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 is something useful while you are recovering from the holidays.
Your pipeline is lying to you.
The Visibility Problem
You think you have a pipeline problem.
You have got a list of prospects. You have sent some messages. You are not booking calls. So you assume you need more prospects. A bigger list. More names.
Wrong.
You do not have a pipeline problem. You have a visibility problem.
And it is costing you clients.
The Missing Middle
Here is how most fractional executives track their prospects:
Bucket 1: People I should reach out to
Bucket 2: People who scheduled calls
That is it. Two buckets.
They are missing the middle.
"People I reached out to but haven't heard back."
Without that visibility, you can't diagnose why you are stuck. You are flying blind. You are guessing. And guessing is expensive when your runway is measured in months, not years.
Here is 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 is why they stay stuck.
The Diagnostic Framework
Once you can see the middle, diagnosis becomes simple.
Symptom: Big list, no outreach sent.
Diagnosis: You are not doing the work.
Fix: Send the 20 messages. Process beats network. Always.
Symptom: Outreach sent, no responses.
Diagnosis: Your messaging is not landing.
Fix: Your hook is weak. You are 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 will 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 is not complicated. But it requires visibility you probably do not have right now.
The 5-Minute Fix
Here is what you can do today. Right now. Takes 5 minutes.
Add a column to your spreadsheet. Call it "Contacted, Awaiting Response."
That is 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 This Works Better Now
This visibility now lives in First Mate inside The Helm.
Why are we building a customer relationship manager (CRM)?
Because every CRM on the market was built to track people.
Congratulations. You know where 47 contacts live in your database. You still do not know what to do next.
First Mate 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 is not tracking. That is actionable intelligence.
Here is 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 is broken. This will.
The Bigger Picture
I created the fractional chief marketing officer (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 a month rates using the system I originally developed.
You know what I have learned?
The domain expertise is never the problem. You know your stuff. That is not what is broken.
What is 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 did not teach me. Shell did not teach me. ADP is not teaching you.
That is 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 is free.
Option 2: If you want to see how this works in practice, start with Unrigged and then explore The ReTern.
Option 3: Figure out where you actually are.
- No clients yet? Take the Launch Assessment, 17 questions, 7 minutes. Find out what is 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 will leave with a clear diagnosis and your single next step.
The work is serious. The prime rib situation is handled.
Now if you will excuse me. Tee time.
