5 ways a leaky marketing pipeline costs you

I recently outlined six signs that may indicate that your marketing pipeline is leaking. But with today’s busy schedules, you may rationalize inaction because you don’t have time to deal with the leaks in your marketing pipeline. I understand, I’m busy, too. But let me remind you of five ways a learky marketing pipeline costs you. The big question then becomes can you afford to not deal with them?

1. Lost sales

You’ve got qualified leads in your marketing pipeline. Of course, not all leads will turn into sales. However, the more leads that do turn into sales, the better your bottom line. It stands to reason that if somewhere in your marketing pipeline leads are getting funneled out, turned off, or turned on the the competition at your leak-point(s), you will lose sales that otherwise would have been completed. That’s money right out of your pocket!

2. Lost return customers

One of your easiest sources of business and sales is existing customers. So not only have you lost sales, but you’ve also decreased your pool of existing customers.

3. Wasted marketing dollars

In order to get qualified leads in the first place, you’ve spent a lot of time, effort and money. Do you really want to let your hard-won potential customers slip away so easily through a leaky marketing pipeline?

4. Decreased efficiency

When you’ve got a leak, efficiency decreases. You’re spending time wooing, marketing, and selling to potential customers that will eventually get lost due to your leaks. From marketing to administration to business development, there’s waste due to leaks, and where there’s waste there’s ineffeciency.

5. Slower growth

When you’ve got a leak, it takes longer to get the outputs you want. What are your targets for this year? Leaks will make it harder and slower to reach them.

Now that you’ve seen five ways a leaky marketing pipeline costs you, doesn’t it make sense to check your marketing pipeline for leaks? Every pipeline will have leaks of some kind, but odds are there are pluggable leaks that you’re not even aware of that are costing you in many ways.

The sooner you plug the leaks in your marketing pipeline, the sooner you can get back on track.