$1.8M sitting in my pipeline

You’re a lazy salesperson, and you know it. 😉 

I’ve noticed that all the deals that “fell through” for me happened because I was lazy. I expected things to fall into my lap, or the prospect to do all the work.

But that’s not how business works. The better you are at following up, nudging prospects nicely, and putting out content and useful information, the more sales you will close.

It’s easy to give up on this at times. We fall for the next appointment setting AI, LinkedIn automation tool, running cold ads into oblivion, and more… All while ignoring our pipeline that is full of semi-interested leads.

I recently did a pipeline review for my business. And holy sh*t. It’s crazy to see how many deals we leave on the table. I put my deal value at $6000, which is the absolute lowest I’ll ever go. Even though some clients pay us $104k per year… $6000 for consulting or a small deal is still worth it for me.

Even with each potential deal sitting in my pipeline at $6000, I have a total of $1.8M in pipeline value. That’s about 300 leads who either booked a call, were interested in our services, or had a conversation with me.

Now, I could keep chasing down new deals everyday. And I will. But isn’t it crazy to see that volume of untouched pipeline just sitting there?

I bet 75% of these deals will never close, even if I sold my face off for 12 months straight to them. However, that 25% may be willing to work with us. Some may even be willing to pay $100k or more per year if we get them good results.

It’s clear that most of these deals fell off due to laziness. Maybe my automations weren’t set up properly. Maybe I gave up to soon. Maybe I pitched them the wrong proposal.

Either way, it’s all just a form of laziness. The next 3 months, I’m going to pour over these leads and give them custom growth plans or try to get them back on the phone. The more effort I put in, the more likely I tack on another 6-figures in profit without much extra work.

This should be motivation to go through your pipeline and push them harder. Also, calculate your pipeline value based on the lowest deal you’d ever accept, not on the potential upside. Be realistic.

Thanks for reading,

Austin Weatherhead | Growth Partner @ Zunesty

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Whenever you’re ready, you can set up a meeting with me at our growth firm Zunesty to see if we’re a good fit to work together. We build custom growth plans for your business before we ever make any sort of proposal, so the calls are more to learn about your company and connect. Grab a time to talk here.