Typing this between bites of leftover prime rib.
Made au jus yesterday. However, the horseradish cream sauce is my jam. Playing golf later with friends who are actually off this week. One of the perks of not having a 9-5 anymore.
Anyway. Here's something useful while you're recovering from the holidays.
Your pipeline is lying to you.
The Visibility Problem
You think you have a pipeline problem.
You've got a list of prospects. You've sent some messages. You're not booking calls. So you assume you need more prospects. A bigger list. More names.
Wrong.
You don't have a pipeline problem. You have a visibility problem.
And it's costing you clients.
The Missing Middle
Here's how most fractional executives track their prospects:
Bucket 1: People I should reach out to
Bucket 2: People who scheduled calls
That's it. Two buckets.
They're missing the middle.
"People I reached out to but haven't heard back."
Without that visibility, you can't diagnose why you're stuck. You're flying blind. You're guessing. And guessing is expensive when your runway is measured in months, not years.
Here's the truth: "Stuck in your list" and "stuck in your outreach" are completely different problems. They require completely different fixes.
Most people treat them the same. That's why they stay stuck.
The Diagnostic Framework
Once you can see the middle, diagnosis becomes simple.
Symptom: Big list, no outreach sent.
Diagnosis: You're not doing the work.
Fix: Send the 20 messages. Process beats network. Always.
Symptom: Outreach sent, no responses.
Diagnosis: Your messaging isn't landing.
Fix: Your hook is weak. You're leading with your resume instead of their problem. Rewrite the first two sentences. Make it about them, not you.
Symptom: Responses but no calls.
Diagnosis: Your CTA is weak.
Fix: Stop hoping they'll figure out the next step. Ask for the meeting. Directly. "Do you have 20 minutes Thursday or Friday?" works better than "Let me know if you'd like to chat sometime."
This isn't complicated. But it requires visibility you probably don't have right now.
The 5-Minute Fix
Here's what you can do today. Right now. Takes 5 minutes.
Add a column to your spreadsheet. Call it "Contacted, Awaiting Response."
That's it.
Now you can see the truth. Now you can diagnose. Now you can fix the actual problem instead of the imaginary one.
Your spreadsheet has been lying to you. This column makes it tell the truth.
Why We're Building Something Better
We just added this exact visibility to the CRM we're building for fractional executives.
Why are we building a CRM?
Because every CRM on the market was built to track people.
Congratulations. You know where 47 contacts live in your database. You still don't know what to do next.
Our CRM tells you what to do when.
"This prospect hasn't responded in 7 days. Send the breakup email."
"You've got 12 in Target but only 2 in Contacted. You're not doing outreach."
"Discovery call in 2 hours. Here's what they told you last time."
That's not tracking. That's actionable intelligence.
Here's our design rule: If it takes longer than 15 seconds to log, nobody does it.
So we built one-tap tracking.
Sent outreach? Tap.
Got a response? Tap.
Booked the call? Tap.
Your spreadsheet won't tell you what's broken. This will.
The Bigger Picture
I created the Fractional CMO category back in 2009. Built Chief Outsiders which has gone onto become one of the largest fractional executive firms in the country. They have placed over 2,000+ executives at $10K-$25K/month rates using the system I originally developed.
You know what I've learned?
The domain expertise is never the problem. You know your stuff. That's not what's broken.
What's broken is the system. The visibility. The process.
Most fractional executives are incredible operators who have no idea how to run a business development pipeline. Nobody taught them. Dell didn't teach me. Shell didn't teach me. ADP isn't teaching you.
That's what I teach now. Not the what. The how.
Process beats network. Every single time.
What To Do Next
Option 1: Add the column to your spreadsheet. Do it now. It takes 5 minutes and it's free.
Option 2: If you want to see our CRM when it's ready, book a call with me. We're building this for our Founding Clients first, but we'll open it up when it's proven.
Option 3: Figure out where you actually are.
- No clients yet? Take the Launch Assessment — 17 questions, 7 minutes. Find out what's blocking you from landing your first.
- Have clients but drowning? Take the Scale Assessment — 24 questions, 10 minutes. Diagnose your bottleneck and fix your capacity.
- Just want to talk? Book a 15-minute Starting Point Call. You'll leave with a clear diagnosis and your single next step.
The work is serious. The prime rib situation is handled.
Now if you'll excuse me. Tee time.
