Are you actually selling? Or just playing the odds?

Sales is a numbers game.That’s no great revelation.The question is which game are you playing?I know some organizations that are incredibly focused on the top of the funnel. They excel at putting leads into the pipeline.And, they don’t focus energy on improving their low win rates because it’s easier for them to scale their lead gen than get into the weeds of closing a higher fraction of their opportunities.Here’s the thing. If you have a lot of activity at the top of the funnel and you can’t win more than 1 out of 5 of your qualified opportunities, then you aren’t really selling. You’re just playing the odds.It’s sort of like jumping off a tall building without a parachute. There’s a chance that you’ll survive the fall. But how sustainable a process is that?That sales math works for some sales teams. However, most don’t have the luxury to be so wasteful of the opportunities they generate.You have to know which numbers game you’re playing: low win rate or high win rate.I’ve seen companies scale with a "high volume lead gen - low win rate" strategy. (I’ve seen many more sales teams flounder trying to emulate that strategy.)I’ve seen numerous companies succeed with a “focused lead gen - high win rate” strategy.The difference is that teams with high win rate strategies are learning how to sell. They know how to reliably execute the middle of the funnel steps where buying takes place (discovery, needs analysis, qualification, etc.) in order to win a higher fraction of their opportunities.They may not scale as quickly as low win-rate teams. But they are more sustainable because they know how to win when given the opportunity.Teams with low win-rate strategies typically aren't as proficient at selling because they don’t need to be. Which can be sustainable as long as their lead gen is somewhat infinitely scalable.However, invariably that will change. The question for low win rate teams is will they be prepared to play a different numbers game. - Andy