Hey Niepodam,

A Head of Sales messaged me: “We’ve got a full pipeline but no one's closing. Reps are busy. Forecast is slipping. Feels like we’re spinning.”

I got on a call. We pulled up the CRM together.

Every rep had deals marked “Mid-Funnel.” Lots of them.

• Next steps? “Follow up.”
• Decision process? Blank.
• Last activity? Some from six weeks ago.

It wasn’t a pipeline.
It was a parking lot.

Here’s what we did: I had each rep tag every deal one of two ways:

Mover → Next step scheduled, real buyer activity, confirmed pain

Parked → No motion, no signals, just hope

72% of the pipeline? Parked.

We killed those deals from the forecast. Not deleted—just moved to a separate view.

Clean slate. No more illusion of progress.

Then we requalified what was left.

I asked:

• “Do you know the business pain?”
• “Have they told you what happens if this doesn’t get solved?”
• “Who actually signs this deal?”
• “What happens on the next call?”

If they couldn’t answer—deal got flagged.

Then we ran a full deal triage.

Every flagged deal got a forced next step:

• No buyer activity in 14 days? → Kickstart with a blunt nudge email.
• No clear timeline? → Get one or pull the deal.
• Missing economic buyer? → Create a reframe to pull them in.

We also rebuilt the pipeline stages to reflect real buyer intent, not seller hope.

Each stage now had an exit criteria tied to buyer behavior:

• Demo stage → Only if pain is confirmed and the buying process is known
• Proposal stage → Only if the decision maker is involved and the timeline is locked

No more “feels like a good fit.”

Just movement, proof, or removal.

3 weeks later?

• Forecast accuracy jumped
• Close rates improved
• Reps stopped wasting cycles on ghosted accounts

They weren’t working harder.
They were working real deals.

Takeaway:

Don’t manage your pipeline from the dashboard. Manage it from reality.

If it’s not moving, it’s not real.

If it’s not qualified, it’s not worth forecasting.

And if you’re relying on “follow up” as a next step, you’ve already lost the deal.

Here are 2 ways I might be able to help:

→ 1:1 Coaching: If you’re doing “everything right” but still not booking or closing like you should be, I’ll help you pinpoint the problem and fix it fast. Book your free strategy call

→ Team Workshops: No fluff. No lectures. Just tactical coaching that makes your team sharper, faster, and better at moving real revenue. Book your free strategy call

PS: Every training I run includes real AI tools, workflows, and use cases—so you’re not just learning sales, you’re learning how to sell smarter with AI.

Alan "Modern Seller" Ruchtein.

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