Without realizing it, many salespeople confuse activity with progress. They stay busy but don’t close much business. When a manager asks about all the “opportunities” in sellers’ pipelines, they may hear the rationalization, “If I close 20 percent of these opportunities I’ll be in great shape.”
The biggest issue is that the achievement of pipeline milestones is based upon seller opinions rather than buyer actions. Beyond that, sellers who are less than year-to-date are under pressure to show enough activity to be YTD soon. The further behind quota, the more optimistic sellers become.
