Almost everyone has heard of the concepts "The Sales Pipeline" and "Relationship Marketing." But few Independent Professionals realize how closely they're connected and what it means to your marketing.

The sales pipeline (sometimes called the sales funnel) is the process of moving unknown prospects - those who might do business with you someday - into paying clients.

Relationship marketing is the means of making this happen. Prospects don't travel through this pipeline without your focused efforts to cultivate, inform, and follow up until they are ready to do business with you.

It's important to understand that every single prospect who becomes a client goes through this process, whether you realize it or not. The sad thing is that many prospects get stuck in the pipeline (imagine appropriate visual image) because you made very little effort to move them along.

You meet someone at a networking meeting and have a productive conversation. You exchange cards. You don't follow up in any way but they do visit your web site.

They like what they see, and in a couple weeks they send you an email to ask a question about your services. You answer this question by email but don't follow-up otherwise. And then... you never hear from them again.

When you made that initial connection and exchanged cards, the prospect entered the pipeline. They moved through as they visited your web site and sent you an email. But your response was very passive. You did little to engage the prospect and help them keep moving. And they ultimately gave up.

You really don't need to add any fancy marketing techniques and strategies. You simply have to be better at using relationship marketing to move prospects through the pipeline.

The stages of the pipeline ar as follows: Stranger - Affiliation - Familiarity - Information - Experience, let's look at what you could do to move a prospect along the pipeline from one stage to the next.

Stranger to Affiliation - You join an organization which is likely to include both prospects and people who can lead you to prospects. You get involved and go to meetings and meet new people you wouldn't have otherwise.

Affiliation to Familiarity - You meet someone through this organization and exchange cards. You recognize this person as a prospect and make a mental note to enter them into your relationship pipeline.

Familiarity to Information - After the event you send this person a note card and also a copy of an article about some aspect of your business. You include a link to your web site. You follow up and continue your conversation and answer questions.

Information to Experience - When talking, you mention your email newsletter (eZine) and they express an interest in receiving it. A few weeks later you're speaking at a professional group, and you invite them to attend.

Experience to Appointment - The prospect attends your talk and seems to enjoy it. You speak with them briefly afterwards and they ask some more questions about your business. You suggest getting together to explore how you might work together, and they agree.

There are as many relationship pipeline scenarios as there are prospects. Let's look at some of the things that are common to every single one of them:

1. Get out there. Most prospects don't get into the pipeline by accident. You need to put yourself in situations where you'll connect with new prospects on a regular basis.

2. Extend yourself. Prospects aren't going to get to know you unless you make the effort. You need to introduce yourself and make a positive first impression.

3. Provide information. Your prospects aren't going to know what you do, and what you can do for them, unless you educate them in some way. Articles, web sites, and eZines will do the trick.

4. Make invitations. Some prospects may need to know more and feel more comfortable about you before they are ready to meet and explore doing business. So give them opportunities to do so.

5. Ask. Ultimately you need to ask. If you wait for the prospect to make the next move, you may go broke in the process. However, if you've warmed up a prospect as I've outlined above, it will be easier than you think.

Your ability to master the relationship pipeline can be the biggest factor determining your overall business success. Knowing what to do, when to do it and how to do it will determine the level of that success.

Don't just put new prospects into your relationship pipeline, proactively move them along the pipeline until they emerge as new clients.