When revenue falls behind, the immediate reaction is to demand more pipeline.
Marketing is told to run more ads. SDRs are told to make more dials.
But pouring more unqualified volume into a broken funnel just creates a more expensive problem.
The Illusion of Volume
Most SaaS sales teams operate with a 20% to 30% demo-to-close rate.
This means reps spend 70% to 80% of their time working deals that will never buy.
That is a massive drain on expensive Account Executive capacity.
The problem isn't that they can't close.
The problem is they are pitching to people who shouldn't have been in the pipeline to begin with.
Ruthless Qualification as a System
I don't believe in leaving qualification up to "gut feel."
Qualification must be operationalized into the CRM architecture.
I build strict qualification gates. If a prospect doesn't meet the data requirements, they don't get a demo.
We move the friction to the top of the funnel to protect the bottom of the funnel.
The 40% Conversion Architecture
By stripping out the noise, AE capacity is freed up to actually sell.
I implemented this architecture and took a client's demo-to-close rate from 30% to a sustained 40%.
That didn't just increase revenue.
It increased AE morale and drastically lowered the cost of acquisition.