Don't just set and forget your lead scoring AI. Create a separate, time-based agent that analyzes recent closed-won deals. This "meta-agent" can then identify new success patterns and suggest updates to the primary scoring agent's prompt, ensuring your qualification model evolves with live data.

Creating a Stage 0 opportunity when a lead books a meeting is a stop-gap for not having a measurable 'Prospecting' stage. A true opportunity should only be created after qualification via conversation. This faulty process pollutes pipeline data and hides prospecting inefficiencies.

Traditional funnels jump from a marketing signal (like an MQL) to an opportunity, creating a blind spot. They miss the 'Engagement' period of initial interaction and the 'Prospecting' phase of active sales pursuit. Ignoring these stages makes it impossible to diagnose performance issues or identify improvement levers.

The critical flaw in most sales tech is its failure to correlate rep behavior with performance outcomes like quota attainment. The real value is unlocked not just by knowing what reps do, but by connecting those actions to who is succeeding, thus identifying true winning behaviors and separating A-players from C-players.

CMO Ben Schechter argues that tracking raw lead count is a dangerous metric. A marketing leader can easily manipulate lead scoring to hit a volume target, flooding sales with low-quality prospects. This erodes sales team trust and causes them to stop following up on all marketing-generated leads.

Stop using early deal stages to manage unqualified leads, as this creates fuzzy reporting. Implementing HubSpot's dedicated Lead Object creates a clean separation between the lead qualification process and the deal closing process. This clarifies metrics and improves BDR workflow.

In B2B sales with multiple decision-makers, tracking individual MQLs is a "lazy metric" that misrepresents buying intent. Success depends on identifying and engaging the entire buying group. Marketing's goal should be to qualify the group, not just a single lead.

The company had a significant 'prospecting black box.' For 40% of all opportunities, there was no traceable sales trigger or activity log, such as logged calls. This meant they couldn't measure or optimize a huge portion of their pipeline creation process, particularly SDR outbound efforts.

Instead of treating a "no" as a dead end, design your sales process to automatically move the prospect to the next monetization opportunity, even if it's a different offer. This provides another chance to provide value and capture revenue, maximizing yield per lead.