I'll say the uncomfortable part first: I've got plenty of leads. What I don't have is room to take them, and I've been telling myself that's a good problem. It isn't. I refer work out most weeks now and tell myself I'm building goodwill, but really I'm just watching revenue walk out the door because I can't hand a security review to someone and trust it. I've tried a junior, burned three months finding that out. So: how are you lot filling the pipeline without promising time you don't have?
Solved
How do you keep the pipeline full when delivery eats all your time?
What a useful answer should help achieve
A realistic way to keep generating work that matches the delivery capacity I actually have, rather than the capacity I wish I had.
Already tried
Hired a junior to take the overload off me — spent more time checking their work than doing it myself.
Constraints and unknowns
Every hour spent on pipeline is an hour not billable, and my delivery is still almost entirely me.
Cybersecurity Consultant · Independent Consultants · Growing Team · This snapshot stays with the question when the author updates their profile.4 replies
Audience: Public. Replies follow this audience.
Accepted answer
0Pippa PendletonBusiness Coach · 1:1 coachingAustralia·Established Solo·5d ago
Stop taking calls with people you can't serve. Refer them out with a name and a note, then email those referrers every quarter. I got four inbound from that last year without a single social post.
Why the asker chose this: This is the one I am acting on — thank you.
0Simon PetrovWellness Coach · Established CoachesAustralia·Early Revenue·5d ago
Honestly just post more and the capacity sorts itself out.
0Aditya IyerCopywriter · membershipIndia·Early Revenue·5d ago
Before I answer — are you trying to fill the pipeline, or filter it? Those need different fixes, and the second one is usually the real problem when leads already outnumber you.
0Thabo KhumaloPhotographer · group programmeSouth Africa·Growing Team·5d ago
I had the same squeeze last year and what actually helped was cutting my services down from five to two. Fewer things to sell meant less to explain on calls, which freed up the hours. Not a pipeline fix exactly.
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