You’re 23% behind on revenue. The board meeting is in two weeks. And here’s what you’re probably not understanding…
Your top performers are the problem. Not because they’re underperforming. Because you’ve built your entire growth strategy around replicating what they do naturally, and it doesn’t scale.
Let’s look at the numbers
Your best rep closes 40% of qualified leads. Your average rep closes 18%. So you hired more reps, invested in enablement, and pushed harder on pipeline generation.
Revenue still isn’t moving.
The reason; top performers succeed despite your process, not because of it. They have relationships your new hires don’t. They pattern-match opportunities intuitively. They know which rules to break. You can’t train someone to have eight years of market context in six weeks.
Meanwhile, you’re burning cash on headcount that won’t hit quota for months, if ever.
Three lies you’re telling yourself
Lie #1: “We just need more leads”
You don’t have a volume problem. Your pipeline is probably decent. Your problem is conversion, or deal size, or sales cycle length. Generating more mediocre opportunities just clogs your system further. I’ve seen companies with 3x their target pipeline still miss their number because nothing actually closed.
Lie #2: “Our product just needs this one feature”
If your product was truly the blocker, your close rate would be consistently low across the board. But it’s not. Some reps are closing just fine. The deals you’re losing aren’t asking for the same missing feature, they’re all going sideways for different reasons. That’s a go-to-market problem, not a product problem.
Lie #3: “The market has shifted”
Maybe. Or maybe your ideal customer profile has shifted and you’re still selling to last year’s buyer. Your best deals this quarter probably look different from your best deals last year. But you’re still targeting, messaging, and pricing for the old profile because that’s what’s in your strategy deck.
How to run when you’re already behind
Stop trying to fix everything! You don’t have time. Pick the ONE constraint that’s actually holding you back:
If your problem is conversion: Stop generating new pipeline for 30 days. Yes, seriously. Take your entire revenue team and focus them on closing what’s already there. You’ll learn more about why deals stall in one month than you have in the last six. And you might actually hit your quarter.
If your problem is deal size: Fire your smallest customers. Not literally, but stop selling to them. Calculate your actual cost-to-serve. You’ll discover you’re losing money on 30% of your customer base. Redirect that energy to deals 3x the size. Your revenue per rep will double.
If your problem is sales cycle length: Your prospects don’t understand what you do. Full stop. If deals take 4+ months to close, it’s because you’re forcing buyers to figure out your value instead of making it obvious. Rebuild your first call. If a prospect can’t articulate your ROI back to you in their own words after 30 minutes, your positioning is broken.
Steps to change
Pick one:
Option A: Pull your win/loss data from the last 90 days. Don’t read the summary, read the actual lost deal notes. Find the pattern everyone’s been ignoring. It’s there.
Option B: Sit in on your average rep’s next five calls. Not your best rep, your average one. Don’t coach, just observe. You’ll see your go-to-market strategy collide with reality in real-time.
Option C: Calculate your cost-per-deal by customer segment. Include sales time, implementation, support, everything. You’re going to discover you’re selling to someone you can’t afford to serve. Stop.
The elephant in the room
You’re not behind because your team isn’t working hard enough. You’re behind because you’re optimizing the wrong part of your business.
The CEO who drives effective and efficient growth, isn’t the one who pushes harder for more leads. It’s the one who has the courage to stop, diagnose precisely, and fix the actual blocks standing in the way.
You only have a few months left of the year! What are you going to do?
