Strong Qualified Lead Volume, Weak Close Rates. Again, let’s give credit to prospects for being selective about what vendors they spend time with, who they fill out a lead-gen form with, who they sit on a demo with, and who they give their valuable time with on sales calls to. A consistent volume of well-qualified leads (not raw or early leads) is a strong signal for product-market fit and a broad pain point being addressed. Therefore, if close rates are weak in that type of lead environment, then it’s more than reasonable to question the capabilities of the sales team.
Strong Performance Next To Weak Performance. This can take shape in a few different ways. There are a couple of strong sales reps performing well above quota, but several who are not. The channel sales partners are selling the product well, but direct sales team is not. Sales are strong in certain geographic segments, industry verticals, customer segments or certain use cases, but not in others. The point is there is validation of product/market value and velocity somewhere within the sales organization, and it’s about aligning the right resources and methodologies against the lowest friction points in the market.
Perpetually Exaggerating Sales Pipeline. It is ultimately the job of the sales team to properly project and weight the sales pipeline. If the sales team always expects to sell more than it does, and that persists by a wide margin, then that’s foundationally a sales issue. After all, product doesn’t own the sales pipeline, sales does. Perpetual exaggeration in the sales pipeline usually is a sign of lack of accountability, process, and detail in the sales organization – all of which are important ingredients for a high-performing sales team. It’s hard for sales teams to get sales right if they can’t get the pipeline right first.