They’re not moving, either. But they’re not dead. The contact was warm three months ago. The demo went well. They said they’d circle back after Q3 planning. So the deal sits there, in whatever column you’ve built for things you don’t want to close lost.
Maybe you call it “on hold.” Maybe “nurture.” Maybe “revisit later.” Maybe it’s just a mental list of people you plan to email again when you have something new to show them.
Whatever you call it, it’s doing the same thing. It’s inflating your pipeline. And it’s making you feel like you have more going on than you do.
I was working with a founder last week who had forty-five deals in a holding pattern. Forty-five. His CRM had a stage for them. He could see them every time he opened his pipeline view. They looked like pipeline.
They weren’t pipeline. They were a list of conversations that ended without a no.
Here’s the problem with keeping them around. You start making decisions based on a number that isn’t real. You tell yourself you have two million in pipeline, and forty-five of those deals are sitting in a column that hasn’t moved in weeks. Some haven’t moved in months. A few haven’t moved in a year.
But they’re in the number. And the number feels like progress.
The founder I was working with called them zombies. I thought that was perfect. They look alive from a distance. They’re not.
The false number isn’t even the worst part. The false comfort is. When you believe you have two million in pipeline, you don’t prospect as hard. You don’t follow up as aggressively on the deals that are actually moving. You don’t feel the urgency, because the pipeline looks full.
The pipeline is lying to you.
Here’s what I told him, and it’s what I’d tell you. Everything in your pipeline should be in one of two places. It’s either active, meaning something is scheduled, someone owes someone something, and there’s a next step with a date on it. Or it’s closed-lost.
That’s it. Two buckets.
There is no middle. “On hold” is not a stage. “Nurture” is not a stage. “Revisit in Q4” is not a stage. Those are ways of saying “this deal is dead and I don’t want to admit it.”
Everything you work on in your pipeline, the goal is to get to a yes or to a no. Yeses will pay you. Nos will teach you. Maybes will kill you.
Because the thing founders resist about closing a deal as lost is that it feels like giving up. You had a good conversation. You liked the person. They seemed interested. Marking it closed-lost feels like you’re saying it will never happen.
You’re not. You’re saying it’s not happening now.
And that distinction matters, because there’s something you can do with a closed-lost deal that you can’t do with a deal sitting in limbo. You can prospect back into it.
One of the best things I ever ran with my sales teams was a closed-loss prospecting day. Once a quarter, everybody pulled a report on their lost deals. Not the ones from last week. The ones from three months ago, six months ago. And they treated them like brand new accounts.
New research. New angle. New outreach. Not “just checking in.” Not “wanted to circle back.” A fresh approach, because something has probably changed on their end since the last conversation. New budget cycle. New leader. New priority. The deal that was dead in March might be alive in September, but only if you show up with something better than “hey, still interested?”
That reframe is important. You’re not giving up on the deal. You’re giving up on the version of the deal that stalled. And you’re starting a new one with better information.
So here’s the exercise. Open your pipeline right now. Look at every deal that hasn’t had a next step in two weeks or more.
For each one, ask yourself one question: if I called this person right now, would they take the call?
If the answer is yes, and you can articulate why, schedule the call. That deal is active.
If the answer is “maybe” or “I’m not sure” or “probably, but I don’t know,” that deal is closed-lost. Move it. Today.
And if you need a clean way to do it, send the breakup email.
Not a “just checking in.” Not a “wanted to bump this to the top of your inbox.” A real, honest note that names what you’re seeing.
Something like: It sounds like the timing isn’t right for this, or it’s not the priority right now. You seemed excited when we spoke, but something’s shifted. Possible to quick a quick update either way?
That’s it. No guilt. No pressure. Just a direct question that gives them permission to tell you the truth.
One of three things happens. They confirm it’s dead, and now you know. They correct you and re-engage, because nobody likes being told they’ve lost interest when they haven’t. Or they don’t respond, which is the answer you already had but weren’t willing to accept.
All three are better than silence. All three move you forward. The breakup email is how you stop guessing and start knowing.
Your pipeline will shrink. That’s the point. What’s left is real.
And the deals you moved to closed-lost? They’re not gone. They’re prospects again. Treat them that way. Research them. Find the new angle. Reach out when you have one.
Hope is not a pipeline stage. A next step with a date on it is a pipeline stage.
Everything else is a list of people you used to talk to.
If you want to find out what is holding back your sales in 5 days, check out the SPRINT GTM Reset at daverubinstein.com