The pipeline that never closed

For a year, the pipeline report was the best page in the update. New names every month, warm meetings, technical people telling us the product beat what they were using. Then I noticed that names only ever joined the list. None left it as a customer. I had been reading interest as progress.

I want to be fair: in this category, a sale can take six months to a year. What I misjudged was the competition. I had measured us against rival vendors. The buyers measured us against staying put. They had a provider that was good enough for now, or an in-house tool held together by habit — nobody migrates on a good day. The answer was always polite: no capacity right now, no urgent need, happy to circle back.

“"A full pipeline tells you people are interested. Only a signature tells you they're buying."”

In a cycle that long, a slow deal and a dead deal look identical for months. That gave everyone cover. The person running sales was well liked and opened plenty of doors. In front of a technical buyer, the detail ran out, and nobody put a price on doing nothing. Every customer we had, the founder had closed. I had never asked. The founder kept the arrangement out of loyalty, and for fear of having no sales function at all. There hadn't been one for some time.

Before I trust a pipeline, I ask three things. Who closed the last three customers, and could anyone else have? What would force this buyer to move: a renewal, a failure, growth the current setup can't carry? Did the last meeting end with a next step and a date, or with a promise to talk again? Every sales hire now gets a review date, agreed in advance, and is judged on deals moved, not leads collected. Until someone else has closed, the founder closes, alongside whoever opened the door.

The takeaway

If your pipeline is full and nothing is getting signed, stop counting leads. Make sure every meeting ends with a next step and a date. "Happy to circle back" is what buyers say when nobody proposes anything better.