Sales and delivery assessment

This is where the top-of-funnel effort either turns into revenue or gets lost in the cracks. You’ve generated a lead—now what happens?

In my experience, this is where many B2B companies lose momentum. Not because they lack leads, but because the handover from marketing to sales is fuzzy, follow-up is inconsistent, or the funnel itself is based on wishful thinking rather than observed behaviour.

Let’s break it down.

First: is there even a defined funnel? I’m talking about clear stages like MQL, SQL, Opportunity, and Deal. Different companies use slightly different labels, but the point is that everyone agrees what these stages mean—and what moves a lead from one stage to the next.

If you ask two people in your team to define what makes an SQL, and you get different answers, you’ve got a definition problem. And definition problems lead to bad data and wasted energy.

You need to be able to map the path a lead takes from first conversion to closed deal. Otherwise, your metrics don’t mean much.

What are the conversion rates and drop-off points between stages?

Once the stages are defined, pull the numbers. What percentage of MQLs become SQLs? Of SQLs to Opportunities? Of Opportunities to Deals?

You don’t need to hit perfect benchmarks here—you just need to spot where the biggest leaks are. If you’re losing half of your leads between MQL and SQL, dig into why. Is it qualification? Is it follow-up speed? Is it targeting?

Use this as directional insight. We’ll optimise later.

Speed matters. If you’re generating inbound leads and waiting 3+ days to follow up, you’re burning money. Even for outbound, delay kills momentum.

I often ask teams: if someone fills out a demo form on a Monday morning, when do they hear from you? The answers can be surprisingly vague.

You want to see response times within 24 hours—or ideally faster. If it’s longer, is it a capacity issue or a process issue?

Is the sales team giving feedback on lead quality?

There should be a tight loop between marketing and sales. If sales says, “These leads are junk,” you need to know why. And if marketing thinks they’re great, that gap needs to be closed.

This doesn’t have to be a full-blown system—but there needs to be a way for sales to flag patterns. Are certain campaigns bringing in unqualified traffic? Are leads consistently confused or under-informed?

A ten-minute sync between heads of marketing and sales each week can surface these issues before they compound.

Is there a clear handover process between marketing and sales?

This is where ownership often gets messy. Who owns a lead once it’s created? When does the SDR take over? What happens when a lead isn’t ready yet?

Mapping the handover explicitly can prevent leads from falling through the cracks. Even a basic SLA (service level agreement) between teams helps.

The best systems I’ve seen include routing logic, automated notifications, and shared dashboards that show who owns what.

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Sales cycle length has big implications for both strategy and expectations. If deals typically close in 90 days, don’t expect pipeline activity today to show up in revenue this month.

You also want to look at variation. Are some reps or segments closing much faster than others? That might signal process gaps—or lessons that can be applied more widely.

Are close rates stable or dropping?

If your close rate has been 20% for the last year, great. But if it’s dropped to 12% in the last quarter, that’s a red flag.

It could be that quality is down. It could also be that the market shifted or your positioning weakened. In one case I worked on, a small change in how competitors priced created massive confusion in the sales process. That showed up in the close rate before anyone noticed elsewhere.

How many deals need to be in the pipeline to hit targets?

This is your funnel math. Based on your average deal size and close rate, how many opportunities do you need to reach your goals?

Most teams under-estimate how much top-of-funnel they actually need. Once you have this number, you can work backwards to assess whether your inputs are even in the right range.

Is there a reliable forecasting model?

Forecasting doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be grounded in reality. Does your team use data to predict revenue? Or is it finger-in-the-air, board-deck guesswork?

Even a simple weighted pipeline can help you see what’s likely to close and when. If you don’t have this, it’s hard to scale.

Your funnel is where good growth either compounds—or collapses. Leads alone don’t grow a business. What happens after they convert is where the real leverage lies.

This chapter gives you a snapshot of the engine behind the scenes. Once you can see the moving parts—handover, follow-up, quality feedback, close rates—you can start to tighten them up. And that’s what turns a leaky funnel into a scalable one.