Are You Setting Your Sales Team Up to Fail? The Real Betrayal Starts at the Top of Your Funnel.

Dear Marcus,

I run a business with 20 salespeople. I provide them with plenty of leads, but they aren't closing. What should I do about it?

Sincerely, Frustrated and Confused

Dear Frustrated,

I hear you. You’ve got a team of 20 sellers, and you’re feeding them plenty of leads, but those deals aren’t closing. So, what’s going wrong? Well, buckle up, because the truth is either you hired them to fail, or you’ve set up a system that guarantees it. Before we start blaming the sales team, let’s take a hard look at the whole system — especially who’s coming in at the top of your pipeline.

Step 1: Stop Blaming the Sales Team

First things first: if the leads are there but the deals aren’t closing, this isn’t just a sales problem. Sure, you can train them better, give them all the tools in the world, but if the wrong leads are clogging up your pipeline, they’re just spinning their wheels. Even the best closer can’t turn a bad fit into a win. The real question is: are these even the right people to be selling to?

Step 2: Disqualification Isn't a Dirty Word

If you’ve got salespeople chasing every lead like it’s gold dust, then you’ve failed to teach them the most powerful tool in the kit: disqualification. The Ally Method™ is crystal clear on this: not all leads deserve your time. If your team is stuck in the mindset that they need to turn every prospect into a deal, they’re drowning in “maybes.” You need them working in absolutes: yes or no, in or out. And if they can’t confidently disqualify bad fits, your entire pipeline gets clogged with false hope and wasted effort.

Step 3: It’s Not Just About More Leads

More leads do not mean more sales. What matters is quality over quantity. You could throw 500 leads into your pipeline every month, but if they don’t match your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), what’s the point? The question you need to be asking is: Are these leads aligned with who you can actually help? If not, your pipeline is packed with noise, not opportunity.

Step 4: What Are You Really Selling?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: are your salespeople selling what the customer actually needs or what you think they should buy? The Ally Method™ teaches us that it’s not about pushing a product; it’s about serving the job the customer needs to get done. If your team isn’t aligning with the customer’s true motivations and disqualifying leads that don’t fit, they’re burning time on deals that were never real to begin with.

Step 5: The Real Problem — Who's at the Top of Your Funnel?

This brings us to the root of your issue. Are the people you’re marketing to and putting into the start of your pipeline the right people? If your marketing team is pulling in anyone and everyone, hoping the sales team can sort it out, you're starting with failure baked into the system. Your salespeople are only as good as the leads they’re working with. If you’re bringing in the wrong prospects, of course they’re not closing.

Step 6: Align Your Marketing with Your Sales

WAKE UP! Marketing is the hero maker by acting as the gatekeeper, ensuring only the right people, i.e. those who match your ICP and who actually need what you’re selling, are getting into the pipeline. If you’re attracting the wrong people from the start, your sales team is fighting a losing battle. No amount of charm, persuasion, or follow-up can turn a bad lead into a great deal.

The Real Question: Are You Even Attracting the Right People?

So here’s the million-dollar question you need to ask yourself:

If you never attracted the wrong people, what would be better?

Wouldn’t your pipeline run smoother, your salespeople be more efficient, and your close rate skyrocket? Instead of overwhelming your team with an ocean of low-quality leads, what if you focused on attracting only those who genuinely fit — the people who truly need your product, the ones who are primed to buy when the time is right?

If you fix the top of your funnel, everything else gets easier. If you don’t, your team will keep wasting time on deals that were dead the moment they entered the pipeline.

Think about that next time you look at your lead flow. Are they the right people, or just more people? It’s your choice.

Yours in clarity,

Marcus

P.S. Before pointing the finger at your salespeople, did you hire them that way or make them that way?

#PredictablePipeline #RevenueCertainty #PredictiveHiring #PipelineTriage™ #SalesConfidence