They Said "We Need More Pipeline." The Real Problem? 10% Win Rate.

A sales org with over 100 AEs came to me.

They were missing their number by 30%.

"Marcus, we need more pipeline. Come work with our SDRs and AEs. Drive the pipeline."

I said: hold on.

Let me look at your data first.

Here's what I found.

Pipeline coverage? 3x. Not bad. Win rate? 10%.

There's your problem.

They didn't need more pipeline. They needed to stop losing deals.

Symptom vs. root cause

Most leaders solve symptoms. Not root causes.

The symptom: missing number.

The instinct: more pipeline. More activity. Push the SDRs. Make the AEs self-source.

That's the easiest lever to pull. It feels productive.

But it's low leverage.

Here's the high-leverage move: fix the 10% win rate.

When we dug into call reviews (discovery, demos, exec conversations), it was clear.

The team didn't need more meetings. They needed to get better at running them.

Multi-threading. Business cases. Executive alignment. Deal management.

Fix the win rate, and you reduce your cost to acquire a customer. You become more profitable.

Same pipeline. Better conversion. More revenue.

The flat feet story

A few years ago, my foot started hurting. Swelling. Pain.

I iced it. Stretched it. It would get better, then worse again.

I asked my buddy (a podiatrist) to look at it.

He said: "You have osteoarthritis. But the root cause? Flat feet."

Icing the foot? That's treating a symptom.

Fixing flat feet (foot strength + better footwear)? That's the root cause.

Sales orgs are the same.

Turnover, lost deals, long sales cycles... those are symptoms.

The root cause? Could be bad managers. Bad onboarding. No process. Bad hiring.

You need to diagnose the actual problem before you start fixing things.

Why you can't see it

It's hard to see the picture when you're inside the frame.

When I hit a growth constraint in my own business, I thought: I need more leads.

My mentor looked at me and said: "Your energy is diverted. You're selling two offers to two different ICPs. Pick a path."

He was right.

The root cause wasn't leads. It was focus.

I couldn't see it because I was too close.

The 85-person org turnaround

When I took over an 85-person sales org, I didn't assume I knew the problem.

I diagnosed it.

Here's what I did:

→ Looked at all the CRM data (cold to sold)

→ Talked to every single sales leader

→ Talked to every single rep (all 85)

→ Rode with reps in the field 4x/week for 16 weeks

→ Watched managers run one-on-ones

It took 16 weeks. I traveled nonstop.

But I found the root causes:

Managers didn't know how to manage.

Onboarding was terrible.

Turnover was 40-45% (30 people leaving every year).

Once I knew the real problems, I could fix them.

Six months in, numbers started turning around.

Not because we made more calls. Because we fixed the actual issues.

Low vs. high leverage

Low leverage: more pipeline, more activity.

High leverage: fix the win rate. Fix manager skills. Fix onboarding.

Most leaders default to low leverage because it's faster and easier.

But high leverage is what actually moves the needle.

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If your team is missing number and you're not sure why, stop guessing.

Diagnose the root cause. Then fix that.