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The Good Quarter Nobody Can Explain
A full pipeline feels like good news—until you realize you have no idea why it happened. Ray uses a conversation with an MSP seller to make the case that sales should be treated as a system: when the output changes, something upstream changed with it.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why a good quarter you can't explain is the same management problem as a bad quarter you blame on the market.
- How to think about sales as inputs, process, output, and feedback.
- Why changes in pipeline should trigger investigation rather than celebration alone.
- How marketing and outbound sales function as R&D when they're measured over time.
- Why tracking what drives results gives sales leaders more control over future performance.
- How to move from explaining quarters after the fact to understanding what is driving them.
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Welcome to The Ray J. Green Show, your destination for tips on sales, strategy, and self-mastery from an operator, not a guru.
About Ray:
→ Former Managing Director of National Small & Midsize Business at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he doubled revenue per sale in fundraising, led the first increase in SMB membership, co-built a national Mid-Market sales channel, and more.
→ Former CEO operator for several investor groups where he led turnarounds of recently acquired small businesses.
→ Current founder of MSP Sales Partners, where we currently help IT companies scale sales: www.MSPSalesPartners.com
→ Current Sales & Sales Management Expert in Residence at the world’s largest IT business mastermind.
→ Current Managing Partner of Repeatable Revenue Ventures, where we scale B2B companies we have equity in: www.RayJGreen.com
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Transcript
an MSP seller told me last Tuesday
that his pipeline was the fullest that
::it had ever been. Um, somebody that
we're coaching and I asked him, I said,
::"That's phenomenal. Excellent. What's
driving it?" He said, "I don't know. I
::don't think anything's changed." And I
said, "All right, something has changed
::somewhere. This is an MSP seller. We're
coaching them. I'm He's really stoked.
::He's looking at Q3, Q4 numbers, and
they're looking better than they they
::have in in a while, which is which is
great news. Like sales is just one big
::system. You've got inputs. They go
through a process. You get an output.
::There's a feedback loop. That's what a
system is. If the output changed, then
::something in the input or the process
changed. Maybe marketing did something
::different. Maybe the positioning
changed. Maybe SEO hit, GEO hit, maybe
::the founder went on a podcast a few
months ago. Do we actually know where
::those leads are coming from? And he
didn't. And I said, "Pause, man. Like,
::let's celebrate. Like, high five.
Absolutely kickass. I'm glad we've got
::pipeline. Now, let's reverse engineer to
the source of it and figure out what the
::hell caused it so that we can repeat it,
right? Or or at least start to see which
::trends are real, which trends aren't.
That step right there is is the one that
::I see skipped in sales over and over and
over again. And and it's it's why we get
::these waves. Same company, same sellers,
same market for years, and they're
::sitting there waiting on conditions to
change. Like, man, I don't know. Like,
::we used to get inbound, now we don't.
And then a good quarter comes,
::everybody's fired up, and it's followed
by a bad quarter, and everybody's in the
::dumps, and nobody's asking how to get
how do we get control of this? And and
::look, like, man, I'll take windfalls all
day long. Like sometimes you just get a
::windfall. And and you should absolutely
take it, but you want it to be
::repeatable. like better than repeatable.
You want it to be like a steady climb up
::and and to the right. Which means you've
got to know what the knobs and the dials
::are in the system that are creating the
outputs that you're getting. What's
::creating those opportunities? What's
creating the right opportunities? What's
::moving them through the pipeline? What's
making them turn into closed deals?
::What's turning them into good customers?
And understanding that at the root is
::like the cheapest thing that you can do
to to make sure that a couple years from
::now you're not sitting around like
twiddling your thumb going, "Man, I
::really hope really hope we get some more
leads this time. It used to be like the
::good old days and like and complaining,
you know, about the economy or
::complaining about the market or
complaining about competitors or
::complaining about how everything's
changing with AI or whatever the hell it
::is like blaming some externality. I want
to get control of And the data is
::usually right there. Like your marketing
and your sales, especially outbound
::stuff. It's all R&D. It's like it is
research and development. If you if you
::make the effort to understand what's
driving results and what isn't and you
::watch it over time and you measure it,
you start to learn how to control it.
::And something that feels like it used to
be passive is back into your hands. And
::then you're the one driving your
pipeline. And you're the one driving
::your forecast. You can dial it up. You
can dial it down. I don't know why I
::would ever dial it down. Well, different
story. Maybe it's in your control
::because now you know which numbers are
are the leading indicators. What are the
::the things that are going to drive the
outputs that we want. So, learn from the
::success as much as you learn from the
failure. Run it both directions. By the
::way, like the same the same exercise on
every deal that doesn't close at the end
::of the at the end of the pipeline. Where
did it go sideways? Like what what do we
::tweak? How do we how do we trace it back
to something in Discovery or elsewhere
::to change it? Because the more of that
that you do, the more control that
::you've got. And and once you've got the
control, you can actually, like I said,
::you can turn the dials and you can turn
the knobs and that is how you scale.
::Hope it helps. Adios.
