Ticketsolve's Projects tool is designed to help you efficiently manage work within your organisation. Whether you’re working on securing high-level donors, pursuing corporate sponsorships, or inviting VIPs to special events, Projects will streamline your workflow and make you more productive and efficient.
To help you get started, let's dive into pipeline management, understand what it is, and explore how it can benefit your organisation.
What is pipeline management?
Pipeline management is a term that is not widely spoken about in our industry. It’s mainly used in sales-orientated organisations. Pipeline management is a method of tracking tasks or projects through a sequence of stages. Each stage represents a step in your process, making it easy to visualise progress and stay organised. Think of it like a flowchart for your projects, where you can see each phase and what needs to be done next.
The below screengrab illustrates a simple pipeline where you have stages within your project, individual cards (customers/organisations) that can be moved through each stage until they reach your final (finished) stage.
Benefits of using a pipeline
There are many benefits to using pipelines to manage your projects. As we mentioned above, one of the main reasons is to help you be more productive and efficient, but there are loads more which we have listed below:
- Visualisation of workflow: Pipelines give you a clear picture of your project's progress, making it easy to see where each task stands and what needs attention.
- Identifying bottlenecks: By tracking individual cards through stages, you can quickly spot where things are slowing down and take action to resolve issues.
- Enhanced accountability: Assign specific cards and tasks to team members, so everyone knows their responsibilities and deadlines.
- Improved communication: Keep everyone in the loop with a shared view of the project's status, reducing misunderstandings and improving coordination amongst your team.
- Increased efficiency: Focus on key cards and tasks at each stage to avoid delays and duplication of efforts.
Building your pipeline
When starting to plan your project and build your pipeline, there are several things you will need to consider. Below we have listed the key aspects when it comes to building your project/pipeline.
Brainstorm
Involve members of your team and other teams within your organisation to help plan out your project. You need to think about what is the main goal of the project, timelines, funding goals (if required), who will be involved in the project team etc… Getting all of these questions answered first is essential for a successful project.
Define clear stages
Break down your project into distinct stages. Think about how you would manage customers or tasks through the project, and what that journey will look like.
For example, for managing high-level donors, you may create a simple workflow/journey like this:
- Potential - identify who your high-level donors and sponsors could be.
- Engaged - make initial contact with your prospects.
- Interested - the prospect has engaged and would like to know more.
- Intent - you send them a proposal of what you would like from them.
- Follow-up - follow up on your proposal.
- Donation secured - the prospect has agreed to donate X funds.
- Donation lost - the prospect has decided not to donate.
Set specific tasks
List specific tasks within each stage to keep things manageable. You should think about what needs to be done at each stage to keep moving those customers/tasks through to the next stage in your pipeline. This helps in breaking down the project into actionable steps.
Assign owners
Assign tasks to team members to ensure accountability and timely completion. This will help keep the project moving forward as everyone knows what they are responsible for.
Regular updates
Keep your pipeline updated regularly to reflect the current status of tasks and projects. The Projects feature in Ticketsolve should become one of the most used features in the system as you should be spending most of your time there managing and updating the project.
Review and adjust
Periodically review your pipeline to identify any areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments. You may find after a couple of months that you get a bottleneck at one of the stages. This will indicate that you probably need to add a stage into your pipeline to help elevate that problem.
Example: Managing high-level donors
Now that you know the basics of pipeline management, let’s look at a real-life example of what a project could look like. We will take a look at the different stages and what tasks could be completed at each stage.
Here’s a practical example to illustrate how to use a pipeline for managing high-level donors:
Stage 1: Potential
The identification stage is the first stage in this type of project. It is where you start looking for customers who meet your criteria for being a potential high-level donor. You could look for customers who have attended over 50 events, or who have donated over £1000, etc. Once you have identified those customers, you can add them as cards to this first step.
Stage 2: Engaged
Now that you have identified those potential high-level donors, your next job is to reach out to them to see if they would be willing to engage in this project. This is one of the most important steps in this sort of project, as if you get the initial contact wrong, it could be hard to get them engaged again in the future. The initial contact should encourage potential donors to know more about your project.
Step 3: Interested
In this stage, you add potential donors who have shown interest and are willing to engage with your project. This is a holding phase where you prepare to send them proposals or schedule meetings to discuss your project in detail.
Remember, for high-level donor projects, relationship-building is key. Spend ample time getting to know your potential donors, understanding their interests, and building trust. This stage is crucial for laying the foundation of a strong and lasting relationship with your donors.
Stage 4: Intent
Once you have all your preparations complete and know exactly what you will present to your potential high-level donors, you can move them into this stage. This is where you deliver your proposal, detailing your project and how they can contribute. Make sure your presentation is tailored to their interests and showcases the value and impact of their potential involvement.
Stage 5: Follow-up
Now it's time to keep the momentum going! In this stage, reach out to your potential high-level donors to see if they need anything else. This is like the negotiation stage in sales, where you address any questions and work towards getting them to commit. Keep the conversation friendly and engaging, building on the trust you’ve established, and guiding them towards becoming a high-level donor. Your goal here is to keep the dialogue open and positive until they’re ready to say "yes"!
Stage 6: Donation secured
Congratulations—you did it! This stage is where you add all your donors who have agreed to contribute. Now, make sure you have a few follow-up tasks lined up, such as tagging them in your system, writing a thank you letter, sending a thank you email, giving them a call, and inviting them to events as a VIPs. These steps help reinforce their commitment and show your appreciation, keeping the relationship strong and positive.
Stage 7: Donation lost
Hopefully, you won’t need to use this stage often, but it’s important to have it. This is where you add customers who declined to become high-level donors. Tracking this helps you identify who said no, allowing you to potentially target them again for future campaigns. It also helps you analyse and understand the reasons for their decision, so you can refine your approach and improve for next time.
Tips for successful pipeline management
As you can see, managing projects through a pipeline can really boost your productivity and efficiency. There's no one-size-fits-all approach; it’s all about what works best for you. Here are some friendly tips to help you out:
- Get others involved: Teamwork makes the dream work. Collaborate for better planning and delivery.
- Be consistent: Regular updates keep your pipeline accurate.
- Stay flexible: Adjust stages and tasks as needed.
- Communicate clearly: Make sure everyone knows their tasks and deadlines.
- Analyse and improve: Regularly review and tweak your pipeline for better efficiency.
Pipeline management is your roadmap to project success. By visualising your workflow, identifying bottlenecks, and enhancing communication, you’ll manage your projects with ease and precision.
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