S3 Ep 20 Hope Is Not a Pipeline Strategy

So your strategy is your roadmap.

Mm-hmm.

And that is what you are giving your team in order to execute against what is going to make your company most successful.

So think of it as your Bible for decision making.

And oftentimes there isn't one.

So your teams run in various different directions going after whatever person will talk to them.

And you end up with a lot of pipeline that actually can't move through the funnel.

And this happens across all aspects of go to market.

You see it most in opportunities because you're counting on them.

It can happen anywhere.

It can happen in terms of the wrong leads are coming in.

It can happen with the wrong opportunities that aren't going to close along the timeline that you think they are.

But you can always walk it back to did the team know what they should be going after, who they should be going after and with what product and how.

And if they can't answer that question and they're just trying to hunt anything that moves, you're going to end up with serious problems and a pipeline that doesn't convert to revenue.

So this is where I see a lot of friction in organizations, especially those that are moving from founder-led sales to... salesperson, often the founder tends to always blame that lead salesperson or potentially marketing for why that pipeline isn't looking the way they want it to look.

Why is that a fundamental issue?

It's a fundamental issue because you haven't agreed on what is a qualified opportunity.

And what a founder-led sales structure may have thought was a qualified opportunity may have been somebody who was willing to take their call versus a sales leader who wants to put it through pieces to make sure that it really means something to and that it has a probability that it's going to close.

And if you can't fundamentally get aligned around the definitions, then you're going to end up with a lot of pain.

The other thing is oftentimes, this is such a wonderful product.

Sales and marketing sometimes have to call the product ugly and say like, but it doesn't fit for this profile.

And if that's the case, you know, The founder may still want to put some of those deals into the pipeline when we know that they're not going to end up being good customer experiences.

And so there can be a lot of tension when you start to professionalize sales and marketing because you're coming with different tools and different ideas on what does good look like.

And it's hard often for the founder to give over that control to sales and marketing leadership to disqualify out things.

So your strategy is your roadmap.

Mm-hmm.

And that is what you are giving your team in order to execute against what is going to make your company most successful.

So think of it as your Bible for decision making.

And oftentimes there isn't one.

So your teams run in various different directions going after whatever person will talk to them.

And you end up with a lot of pipeline that actually can't move through the funnel.

And this happens across all aspects of go to market.

You see it most in opportunities because you're counting on them.

It can happen anywhere.

It can happen in terms of the wrong leads are coming in.

It can happen with the wrong opportunities that aren't going to close along the timeline that you think they are.

But you can always walk it back to did the team know what they should be going after, who they should be going after and with what product and how.

And if they can't answer that question and they're just trying to hunt anything that moves, you're going to end up with serious problems and a pipeline that doesn't convert to revenue.

So this is where I see a lot of friction in organizations, especially those that are moving from founder-led sales to... salesperson, often the founder tends to always blame that lead salesperson or potentially marketing for why that pipeline isn't looking the way they want it to look.

Why is that a fundamental issue?

It's a fundamental issue because you haven't agreed on what is a qualified opportunity.

And what a founder-led sales structure may have thought was a qualified opportunity may have been somebody who was willing to take their call versus a sales leader who wants to put it through pieces to make sure that it really means something to and that it has a probability that it's going to close.

And if you can't fundamentally get aligned around the definitions, then you're going to end up with a lot of pain.

The other thing is oftentimes, this is such a wonderful product.

Sales and marketing sometimes have to call the product ugly and say like, but it doesn't fit for this profile.

And if that's the case, you know, The founder may still want to put some of those deals into the pipeline when we know that they're not going to end up being good customer experiences.

And so there can be a lot of tension when you start to professionalize sales and marketing because you're coming with different tools and different ideas on what does good look like.

And it's hard often for the founder to give over that control to sales and marketing leadership to disqualify out things.