We all lose deals at times. Yes, we should all bat 1.000, but nobody (and I mean nobody) has ever done it.  The best completion percentage in the NFL was Drew Brees at .744.  The highest batting average in baseball history was .440 (Hugh Duffy). I mean, the great Wayne Gretzky made just 17% of the shots he took.

This means that we, as salespeople, need to take as many shots as possible by building a sales pipeline that gives us more opportunities. In sales, “shots” refer to deals progressing through the stages of the sales pipeline. And the scorecard for deals is the pipeline.

How do you build a sales pipeline?  In theory, it’s easy. The numbers tell us that we need far more deals than we expect to close. CRM systems are good at telling us how we are doing, and yes, you track the sales pipeline as well as actual sales. But having been in sales for 40+ years, I can tell you, there is more to the pipeline story than data in CRM.  I called it “phantom pipeline.”

What is the Phantom pipeline in Sales?

Here’s what I mean by “phantom pipeline”, and I’ll use a personal example.

When I worked for Infor – an ERP company where I worked just prior to working at Autodesk, I had a true “hunting” job.  It was tough—management hung a sign at the employee entrance of our office indicating which reps had the best chance of not getting fired (or most likely to be fired).  They even had different colored faces next to each rep. They were green/happy, yellow/concerned, and red/stressed.  The color of the face was based on a combination of actual sales and pipeline. If your name had a red face next to it, you normally were on a PiP. Even though I was never red, it was stressful. Every day, every employee could see which reps are in trouble.

Obviously, management used CRM data to determine the color of each rep’s “face.”

In the backdrop of this board, I knew as a “rookie” salesperson what it would take a while to drive actual sales. Replacing ERP systems was never easy and never quick.  So to stay off the board, I vowed to build a verifiable pipeline as quickly as possible. I had 40 targeted accounts- most names that none of the other reps wanted. I remember writing the names of these accounts on a whiteboard in my office.  Every morning, I would give them a “pep talk” (I know…) about how they should be talking with me.

As I made cold calls and booked meetings, I moved accounts through the early stages of the sales pipeline in our CRM. My first week, that number was ZERO.  Nobody wanted to meet with a company they had never heard of.  0 for 40! I was tempted to go to the “scoreboard” with a red marker and save management the trouble.

I knew I had to change my approach—so instead of the “pep talk” (which sounds odd just thinking about it), I decided to do something different.  I went into the CRM and put them as a “suspect” if they would appear to be a good fit, even if they hadn’t agreed to a meeting.  In those days, Infor used an “ICED” pipeline.  The “I” stood for “Interest.” My logic is that they SHOULD be interested, even if they hadn’t agreed to meet.  And suddenly, I had 20 accounts in my sales pipeline, and I stayed “yellow.”

That’s when something “clicked” in my head: managing a sales pipeline means proving real interest at each stage.. If they SHOULD be interested, why did they not agree to a meeting? I decided to change my approach. I sent a warm-up email explaining why they SHOULD be interested in talking based on their goals. Then I called them, and soon, some (not a lot) agreed to meet.  I still had 20 accounts in the pipeline, but they weren’t actual prospects.  I began to whittle them down when, despite my best efforts, they just wouldn’t meet.

Here’s the point—many times in CRM, there are “phantom deals.”  Yes, you show progress or activities in CRM, but without a solid approach, they will stay “phantoms” until your boss asks you to clean up your pipeline.

Now, there is likely no “board” in that Infor office.  But every sales manager has a mental board for each rep—likely based on CRM data.

What do you need to really build a strong sales pipeline?

The answer is simple but complex. It’s what I started really doing to build a “real” pipeline.  It’s what has been proven to be effective year after year, time after time.  It’s what the top salespeople have been doing since time memoriam. It’s called “prospecting.”

What’s that you say?  “Prospecting doesn’t work. All I get are voice mails?”

Yes, it’s true we get a lot of voicemails.  I make and track over 100 calls per week on average. About 10 pick-ups.

Many sources report that roughly 1-3 % of cold calls result in a desired outcome (like booking a meeting or advancing a lead).  Some more optimistic sources quote ~ 4.8 % average in 2025.

So, what makes prospecting in sales effective?  Multi-touch multi-contact campaigns. It’s often reported that it takes 8 call attempts on average to reach a prospect. Persistence is the key, and those who persevere are the ones who succeed.

Since I’m the Crazy Old Uncle, here are some tips on effective prospecting:

• Have a set number of targeted accounts. Don’t try to have too many. You’ll waste time building up a long list, and then human nature kicks in, and the list never gets touched.  Make it 10 for now. I think we like round numbers that end in zero.  So let’s start with that.
• This is old advice, but schedule time in your calendar for prospecting. We used to call it a “Power Hour” at Autodesk. I don’t know how many reps kept it sacred, but I sure tried. You know, I never had a boss who actually tracked it. It wouldn’t be very difficult to set up a dashboard to track progress in making these calls. In fact, I’ve set up dashboards like that before. Regardless of how you track it, if you don’t schedule prospecting calls, they won’t get done. I just hope you don’t end up with a “red face!”
• Make a promise to keep trying through voicemail, LinkedIn, and email — and manage your sales pipeline by tracking each attempt. You can keep it simple and track using Excel, but if your CRM tracks attempts (using various methods), that would be optimal. But keep trying.  This is a marathon and not a sprint. As cliché as it sounds, sales is a numbers game; a war of attrition that you can train yourself to win.
• When you make the call, assume the prospect will be picking up. If you’ve done your job and prepared, you’ll be ready. I’m typically disappointed if they DON’T pick up. But that’s another story. Building an effective sales pipeline is all about persistence. It’s discouraging at times and difficult, but if you want to succeed in sales, you’ve got to stick with it.
• Use AI to give your messages some variety. If you leave the same voicemail every time, you run the risk of burning yourself out. And annoying the prospect. I’ve learned to put some variety in my approach. Put a simple query into an AI and ask for a variety of “sales warm-up messages.”
• Leverage sales enablement tools — your company has likely invested significant amounts of budget in developing sales tools. Become familiar with them. Why not actually use them? What a concept, right!?! You may think they don’t work, but at least give them a try. I was admittedly reluctant to use Autodesk’s sales tools, but found them very strong.

Bottom line: How to build a strong sales pipeline

Ok, let’s summarize this discussion about building sales pipelines.  Be intentional about it and remember to be persistent when calling. Remember the old adage that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Ready to stop chasing phantom deals and build a stronger, more consistent pipeline? Learn how our AI sales enablement platform can help you prospect smarter, close faster, and win more sales.