False Positives: Addressing Sales Pipeline Excitement that Doesn’t Convert

If the customer acquisition gap we talk about is the number one issue plaguing seed-stage companies, the number two issue is its close cousin: a lack of urgency in the pipeline.

Eighty-five percent (85%) of seed-stage founders we researched as part of the Play Bigger Founder’s Workbook reported a lack of urgency and conversation in the pipeline. These founders were perplexed, as one of them put it: “We have an impressive pipeline but always seem to land in fourth place when it comes time to getting a deal closed.” 

These founders experience very positive reception to their product and innovation, but ultimately no movement. 

So why is this happening? 

If the product is so good, if you are so excited as a prospect, why aren’t you closing the deal? 

Well, if there’s no urgency to close the deal, it means either: 

1. The problem you solve isn’t clear or seen as a priority.
2. It’s a problem they are already solving.
3. They don’t have the budget to pay you to solve it.

Each of these is symptomatic of Market Myopia, which is the inability to see the potential of a future market because of the reality of the current market. 

1. If you haven’t identified a problem that’s worth solving, there is no future market.
2. If you are trying to solve a problem they are already solving, you’re stuck in the current market, competing with entrenched competitors and unlikely to succeed. 
3. If they don’t have the budget to solve the problem, then you haven’t identified a problem costly enough to prompt action from those who do have a budget.

Overcoming these issues requires a commitment to finding the right problem, at the right altitude, with the right costs. And then framing and naming a solution to solve this urgent problem. And that is how you move from a lack of pipeline urgency to signed contracts and new deals. 

For more details on how to do this, check out the Play Bigger Founder’s Workbook.