The First Pipeline Diagnostic
Score your own sales setup. Get an honest next-30-days plan based on where you actually are — not where you wish you were.
How to use this
Read each question honestly. The point isn't the score — it's surfacing the things you already know but haven't said out loud. Each question scores 0 to 3:
Pipeline Mechanics
I can describe my ICP in one sentence without hedging.
Not "we sell to businesses." Not "mid-market-ish." One tight sentence: who, in what role, at what size of company, with what problem.
I know where this week's next 5 meetings are coming from.
Not "hopefully referrals" or "we're running some LinkedIn ads." Named accounts, sources, dates.
I have a repeatable source of new conversations that isn't "my network."
Outbound, content, partnerships, community, paid — any one of these counts if it actually ships volume on a weekly cadence.
I track how many first conversations I had last week. I remember the number.
If the answer is "more than last week?" — score zero. The number matters only if you can recall it.
I have a written reason why each stage of my pipeline exists.
Not just stage names. A one-line purpose for each: what qualifies a deal in, what moves it forward, what would kill it.
Detachment & Discipline
I have a volume target I measure myself against weekly.
Examples: "15 cold emails a day," "1 LinkedIn post every 2 days," "30 discovery calls a month." A number I can hit or miss independent of replies.
If a prospect ghosts me, I don't take it personally for more than 10 minutes.
Reality-check yourself on the last one that stung. Honestly score.
I send outbound on a schedule, not when I feel like it.
The test: could someone predict which mornings you'll send emails next week? If it depends on how you're feeling, score 0 or 1.
I don't refresh my inbox looking for replies.
Or if I do, I catch myself and stop. Bonus point if you read replies in a dedicated window and ignore them outside it.
I have a process for resuming when a week goes badly.
What do you do on the Monday after a week of zero replies? "Send the same 15 emails I had planned" is a 3. "Re-evaluate my entire business" is a 0.
Hire Readiness
I have a written document that describes how sales happens here.
More than just pipeline stages. How we find prospects, what we say, how we qualify, what good looks like. Call it a playbook.
If an AE joined on Monday, I could hand them a list of things to do this week.
Specific accounts to email, sequences to run, meetings to attend, calls to make. Score the realism.
I know what a 30/60/90 ramp for a new AE should look like in my company.
Not generic benchmarks. Your specific numbers — what a good first-month activity level is, what a good first-deal timeline looks like.
I've said "no" to a sales hire in the last 12 months because the timing felt wrong.
Bonus for saying no twice. Triple bonus for saying no to yourself when you were tempted.
I can explain to a potential sales hire why this job is worth taking over a safer role elsewhere.
Specifically. Not just "we're going to be huge." What the first 6 months look like, what a win pays out, how they'll grow.
Positioning
I know the top 3 reasons prospects say no.
Not "it's too expensive" (that's rarely the real reason). The deeper pattern — what objection keeps landing and who it's landing with.
I can name the 2 closest competitors and the one thing we beat them on.
If the answer is "we don't really have competitors" — score 0. Everyone has competitors. You just haven't found them.
I have at least one customer who would let me write a case study.
And I've asked in the last 6 months. Bonus point if one is live on the site.
I've reviewed my own cold email with fresh eyes in the last 30 days.
Read it back as a stranger. Would you reply? Most founders haven't done this and it shows.
I know exactly what a "dream first customer" looks like for a new market I haven't entered yet.
If you can't answer for new markets, you haven't finished positioning even in your current one.
Drop your name and email to get the full breakdown — band description, the 4-week plan tailored to your score, and a copy of the report straight to your inbox.
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