Recently, a salesperson told me that when she started her career, there were more than a dozen people selling her same product in her small city. Now, nearly 20 years later, her business has grown exponentially, while many of the original and new competitors have faded away. Her explanation: “I was going to be the best.”

Easier said, than done, right? This HubSpot blog sums up the challenges of selling today: “It’s a crowded market out there. Selling is getting more competitive and managers tell us every day that reps need to focus on faster ways to reach the customer with the right message before someone else does. Oh, and by the way, make sure you understand the need, build the value proposition, and sell a solution.”

The author offers 6 steps to tackle the challenge and keep your sales pipeline full. For instance, the first step is to define better what makes a qualified prospect by linking the prospect to a specific milestone. Then, your salespeople should link their actions to moving the prospect along closer to a sale. And, all those actions and results should be reported weekly to a sales manager. Be careful to not get bogged down in tracking and reports, however.

“Only track the milestones that make sense to your business and align to your actual daily activities and the opportunity progression in the pipeline,” the author says. In other words, busy work doesn’t lead to sales.

Read more about steps you can take today to generate sales tomorrow.