FN ISI Export Format VR 1.0 PT J TI Pipeline management for the acquisition of industrial projects AF Söhnchen, Florian Albers, Sönke AU Söhnchen, F Albers, S SO Industrial Marketing Management SN 0019-8501 VL 39 BP 1356 EP 1364 PY 2010 AB The management and controlling of the industrial project acquisition process, with its staged, funnel-like structure, has been neglected in empirical research so far—even though an effective acquisition process is crucial for economic success. In addition to profitability, the main goal of industrial companies is to implement a pipeline process that ensures that the pipeline is always filled with acquisition projects and results in a constant stream of orders over time. The projects considered are characterized by complexity, uniqueness, and discontinuity. Based on a large-scale survey among German industrial companies, we describe the industrial project acquisition process, where the projects mentioned above are sold on a non-continuous basis to industrial customers. We assess how the industrial project acquisition process is really structured, whether a sales funnel management is applicable and utilized by sales management to monitor and control this process, and whether a sophisticated sales funnel management contributes to enhanced economic success. DI 10.1016/j.indmarman.2010.04.001 ER