I once worked with a great sales manager (now a VP of Sales) who often said, "No matter how good (or bad) your demo is, 2 out of 10 are going to buy no matter what. And 2 are not going to buy no matter what - no matter how much they need it, no matter how good it is for them, no matter the price. It's what you do with opportunities 3-8 that matters.”

Closing 3 out of 10 opportunities probably has you flirting somewhere between a performance plan and keeping or losing your job.

Closing 4 out of 10 probably means making quota – most of the time.

When you close 5 out of 10 opportunities you are probably pretty comfortable, maybe even making it to President’s club.

If you are closing 6 out of 10 demos you are probably one of the team’s Rockstars!

What about closing 7, 8, 9, or even 10 out of 10? That must be GREAT, right!

Well, yes, but… Not necessarily.

When you are getting those kinds of results it may indicate that you aren’t doing enough!

I’m all for qualifying out and not demo’ing a prospect who will never close. But if you are only demo’ing the 1 or 2 who are going to buy no matter what (good salespeople can tell), you are burning through leads! Some leads need more time than others. Some leads need more work than others. While it is true that some will not buy no matter what, some leads will not buy now but they will buy eventually. Demo'ing those kinds of opportunities should be part of your pipeline.

If your organization already has more leads than they can handle then this doesn't really matter. But I have yet to find the organization complaining about more leads than they can handle.