Monday morning, pipeline review. Twenty-three leads on your list.
Your manager asks how it's going. You say: that one's warm, I'm working on that one, I still need to follow up on that one.
How many of those twenty-three are actually live?
Warm is not a status
"Warm", "working on it" and "still running" are not information. They are words you use because you don't know, and they keep Monday morning bearable.
You know how this ends. At the end of the quarter three of those twenty-three went through. The other twenty were on the list in January too.
What goes there instead
- Agreed — he said yes, in writing.
- Waiting on him — with the date you asked him that question.
- Waiting on me — and then it says what I have to do.
- Meeting scheduled — with day and time.
- Found someone else — done.
- No urgency, back in March — with March in your calendar.
Note there is no status meaning "maybe someday". It doesn't exist. A lead is either yours, or his, or dead.
Dead leads are allowed to be dead
This is the hardest part and also the biggest relief.
Your pipeline is full of names you haven't heard from in weeks. You tell yourself they're still live. They're not. And as long as they sit on your list they do two things: they give you a false sense of volume, and they keep you from the calls you should be making.
Crossing one out isn't a loss. It is an outcome.
And the honest version: for some of those dead leads you know exactly what happened. You sent a quote too quickly. That is no disgrace. That is session 8.
Why your list looks the way it does
Every system produces exactly the behaviour it was designed for.
If you are judged on the number of leads in your pipeline, you keep leads in your pipeline. Including the dead ones. That isn't dishonest of you, that is the system doing what it was asked.
So if you clean that list and eight of twenty-three remain, prepare your manager for it. And say what you get back: eight lines where you know what the next step is, and who takes it.
The exercise
Open your list and delete the status column. Literally: remove "warm", "working on it" and "running".
Per line, write what is factually going to happen and who is up. If you can't fill that in, the lead is dead. Cross it out.
Count what remains. That number is your real pipeline, and it is the first time you know it.
The closing question
So now what? Where do you start tomorrow morning?
That is session 11: three questions for the conversation that is stuck.