The Smartest Way to More Pipeline (It’s Not More Leads)

👉 Download Your FREE Lead-to-Opp Conversion Rate Checklist

Don’t Stress About Volume if You’re Not Converting

When evaluating pipeline, most teams jump to one solution: drive more leads.
But if you’re not converting what’s already coming in, more volume just adds noise, frustration, and wasted effort.

Let’s break it down:

1. If you increase lead volume by 25% (from 100 to 125) and your conversion rate is 20%, you get 25 opportunities instead of 20 opportunities.

2. If you increase your conversion rate to 25% and don’t increase your volume, you get 25 opportunities from that same 100 leads. 

3. PLUS, when you then increase your volume to 125 leads, you’re now getting 31.25 opportunities instead of 25.

The benefit of conversion rate improvements compound over time. Every new lead becomes more valuable.

What’s Going on Behind the Scenes?

Often, the culprit is a mismanaged or poorly defined hand-off between marketing and sales. Leads may be MQL’d but never actioned. Follow-ups are inconsistent. Qualification criteria are unclear. Or your CRM doesn’t reflect the real buyer journey.

That’s why hand-off optimization is one of the fastest ways to accelerate revenue without increasing marketing spend.

The 3 Metrics That Reveal GTM Health:

Winning by Design’s Revenue Architecture talks about the 3 core metrics to evaluate at any point in your bowtie to measure GTM performance.

1. Volume = Number of input (i.e. MQLs) / output (i.e. qualified Opps)

2. Velocity = Time to convert input into output (MQL to Opp creation)

3. Conversion Rate = % of input that becomes output (i.e. MQL / Opps)

To increase conversion rate, increase outputs per input.
To increase velocity, streamline the process to better match your customer journey.

Both are far more within your control than volume, which depends on spend and outbound effort.

Fix the engine before you fuel it.

How to Improve Conversion Rate?

Start by asking yourself these questions…

• Is your strategy-informed process actually documented and followed?

• Are SLA expectations for human follow-up clearly defined and tracked?

• Is automation being used appropriately to reduce lag and enforce rules of engagement?

• Does your data reflect staging logic and conversion paths correctly in your CRM?

I put together a free diagnostic checklist to help teams evaluate their lead-to-opportunity flow. Grab it here: 👉 Download the Checklist