by Bill Poole | Jan 13, 2026 | Resources, Sales, Strategy
How My Referral Approach Was Quietly Shaping My Quality of Life
For a long time, I didn’t think much about my referral system.
Like a lot of seller-doers, my business grew because of relationships. Referrals came in. Some months were great, others less so, but overall, things were moving forward. On the surface, nothing seemed broken.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that the way I was getting referrals was quietly shaping my quality of life. My income, my time, and my energy were all being affected in ways I hadn’t fully connected yet.
What It Looked Like When My Referral System Wasn’t a System
I was doing what most relationship-driven professionals do.
I took a lot of calls.
I went to networking events.
I said yes to introductions that felt “worth exploring.”
My calendar stayed full, which made it feel like I was doing the right things. But if I’m honest, a lot of those conversations weren’t going anywhere. Eight hours of Zoom coffees had me jittery and wired, but my revenue was stagnant.
I had plenty of relationships, but very few of them were actually positioned to refer me well. Instead of a small group of strategic connectors, I had a wide circle of people who vaguely knew what I did.
That led to a lot of shallow conversations. I found myself explaining my business over and over, hoping something might come of it.
The Part No One Talks About
The biggest cost wasn’t obvious at first. It wasn’t revenue. It was time and energy.
It was the midday call where, five minutes in, you already know this isn’t going anywhere. You’re nodding along, staying polite, mentally scanning for a clean exit. You don’t want to be rude, but you’re painfully aware that this conversation isn’t going to turn into anything meaningful.
You hang up feeling drained. Or worse, with a vague sense of false momentum, telling yourself that maybe something will come of it, even though deep down you know it probably won’t.
Then there are the networking events. The ones in the evening. You show up, have a dozen conversations, exchange cards, and do a lot of smiling. On the drive home, you replay it in your head and realize that none of those conversations are likely to turn into real referrals.
That drive home is quiet. And it’s either a little deflating, or filled with false hope that maybe one of those conversations will turn into something, even though again, you know they likely won’t.
Over time, this kind of activity starts to add up. It crowds out billable work. It bleeds into personal time. It creates a low-level pressure that never quite goes away.
And maybe the most frustrating part? It just isn’t very fun.
There’s nothing energizing about conversations you can’t wait to get out of. The ones where you’re mentally hitting the eject button while trying to stay engaged.
What Finally Clicked for Me
At some point, I realized the problem wasn’t referrals.
It was that I didn’t have a system.
I was relying on effort, goodwill, and hope instead of intention and focus. I hadn’t defined who should actually be referring me, how those relationships should work, or how much time and energy I could realistically invest.
When I stepped back and got more intentional, something interesting happened.
The number of referrals didn’t suddenly spike.
But the quality changed dramatically.
By focusing on fewer, more strategic connectors, people who were truly positioned to transfer trust, the referrals I did receive were much warmer. Conversations started at a higher level. Conversion rates improved. Deals moved faster.
Fewer referrals. Deeper trust. Better outcomes.
The Financial Impact Became Hard to Ignore
Once I looked at this honestly, the financial impact became clearer.
Lower-quality referrals take more time. They convert at lower rates. They create more drag in the sales process. When you add it up, an unsystematized referral approach quietly costs far more than most people realize. Not just in lost revenue, but in how much effort it takes to get any results at all.
Improving the system didn’t mean working harder. It meant working with more intention. That created more predictability, both financially and personally.
Why I’m Sharing This Now
I see this same pattern constantly with other seller-doers and founders in relationship-driven businesses.
They aren’t doing anything wrong. They’ve simply never stepped back to evaluate their referral approach intentionally so they keep doing more of what feels responsible, even when it’s inefficient.
That’s why I created the Referral Clarity Workshop.
It’s a short, practical session designed to help you understand where your referral system is actually working, where it’s costing you time, energy, and money, and what to focus on next.
Before the session, participants complete a Referral System Self-Assessment. During the session, we walk through the core elements of an effective referral system so you can look at the results of your assessment and see clearly where to make adjustments.
This isn’t a sales presentation. It’s a diagnostic conversation meant to give you clarity.
Click here to learn more & register for the next session!
by Bill Poole | Oct 22, 2025 | Resources, Sales, Strategy
There’s a shift that every founder faces: at first, your personal drive, relationships, and intuition carry the business. Over time, though, those strengths become constraints if the company still depends on you to win every deal or intervene in every pipeline.
In fast-growing companies, this tension usually shows up in one of two ways:
- You’ve hired salespeople, but you can’t seem to let go of control.
- You’re still doing most of the sales yourself and you’re being stretched thin.
Below are the top observable signs that your business is hitting capacity limits, with their operational causes laid bare. Use this as a diagnostic framework for when it’s time to build a scalable, transferable sales system.
When You’ve Delegated Sales But Still Can’t Fully Let Go:
1. Deals Still Depend on the Founder’s Involvement
Effect: Prospects ask to “talk to you before deciding,” or deals only close reliably when you intervene.
🔹Operational cause: The team lacks credibility, messaging, or autonomy to close without founder escalation.
2. You’re the Bottleneck for Approvals or Proposals
Effect: Deals stall waiting on your sign-off for pricing, terms, or custom proposals.
🔹Operational cause: There’s no deal-approval framework or clarity on what reps are empowered to decide.
3. There’s a Backlog of Proposals That Haven’t Closed
Effect: A pile of open proposals sits unanswered, and deals lose momentum.
🔹Operational cause: Discovery wasn’t robust; reps send proposals prematurely, and coaching or process enforcement isn’t consistent.
4. Forecasts Are Unreliable
Effect: Sales predictions don’t match outcomes; surprises at month’s end are common.
🔹Operational cause: CRM data hygiene is poor, and there is no rhythm for holding the team accountable for pipeline accuracy.
5. Sales and Marketing Operate in Silos
Effect: Marketing hands off leads without clarity; you become the middleman deciding who is “ready.”
🔹Operational cause: No shared lead definitions, no feedback loop, and weak alignment on lead quality.
6. Clients Still Default to the Founder
Effect: Post-sale, clients bypass account owners and reach out to you directly.
🔹Operational cause: Handoff communication is weak, and clients assume you still “own” things by default.
7. Coaching Is Reactive, Not Routine
Effect: You only step in when deals are in danger; coaching happens by exception.
🔹Operational cause: No structured coaching cadence, no process for pipeline reviews or rep skill development.
8. Your Calendar Is Still Full of Sales Tasks
Effect: You’re still in calls, writing follow-up emails, fixing decks, or jumping into negotiation.
🔹Operational cause: Role boundaries are vague, trust isn’t built in the team, and the reps haven’t been fully empowered.
9. You Tweak Messaging Mid-Deal
Effect: You rewrite sales decks, email scripts, or proposals midstream.
🔹Operational cause: There is no controlled process for messaging updates or version control; feedback is ad hoc.
10. The Team Needs You to Create Momentum
Effect: When you step away (vacation, travel), the pipeline slows down.
🔹Operational cause: The system is dependent on founder energy, not institutional accountability or culture.
When You’re Still Doing the Majority of Selling Yourself:
1. Lead Response Time Is Too Long
Effect: Leads go cold before you can get to them. Data suggests that responding within five minutes can yield ~8× better conversion rates. (InsideSales)
🔹Operational cause: You have no dedicated intake or SLA for lead follow-up; inbound volume has exceeded your capacity.
2. Proposals Fall Behind or Don’t Get Sent
Effect: Prospects disengage because proposals come too late or aren’t timely. Studies show proposals delayed beyond 48–72 hours tend to convert at much lower rates.
🔹Operational cause: You’re juggling too many priorities; proposal development lacks templates or delegated ownership.
3. New Business Is a Roller Coaster
Effect: Some months are great; others, there’s crickets.
🔹Operational cause: Sales only happens when you make time. There is no consistent pipeline rhythm or dedicated role for new business.
4. High Win Rates from Low Volume
Effect: Your win rate looks great, but you only close a handful of deals.
🔹Operational cause: You rely on personal networks and referrals rather than marketing or prospecting engines.
5. Lead Sources Are Growing Beyond Your Network
Effect: Marketing, content, or referrals produce leads you didn’t originate, but they’re not being converted.
🔹Operational cause: There’s no system or team to qualify and respond to inbound leads at scale.
6. Big Strategic Priorities Are Getting Dropped
Effect: Hiring, partnerships, product work, or vision projects get sidelined while you chase deals.
🔹Operational cause: Founder energy remains concentrated in sales execution rather than leadership and growth.
Common Thread: Dependency Overlines
In all these cases, the effect (the sign) is a visible symptom: bottlenecks, stalled pipelines, inconsistent cycles. What’s underlying is a dependency on the founder whether through control, authority, or capacity. Until that dependency flips so that process, role clarity, and accountability become the drivers, your business will continue to scale in fits and starts.
What To Do Next
- Compare which signs feel most acute in your business.
- Audit whether the operational cause is present in your structure or team.
- Start with your weakest area and put guardrails in place: clear deal approval thresholds, a basic coaching rhythm, response SLAs, and messaged handoff policies.
- Use this as your basis for a blueprint: move from founder dependency to repeatable system.
If many of these signs resonate, take the Sales Readiness Checkup to see where your system is porous and where closing the leaks could unlock your next phase of growth.
by Bill Poole | Jan 29, 2025 | Resources, Sales, Strategy
Setting sales goals is extremely important for entrepreneurial businesses. Do it right, and your entire sales team is bought into their role in delivering the needed revenue to meet the business’s goals. Do it wrong, and your goals are meaningless. Your sales team is deflated and not bought into their role in supporting the goals of the business.
Vital as it is, many teams struggle with doing this effectively. There are two high-level approaches to setting Sales Scorecard goals:
Throughout my years in sales, I’ve experienced both methods firsthand—each with its own advantages and pitfalls. In this blog, I’ll share stories from my career that illustrate the realities of both approaches. These insights can help you set your Sales Scorecard goals for 2025 with confidence.
A Story About the Top-Down Approach
I was on a sales team with seven total reps that took the top-down approach to setting Sales Scorecard goals. It started with the CFO casting a 30% YOY growth goal. Why 30%? Because that’s the growth they wanted. I call this the “spaghetti-on-the-wall” approach.
Sure, 30% growth would be nice, but the goal was based on a dream, not a plan. It had nothing to do with past performance or plans to invest in enabling that growth—it was just left to the sales reps to figure it out or work harder!
There were some advantages to this approach:
- The math was simple! Last year’s revenue x 130%, divided by 7. That sure didn’t take very long.
- The sales goals (not the people) were aligned with the business’s goals.
As you might imagine, the disadvantages in this case outweighed the advantages:
- We were not engaged in the process, so we weren’t bought into the numbers as a sales team.
- These numbers were unrealistic. We were given a significant increase in our Sales Scorecard goals without being given anything to drive the increase (new products, sales tools, more reps, etc.). Maybe they thought we would work 30% more?
- We didn’t feel like it was fair. The revenue goal was divided by seven without considering territories, skill levels, or other variables.
The result? By May, no one was on track to reach their goals. As a result, goal attainment—and the associated bonuses—were no longer a motivator. We were all focused on how we could make enough money to meet our own personal goals, and we lost visibility of the business goals, which of course fell short.
A Story About the Bottom-Up Approach
In a previous life, I was wearing a marketing hat at a technology company and learned about their bottom-up approach to setting annual Sales Scorecard goals.
The goal-setting process required gathering a lot of input from individual sales team contributors. It also took into account the macroeconomic environment, market conditions, the historical performance of the company and individual territories, and resource availability.
All these factors were considered when developing the first round of Sales Scorecard goals. Then, the company revenue goals were taken into account, resulting in an upward adjustment of the original goals.
There were some advantages to this approach:
- The sales team felt involved in setting the goals.
- Incorporating historical context into the goal-setting process ultimately made the goals more realistic and achievable than in the top-down scenario.
There were also some disadvantages to this approach:
- This was a very time-consuming process, and the goals were not communicated to reps until mid-February.
- The lack of involvement from senior leadership in the initial part of the process was risky. Though the goals seemed achievable, they could have hindered the company’s performance.
- While the process was collaborative, uplifting the goals affected the team’s buy-in of the final goals.
The result? In this case, there was buy-in, and the sales team was invested in pursuing their goals and associated bonuses throughout the year. In the end, the company fell just short of its revenue goals.
Here is a comparison of the two approaches:
| Aspect |
Top-Down |
Bottom-Up |
| Goal Ownership |
Limited for sales reps |
Strong ownership from sales teams |
| Speed of Process |
Quick and efficient |
Slower and more collaborative |
| Realism |
May overlook ground realities |
Grounded in field-level insights |
| Strategic Alignment |
Fully aligned with company vision |
May require adjustments to align |
The Answer is Somewhere in the Middle
It’s clear that neither approach is perfect, so what’s the best solution?
Instead of choosing top-down or bottom-up, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Business goals need to be factored in, reps need to be involved, and historical data and market realities must be considered.
The keys to making this work are:
- Top-down alignment: Establish a collaborative culture where everyone is on the same page. This is broader (and more challenging) than setting annual company goals. The spaghetti-on-the-wall scenario is symptomatic of a leadership team not aligned with the rest of the company. Maintaining open and honest communication about company goals on an ongoing basis and valuing the insight of team members should be the foundation of the goal-setting process.
- Informed and action-oriented decision-making: Company leaders set annual goals based on historical data, market trends, and plans to make investments in products, tools, or strategies that will enable the desired growth.
- Sales team involvement: Start by involving the sales team as described in the bottom-up approach.
- Collaboration: Once the goals have been set, let the sales leadership go to work! With everyone on the same page in this collaborative culture, the role of the sales leader is to coach the reps and team to collaborate on a Sales Scorecard that will support the business goals.
This approach balances ambition with practicality, fostering buy-in across the organization while ensuring alignment with the big picture. It may take longer than the top-down approach, but start earlier! The result is that everyone will be aligned and invested in reaching their goals as a team.
Need Help Setting Your Sales Scorecard Goals?
Convergo is rolling out our Sales Scorecard Workshop to help teams get this right. Stay tuned for details, or contact us today to start the conversation!
by Bill Poole | Aug 9, 2023 | Resources, Sales
Creating a business plan (V/TO™) is a great first step in moving your business to your goals.
Putting in place the processes and metrics to enable you to meet those business goals is a journey, but it is a journey worth taking. We call this the “Connected Scorecard.” The connected scorecard tracks the right activity metrics to drive your desired lagging metrics (your desired results from your Business Plan/ V/TO). Tracking the right leading metrics between the two helps you know if you are getting there.
Once you have the right processes in place and track the right metrics, you know how to take the appropriate actions to move your business forward.
Check out the video on how to Connect Your Sales Scorecard to Your Business Plan.
Connect Your Sales Scorecard
by Bill Poole | Apr 11, 2022 | Marketing, Resources
Much has been said about the Hubspot Buyer’s Journey Simply stated, the buyer’s journey is the process that a buyer goes through in making a decision to buy. Hubspot’s definition: The buyer’s journey describes a buyer’s path to purchase. In other words, buyers don’t wake up and decide to buy on a whim. They go through a process to become aware of, consider and evaluate, and decide to purchase a new product or service.
There are 3 stages in the Hubspot Buyer’s Journey:
- Awareness Stage: buyers become aware they have a problem.
- Consideration Stage: The buyer defines the problem and considers options to fix it.
- Decision Stage: buyer evaluates and decides on the right provider to administer the solution.
Here is an example of a buyer’s experience that I had:
- Awareness: I value my sleep, but some nights I sleep better than others. What can I do to fix that?
- Consideration: What are some different things I can do to improve my sleep? Eat earlier? Ensure I exercise daily? Have a glass of wine in the evenings? Have 2 glasses of wine? Maybe I shouldn’t have wine at all? Wow, what can I do to know what works and what doesn’t? I think the first step is to find something that can give me some data to help me! I don’t particularly like wearing a watch, but there are watches that can monitor my sleep with data.
- Decision: Given my phone has everything I need on it, and I don’t like wearing accessories, my decision is based on finding the simplest watch that has the app that best tracks my sleep. I landed on a simple version of the Apple Watch.
What a great framework for a B to C marketing professional to align with in order to sell more to their target persona!
Leveraging the buyer’s journey for a B to B services decision is a bit more complicated. Decisions in this environment are more complex, involve more decision-makers, and are typically long-term engagements.
Then how can a B to B services organization leverage the buyer’s journey decision-making psychology? Ideal Client Experience is the perfect framework.
The rest of this blog will take a look at how an Ideal Client Experience is an effective framework to manage decisions that:
- Involve multiple Stakeholders
- Are more complex
- Are typically long-term decisions with the opportunity to expand the services.
Before we do that, let’s remember one fundamental difference in B2B organizations and that is that there is a significantly higher investment in sales than there is in a B2C organization. In B2B, marketing is fundamental to the Awareness stage, but then the sales reps do the heavy lifting from there. On the other hand, despite arguably retail, sales reps do not even exist in many B2C organizations.
Multiple Stakeholders
The fact that there are multiple stakeholders means that there are multiple people going through their own buyer’s journey. A properly crafted Ideal Client Experience includes strategies to engage and leverage the buyer’s journey for all stakeholders involved in a decision given the nature of the service.
For example, a decision for a CRM typically involves sales and marketing or at least it should be given there ought to be alignment and visibility between sales and marketing. That said, it would never be implemented without a “yes” from IT and finance.
Given this decision is typically initiated by sales or marketing, the primary message is typically crafted around their goals and challenges. However the Ideal Client Experience needs to include strategies to engage with all of the key stakeholders and help them navigate their buyer’s journey.
More Complex Decisions
In addition to including multiple stakeholders, B to B services decisions are much more complex, especially when the business has a strong value proposition. The challenges that are addressed are typically much more comprehensive and complicated.
Structuring the part of the Ideal Client Experience that aligns with the Consideration and Decision stages of the buyer’s journey ensures that:
- The impact of all challenges are explored in the needs assessment phase.
- The business outcomes are properly communicated in the proposal phase.
The Outcomes Inventory is a great framework for this. 3 high-level outcomes that a CRM would deliver should be:
- Revenue Growth
- Client Satisfaction
- Sales, marketing, and IT efficiency
The Assessment part of the Ideal Client Experience should be highly structured with an objective process to show how these 3 outcomes are being affected by the current situation. Then, the proposal should clearly state how the future vision/proposal will impact these outcomes.
Having a repeatable, objective process inside of the Ideal Client Experience helps make a complex decision simple by connecting the complexity to the business outcomes.
Expanding Services
B2C decisions typically have more limited opportunities to create future revenue streams. I also suppose items with consumables (water filters) are somewhat of an exception. I assume my Apple Watch decision might lead to additional Apple products, but the opportunity for future revenue in services organizations can be HUGE. This part of the Ideal Client Experience goes beyond the traditional buyer’s journey as we know it.
For a B2B services organization, the signing of the initial contract is just the beginning from 2 perspectives:
- Onboarding – The need to create a very positive initial experience to manage change in the client organization and offset buyer’s remorse.
- Client Success – The opportunity to increase value for the client by expanding/cross-selling services.
So, the Ideal Client Experience needs to be structured to ensure a smooth transition and position the business to expand services.
Onboarding
As Joey Coleman says, “Buyers decide in the first 100 days whether they will continue to do business with you or not.” Treating the onboarding process distinctly different from the process to deliver ongoing services is critical to the success of a services engagement. A change management strategy is critical in turning client satisfaction in this stage into long-term client loyalty.
Client Success
With many organizations, when the contract is signed, the client is turned over to operations while the sales reps turn their focus to finding more clients. No matter how good an organization is from an operational perspective, the possibility for expansion of services is limited.
Both sales and operations are critical in this stage to expand services to drive revenue growth. Integrated into this stage must be a framework for:
- Staying connected with the client’s business, their goals, and their challenges.
- Reinforcing the value being delivered in the current engagement.
- Creating additional value for the client via expanding services.
In the end, Ideal Client Experience is a fantastic framework to leverage the buyer’s journey for differentiating, driving additional client value, and increasing revenue.
by Bill Poole | Feb 24, 2022 | Marketing, Resources
Every growing business needs a stream of leads from ideal prospects. One way to create leads is with lead magnets.
A lead magnet is information of value to a prospect that captures their attention and motivates them to exchange contact information.
In Revenue Growth Engine I highlight the problem of the filter. In today’s world, buyers are subjected to thousands of messages each day. Advertisements, email, and social platforms all compete for attention. We have adapted (survived!) by filtering out everything except for one thing: ideas that are valuable to us.
The only thing that gets through the filter are ideas that are related to the outcomes we want to achieve. These can include ideas and answers related goals we have or problems we want solved.
A Lead Magnet Example: My Trek To Mount Everest Base Camp
For example, I am currently training to go on a trek to Mount Everest Base Camp. This has opened up a long list of questions for me:
– What kind of jacket do I need to buy?
– What do I need to do to train?
– How can I avoid mountain sickness?
All of these questions and more are on my radar. As I go about my day, I successfully filter out thousands of messages. But as you can guess, an email that comes in about “The 10 Best Jackets for Severe Mountain Environments” or a social post about “How To Train to Hike at Elevation” will catch my eye. Furthermore, I’m spending time on Google almost every day searching for answers to these questions.
Let’s consider my concerns about training to hike at 18,500 feet. You’ve probably heard of “The couch to 5K.” I needed to do a dad-bod-office-jockey to 18.5K mountain man in less than 120 days. The outcome that I want is to get to Mount Everest Base Camp without the Sherpas having to call a helicopter in because I can’t keep up. I want to avoid being injured. At a more emotional level, I want to avoid being embarrassed in the eyes of my family, friends, and colleagues who know I’m going on this trek.
When it comes to solutions to my problem there are plenty of companies offering personal training, diet plans, and supplements. A smart company understands my real need isn’t for these products. My radar is attuned to ideas that will help me achieve my outcome of successfully getting to my mountain destination without embarrassing or hurting myself!
A smart company creates a lead magnet that captures my attention by addressing the outcomes I want. While looking for answers to my dilemma, I found a guide titled something like this: “How New Hikers Can Train For a Mountain Trek At High Elevation—Without Getting Hurt or Embarrassing Themselves.”
I saw this on the web during one of my searches. In exchange for my email address, they sent the lead magnet to me. Of course, the company that offered the advice also sells personal training plans, diet plans, and supplements. Since downloading the report they have made these offers to me by email. I also recognize their offers through retargeting ads that I see in Google ads, social ads, and YouTube ads. It’s not surprising that I reached out for a consultation with their trainer.
Characteristics of an Effective Lead Magnet
How can this apply to your business? Here are a few key characteristics of an effective lead magnet.
1. Must be related to the outcomes your prospects want
The lead magnet needs to be focused on the specific goals your prospect have and/or the problems they encounter hitting these goals. Information about anything else simply will not get through their filter.
How do you find out what’s important to your prospects? Pay attention. Listen to your best clients. Watch the trends of the economy and the industry you serve. Change is the one constant in our world. Any time there is change, there are problems. Focus your lead magnets on these types of topics.
Pay specific attention to the title or headline of your lead magnet. Be focused and specific. This is what will capture the prospect’s attention.
2. Must be useful enough for the prospect to give you contact information
The information needs to be useful enough for the prospect to give you contact information. You don’t have to give away a book. (Although, this is exactly what we do. You can get a free copy of Revenue Growth Engine by clicking here.) You do need to give away something substantial enough for someone to give you their contact information. This could be a special report, an ebook, a webinar recording, or an online course.
Remember, your offer may be free but in the eyes of the prospect it is not completely free. You are asking the prospect to give their contact information and a piece of their privacy in exchange for the information. This contact information has value to both you and the prospect. It’s important to remember this when you are creating your offer.
Fortunately, these days prospects know they can unsubscribe from email lists. While this has confounded many marketers, I think it actually helps boost conversion rates when someone knows that they can opt out if they get hammered by emails after filling out a form.
What Lead Magnets Could You Create?
Lead magnets can be used in all of your top-of-funnel activities. They can become calls-to-action on your website and blog. They can be served up in paid advertising to targeted audiences on Google and social platforms. They can be shared by salespeople.
To get started, think of the top 5 goals and/or challenges your clients face. (If you don’t know, ask!) Then begin brainstorming titles for content that answers those questions. This creates a menu of ideas from which you can build special reports, guides, webinars, live streams, checklists, and all types of lead magnets that will break through your prospects’ filters and generate leads.
Part of what we do at Convergo is help companies create a Focused Message Plan. This is a strategic approach to understanding the desired outcomes of each decision maker and influencer in your Ideal Prospects. This helps ensure that your company has helpful and relevant information to not only create leads but guide buyers through the entire journey of becoming a 100% sold client.
To learn more about how Convergo could help you create a Focused Message Plan and effective Lead Magnets schedule your complimentary explore meeting.
