deals. It’s about aligning teams, ensuring accountability, and making sure every stage is fully defined. Whether you run a large MSP with a dedicated solution design team or a smaller one with more streamlined operations, having clear pipeline stages and using the right tools can make all the difference.

Need Help?

If you need help refining your pipeline, get in touch with me. I’d be happy to help tailor the process to your business.