You are stuck. Here is what to do about it.

I've seen this situation plenty of times.

"Ehy Matte, we are not closing enough."

"Ehy Matte, we are stuck at demos and clients are not moving forward."

"Ehy Matte, we can't get leads in outbound, nobody replies to our outreaches."

"Ehy Matte, even when we do discovery calls, we can't move them into demos."

I've been there too.

I still get these messages in Slack from founders I work with now and even from those I worked with years ago.

Strangely, most of the time, the reasons are the same.

When you're stuck, it almost always comes down to one of four things:

1. not closing enough
2. not getting enough leads
3. discovery calls that don't turn into demos
4. stuck after demos.

Let's break down each area so you can focus where it matters most.

1) Not closing enough

If I could solve this for good, I'd already be a millionaire.

But I'm still working on it.

There are many reasons you are not closing.

But they usually fall into two main categories:

• Product problem
• Sales execution problem

If the product is weak, sales can't save it.

You can try harder, hire better people, and run more calls, but you might still lose.

I've helped build strong sales teams on "not-so-great" products.

We did our job.

The market still said no.

Let's focus on what you can actually control.

If you're not closing enough, it's usually because of one or both of these reasons:

• Not enough pipeline
• Bad conversions

Pipeline Issues

It's simple math.

If your win rate is about 30%, you need a pipeline that's roughly three times your target.

No pipeline means no closes.

Even if you are good.

Bad conversions

Here's the unsexy work that fixes it:

1. Pull every "closed lost" deal from the last 60 to 90 days.
2. Listen to all the calls again - every single one.
3. Ask yourself:

Did we find at least 1 or 2 real pains?

Did we speak with 2 or 3 people?

Did we agree on the next steps on every call?

If the answer is "yes" to all three…

Go back and listen again.

2) Not enough leads

If you don't have inbound, welcome to outbound.

If you are not booking meetings, it's usually one of these:

1. Your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is too broad or wrong.
2. Your outreach is too generic.
3. You are not doing enough volume.

Choose one to fix first, then move on to the next.

Most founders try to fix all three at once and end up changing nothing.

3) Discovery calls not moving into demos

Out of 10 discovery calls, you should move 7 to 8 into a demo.

If you are not, look here:

1. Bad target: you attracted curious people, not buyers.
2. Weak discovery: you asked questions, but didn't find real pains.
3. No next step: you ended the call with "let's keep in touch".

Discovery isn't just a friendly conversation.

It's about diagnosing the real issues.

4) Stuck after demos

If you are stuck in a demo, I'd look at:

1. Bad discovery: no severe pains, no urgency, no cost of doing nothing
2. Poor next steps: no go/no-go call, no timeline, no decision moment
3. Wrong stakeholders: you are stuck with someone who can't buy
4. Too much pitching: your talk ratio was above 50%

I've seen this cycle wear down good sales reps.

Because early-stage sales are messy.

You fix one part, and then something else breaks.

That's normal.

If you're feeling stuck, read this.

Sales is the only job where losing is the default.

You hear "no" more than "yes".

So if you feel down, stuck, or frustrated,

You are not broken.

You are learning.

Go back to the four areas above.

Pick the one that hurts the most.

Unpack it.

Work on it calmly and consistently.

One day, you'll notice something:

You didn't just close more deals.

You built a system that moves things forward.

Thanks for reading this far, see you all next week!