The Revenue Leak Checklist
Revenue teams lose roughly 10% of potential revenue every year to process gaps, human error, and disconnected systems. Not at the goal line. In the gaps between "lead arrives" and "deal closes," where no dashboard is looking.
This is the diagnostic we run in real audits. Nine leaks, four stages. Check every one that's true in your pipeline and your score builds at the bottom. Every diagnostic is a report your CRM can already generate. Most teams find 3 or 4.
1. Unrouted leads
Inbound leads sit untouched for hours before first contact.
Pull this: Median time from lead creation to first human contact, by lead source. Over 15 minutes on inbound-demo leads = leaking.
Direction of fix: Routing rules with fallback ownership and a real-time SLA alert.
2. No ownership rules
You can't say who owns any given lead in under 10 seconds.
Pull this: 20 random leads from last month. Name the current owner of each. Hesitation = leaking.
Direction of fix: Single-owner accountability at every stage, weekly orphan-lead review.
3. Cadence collapse
Follow-up dies after the third touch while deals need 7-12.
Pull this: Average touches per lead before disposition. Most "no decision" leads at 3 or fewer touches = leaking.
Direction of fix: Codified sequences so touches 4-12 run on autopilot.
4. Single-threaded deals
Deals die whenever one champion goes quiet.
Pull this: Late-stage deals over $25K with 2+ buyer contacts engaged in the last 14 days. Under 60% = leaking.
Direction of fix: Multi-threading as a stage exit requirement, enforced in the CRM.
5. Fuzzy stage definitions
Three reps give three answers for what "Qualified" means.
Pull this: Have three reps write entry/exit criteria for your most ambiguous stage. Compare. Mismatch = leaking.
Direction of fix: One-page written stage definitions tied to buyer milestones, not internal activity.
6. No exit criteria
Deals sit mid-stage for 60 days with no defined unblock.
Pull this: Median time-in-stage, by stage. Any stage over 2x your target cycle = leaking.
Direction of fix: Written exit criteria plus a tripwire: 1.5x median time triggers a forced disposition.
7. No mutual action plans
Your rep has a close date the buyer has never seen.
Pull this: Top-quartile late-stage deals with a written, buyer-shared action plan. Under 50% = leaking.
Direction of fix: A shared one-page plan (steps, owners, dates) required for any deal on the forecast.
8. Stale forecast
"Commit" deals haven't heard from the buyer in two weeks.
Pull this: % of commit-tier deals with buyer activity in the last 7 days. Under 80% = your forecast runs on hope.
Direction of fix: Hygiene rule: no buyer activity in 7 days drops the deal out of commit automatically.
9. No loss post-mortems
Closed-lost reasons are all "no decision" and "timing."
Pull this: Last 90 days of closed-lost, by reason. Mostly generic placeholders = leaking.
Direction of fix: Monthly closed-lost review with a named owner for one process change per pattern.
Check every leak that's true in your pipeline and your read appears here.