Your salespeople are working hard. There are a lot of calls on calendars, emails are coming in fast, and everyone is meeting their goals. But even though you’re working hard, your pipeline feels stuck, and even worse, your close rates aren’t getting any better.
You’re not the only one who feels that way.
Many sales leaders think that if the team isn’t getting results, they aren’t doing enough. But a lot of the time, it’s not about how hard you work; it’s about where you’re going.
The hard truth? Your team might be putting a lot of effort into leads that were never going to turn into sales.
Not only is it a waste of time to work with the wrong leads, but it’s also expensive. It hurts morale, slows down the speed of deals, and makes it harder to reach your revenue goals.
In this article, we’ll talk about some of the most common signs that your reps are going after the wrong prospects. More importantly, you’ll learn how to spot these patterns early on. You’ll also learn how tools like intent data insights can help your team focus on the accounts that are ready to buy.
Red Flag #1: High Volume, Low Conversion
Everything looks good on the surface. Your reps are making calls, sending emails, and setting up discovery calls. But if you look at the big picture, you can see a pattern: the numbers aren’t leading to results. You have a lot of activity, but not many chances, and even fewer deals that are closed.
This is one of the best signs that your team is going after the wrong leads.
When you send out a lot of emails but only get a few responses, it usually means that the people you are trying to reach don’t match your ideal customer profile (ICP). It’s possible that the leads are too small, don’t have the authority to buy, or just don’t need or want your solution right now.
No matter what the reason, the end result is the same: your team is wasting time on conversations that aren’t going anywhere.
In some cases, this problem comes from putting more value on the number of leads than on the quality of the leads. Because SDRs and AEs feel like they have to “keep the funnel full,” they work on every name on the list instead of just the right ones.
What to do instead
Instead of looking at activity metrics, look at meaningful engagement. Look over your ICP and make changes based on the deals that you have closed that were the most successful. Then make sure that your lead sources and targeting criteria match that profile. Tools that give you more detailed firmographic and behavioral data can also help your team figure out which accounts are worth going after before they spend time on outreach.
Red Flag #2: One-Size-Fits-All Outreach
It’s a problem if your salespeople are sending the same generic email to every prospect or using the same cold call script no matter what the industry, job title, or business need is. Not only does it feel impersonal, but it also means something deeper: your team doesn’t know what each prospect really cares about.
This kind of blanket outreach often results in low open rates, calls that go unanswered, and a lot of ghosting.
Today’s B2B buyers want more. They are doing their own research and only talking to vendors when it feels right and the message is relevant. People stop paying attention to your outreach when it doesn’t show that.
And how much does it cost? Unnecessary touches. Time wasted. And, even more importantly, missed chances to talk to buyers when they are most open to it.
What to do instead
Give your team tools that show when people are interested in buying something and when they are engaging with content. Tell them to make the value proposition and the greeting more personal. When a rep can say with confidence, “I saw you were looking into [X topic],” they are no longer an interruption; they are a resource.
Red Flag #3: Reps Spend Too Much Time Researching
Salespeople should be selling, not getting lost in tabs, LinkedIn profiles, and news stories about the company. But in a lot of teams, reps spend a lot of time each day looking up potential customers to see if they are worth contacting.
This isn’t just a waste of time; it’s also a hidden productivity killer.
Doing research by hand slows down your outreach speed, makes it harder to follow up, and often leads to inconsistent quality. One rep might find something useful, but another might spend 20 minutes and not find anything useful. That variability hurts your pipeline and makes it harder to grow your process.
Worse, salespeople often do this research after a lead has entered the pipeline, which means they are already spending time and energy on leads that might not be a good fit.
What to do instead
Automate when you can. Give your team the tools they need to see pre-enriched lead data and real-time information about how the company is acting. They shouldn’t have to guess; they should be able to see a clear picture of each account’s profile and recent activities. That way, reps can spend more time on conversations that matter and less time looking things up online.
Red Flag #4: The Wrong Stakeholders Are Engaged
Your rep finally gets a meeting, but it’s with someone who doesn’t have much power to make decisions. They are polite, listen, and maybe even seem interested, but when it’s time to move on, the deal stops. Weeks go by, and you still don’t have a signature.
Does this sound familiar?
This is a sure sign that your team is talking to the wrong people at the right companies.
It may seem like you’re making progress by chasing low-level contacts. There are calls, proposals, and other activities, but it’s a trap. Deals lose steam or die quietly when you can’t get in touch with the people who are actually making the decisions or having an impact.
In a lot of cases, reps just go with whoever answers first. If you don’t have clear buyer personas or an understanding of how decisions are made in an organization, it’s easy to talk to the first person you see instead of the most strategic one.
What to do instead
Not only by company traits, but also by role, make your ICP better. Give reps tools that show them org charts, reporting structures, and people who are likely to make decisions. Teach them to multi-thread early in the sales process by getting both end users and executive sponsors involved. Using this method along with intent data insights makes sure that your outreach is going to the right people at the right time, based on real buying signals.
Red Flag #5: Gut-Feel Lead Prioritization
If you ask an experienced rep how they choose which leads to call first, they might say something like, “I just have a good feeling about this one.”
Instinct and experience are important in sales, but if you only use your gut to decide which leads to follow up on, you will miss out on sales and be inconsistent. When there isn’t a clear system or data to help reps decide which leads to follow up with first, they often waste time going after contacts who seem promising but aren’t ready to buy.
What happened? You miss out on warm leads, hot accounts go cold, and your pipeline turns into a graveyard of missed chances.
Sales teams often don’t know which accounts are actively interested in buying. Without behavioral signals or lead scoring systems, reps have to rely on surface-level information or their own experiences to do their jobs.
What to do instead
Set up a prioritization model based on data. Use lead scoring that takes into account firmographic fit and behavioral intent, like visits to your website, engagement with your content, and research activity by third parties. This is where insights from intent data really make a difference. When you know who your target market is and what they care about, your team can stop making guesses and start making sales.
How to Fix It: Better Qualification and Prioritization
Seeing the red flags is only the first step. The real change happens when you set up a system that automatically and consistently helps your sales team focus on the right leads. That means you need to change how you qualify, prioritize, and connect with your prospects.
This is how to do it:
1. Define and Improve Your ICP
Your ideal customer profile (ICP) should be more than just “companies with budget.” Look back at your most successful closed-won deals and write down the firmographics, technographics, pain points, and roles of the people who were involved. Use that information to make your target list smaller and stop sending messages to accounts that will never convert.
2. Layer in Behavioral and Intent Signals
ICP fit shows you who to go after. Intent data insights tell you when to get in touch and why. If a company fits your ICP and is actively looking into topics that are relevant to your business, that is a high-priority lead. Your team can rank accounts based on actual buyer behavior by keeping an eye on things like content consumption, search trends, and engagement patterns.
3. Use Lead Scoring That Goes Beyond Demographics
A lot of businesses still use static lead scoring based on things like job title or company size. It is helpful, but it doesn’t show if someone is ready to buy. More advanced models use activity signals, such as webinar attendance, email clicks, or time spent on product pages, as well as third-party intent signals to get a better idea of the quality of leads.
4. Enable Multi-Threading from the Start
Don’t wait for a lead to lose before trying someone else. Encourage your reps to talk to more than one person at an account, especially those who are involved in making decisions. This increases your chances and makes sure you don’t depend too much on one contact who doesn’t have much influence.
5. Align Sales and Marketing on Lead Handoff
Marketing often sends leads without giving all the information. Make it easier for teams to work together so that sales knows why a lead was qualified, like what they were interested in, what content they interacted with, and what their next steps might be.
6. Invest in Tools That Surface Real-Time Insights
It’s not enough to just gather data; you have to be able to use it. Give your team tools that give them real-time updates on who is in the market, what they’re interested in, and how to change their outreach to fit. Every message is more relevant and more likely to convert when your reps know what they’re talking about and why.
Know More, Sell Better
One of your most valuable resources is the time of your sales team, but it’s also one of the easiest to waste.
Poor lead targeting can quickly add up to hidden costs, like chasing low-quality leads or getting the wrong people involved. Low conversions, long sales cycles, and stalled pipelines aren’t just problems with performance; they could mean that your team is focusing on the wrong opportunities.
The good news is? You can fix these patterns.
You can guide your team toward more meaningful conversations with the right prospects at the right time by spotting the warning signs early and using smarter qualification strategies, such as refining your ICP, enabling multi-threading, and using intent data insights.
It’s not about putting in more effort. It’s about working smarter. And when your team starts working on leads that are both a good fit and actively looking for a job, the results speak for themselves.
