A common problem. But what do you throw at it to solve it? Many companies will just turn to sales training. Or just ramp up the generation of leads to play the (clearly ineffective) numbers game. This costs. And in ways you might not have considered. For example, how much of your good ready-to-buy market are you alienating by not addressing them in the right way at the right times? Many companies focus on the leads they generate from a sales campaign, rather than other potential “future” buyers in a position to buy.

‘Pipeline bloat’ is common in sales. And can be down to many different causes. Sometimes it’s a strategy issue, sometimes it’s people performance, often it can boil down to mindset where nice sales people don’t want to feel pushy or clinging onto leads that are going nowhere for self-preservation OR rather than turning to an effective but still non-pushy approach, they just take the foot off the pedal and leave leads sitting in their pipeline.

We must remember that our potential buyers want to buy. And they want help to get that right. They want assistance in the right way. What they don’t want is for ‘nice’ sales people to not contact them at all because the nice sales person feels they’re being pushy. That’s an example of people getting in their own way!

What about alignment with your buyers journey? Are your processes aligned? Do your people know how to progress a deal effectively (doing the right things) and efficiently (doing those things right)? To the point of getting ‘yeses’ from the right buyers consistently? And which of these challenges behind lost opportunities need addressing most? And in what order?