Sales Management Myths: Why the Numbers Game is Costing You Deals
Had a conversation with a client last week that made me want to bang my head against the wall.
His sales team was “crushing it” on activity metrics. Calls made. Emails sent. Meetings booked.
The dashboard looked beautiful.
But their close rate? 12%.
When I asked what they were doing on those sales calls, I got a lot of shoulder shrugs and “building relationships.”
Here’s the thing everyone gets wrong about sales being a “numbers game.”
Yes, sales is about numbers. But not the numbers most people track.
What High Performance Actually Looks Like
Most companies obsess over:
Number of calls made.
Number of emails sent.
Number of meetings booked.
Number of proposals sent.
But those are activity metrics. They tell you if someone is busy. They don’t tell you if they can sell.
The numbers that ACTUALLY predict revenue:
Percentage of prospects who admit there’s a compelling reason to change.
Percentage who can quantify what staying the same costs them.
Percentage where you’re talking to someone who can actually make decisions.
Percentage where you understand exactly how they’ll make this decision.
When I dig into these real metrics with clients, here’s what I usually find:
Only 30% of their “qualified” opportunities have a compelling reason to buy. Only 20% can tell you what staying the same costs them. Only 40% are talking to someone who can actually write a check.
No wonder their close rates suck.
What This Looks Like in Practice
I worked with a commercial finance company that went from $20M to $80M in seven years.
When we started, their “process” was the CEO sitting with prospects and figuring out what they needed. He was unconsciously competent. Great at selling. Terrible at teaching others to sell.
His sales team was making plenty of calls. Booking plenty of meetings. But they couldn’t replicate what he did naturally.
Here’s what we built:
Stage 1: Find someone who wants to talk about problems you solve
Stage 2: Discover if there’s really an opportunity (compelling reason to change)
Stage 3: Confirm they can actually buy (right people, real budget, defined process)
Stage 4: Close (which becomes easy when you’ve done the first three right)
Simple. Repeatable. Measurable.
The result? They became one of the largest players in their industry. They kept customers twice as long as competitors. And charged 25% more.
Not because they made more calls. Because they had better conversations.
The Question You Should Be Asking
Instead of “How many calls did we make this week?”
Ask: “Of the opportunities in our pipeline, how many have a compelling reason to buy from us?”
If that number is low, more activity won’t save you. You need better discovery skills.
If that number is high but you’re still not closing, you might have a process problem or a talent problem.
But at least you’re looking at the right numbers.
Questions our sales training programs? Email me at adam@thenorthwoodgrp.com
