5 Ways to Reset Your Sales Without More Leads

Being a growth expert for many years, one thing I know is that the percentage of sales professionals that actually nurture their leads is surprising.  In a field where direct follow up is a critical job function, a striking 48% of salespeople don’t do it at all (Invesp). It takes 5+ touches to close most sales, I’ve heard it can be up to 12 touches, but fewer than 10% of reps actually get that far (Marketing Donut).  Hence the whole “I need more leads” spiral and the fear of, “What if I run out?” Bruh, work what you have.  And one more stat to chew on: only about 25–30% of people, including employees, business owners, and entrepreneurs, consistently take action, follow through, and finish.

So, instead of primarily focusing on chasing new leads, here’s 5 ways to reset how you commit, engage, show up, and sell, especially in situations where timing, trust, and rhythm matter more than clicks and traffic.  Although, having the data and insights of clicks and traffic are essential for strategic, direct sales.

This isn’t another blog about how to get more leads. It’s a sales reset to actually work the pipeline you’ve already built. 

If you are a business owner then you are also a salesperson. And if you’re stuck, it's the system behind your sales that isn’t strong enough to support your next level.

Ok, so let's get going…

1 – Spot What’s Actually Breaking and Fix It Fast

Most business owners don’t have a problem with their offer, their team, or even their market. They have a process gap hiding somewhere and it’s usually buried in the middle of your sales cycle. It could be an undefined pass off from marketing to sales, unclear roles and who does what, or there isn’t a set process once the lead lands in the “sales” zone.

This is the zone between interest and action. And this is where deals die if it’s not mapped out clearly, followed consistently, or owned fully.

Start by asking:

• Where do leads go after that first call or email?

• Who’s responsible for outreach and do they know it?

• Where are you still stepping in to save the deal because no one else is closing it?

Then look at your numbers. Not just revenue, we also want to spot behaviors:

• What’s your 30/60/90-day touch point rate?

• How many open proposals are aging in your pipeline with no next step?

• What’s your close rate by rep, by role, by source?
  
  Pro Tip: A Value Chain Analysis helps spot gaps in the overall process. It is basically a linear workflow map of how your business creates and delivers value from first contact to close and beyond. Lay out each step in your sales process so you can see where things are working and where they’re falling apart. Each step is spelled out of what needs to happen and who owns it to progress to the next steps. Look at the handoffs, the follow ups, the decision points, and the ownership gaps all in one view.

  When deals start slipping or momentum fades, it’s usually because something’s breaking between the steps. This exercise helps you spot that breakdown fast instead of blaming the team or guessing at the fix.

  Business owners are quick to blame their team. But as a leader, you’ve got to own this: if your team’s unsure what to do next, it’s not about motivation, it’s because the system is unclear, inconsistent, or nonexistent.

  This is where most businesses quietly lose money. And, it’s not from a bad offer or a bad team, it’s from the system breakdowns that nobody is owning and fixing.

  You can’t fix what you ignore. What’s very important though, is once you accept it and know what the real issue is, you need to fix it fast.

2 - Stop Hiding Behind Marketing and Start Direct Outreach

This one stings a little, I know.

Marketing is a must. Visibility and brand awareness matters, but the ultimate goal is to drive revenue. That is what pays the bills and the team, and leads to growth. So, if the engagement stops at the instagram post and doesn’t lead to real conversations, proposals, and closed deals… it’s all eyes and no action.

A lot of business owners double down on content, traffic, and fancy funnels to avoid what actually drives revenue. Which is direct, uncomfortable, consistent outreach.

You don’t need another LinkedIn post if you haven’t responded to that warm lead from two weeks ago. You don’t need a prettier website if your team isn’t following up with proposals.

To start fixing, start simple…

Block 1–2 hours a day. Call it  Money Making Time or whatever gets you going. That means no strategy talk, no stalling with back-end prep. Just solid revenue-generating moves. Pick at least one:

• Send a resource that provides value to a stalled or ghosted lead

• Reconnect with a past client to share new developments

• Send something relevant to a referral partner

• Pitch something new to someone already in your world

• Make multiple touch points - phone calls, emails, texts, linkedin DMs.  Million dollar businesses are built on phone calls. It is still the gold standard.

And, then define the goal. Saying it out loud or writing it down dramatically increases the chances you’ll actually follow through. For example: “In the next hour, I am going to reach out to a minimum of 5 stalled leads and share our new assessment resource with a call to action to schedule a call.”  Keep in mind the S.M.A.R.T. framework when setting goals.  Check our event blog HERE for more information on goal setting.

Pro Tip: What’s very important is to have a strategy for your outreach, and for it to also take into account your client’s point-of-view. Ask yourself: Why are you contacting them and what value are you bringing to them and why do they care?

3 - Fix the Message 

This is the unsexy part most businesses skip and it costs them the sale. 

If your team, whether it’s sales, support, operations, or anyone talking to potential clients, can’t clearly explain what you do, who you help, and why it matters in under 30 seconds, your messaging isn’t working.

Use this to help define your purpose and messaging foundation:

We help [ideal client] solve [specific problem] so they can [critical outcome] without [major obstacle].

Example explaining what we do at Ailm:

We help scaling business owners turn blind spots into growth so they can level up fast without losing momentum.

This is your sales script, your homepage copy, your follow-up language, your elevator pitch. If it’s unclear, nothing else works.

Stat: Buyers are 3x more likely to engage with sellers who clearly articulate ROI in the first interaction. (LinkedIn State of Sales)

4 - Build a Sales Rhythm That Drives Revenue

Most businesses lose deals because their direct outreach is inconsistent, untracked, or completely dependent on someone’s memory. Stop winging it. A real strategy, done consistently, beats last-minute hustle every time.

Ask yourself:

• What’s our actual touch point cadence — by day, by week, by stage?

• Who owns outreach? If the answer is “everyone,” it’s no one.

• Are proposals being tracked or just sitting in inboxes?

• What revenue-generating activity is happening every week — not just “when we have time”?

Get these in place:

• A visible or shared outreach calendar
  Not living in someone’s head or buried in their inbox. This isn’t about micromanagement, it’s about efficiency.  For example, when your sales lead has a shared calendar showing outbound call blocks, follow-up windows, and weekly touchpoint tasks, you can see what’s happening and when. You don’t have to ask, “Did anyone ever follow up with that GC from Tuesday?” 

• CRM accountability that’s not just checking a box
  It’s a tool that can literally transform your entire sales process and drive scalable growth. So have that mindset. For example, every deal in your CRM has a next step and an owner. If someone clicks a contact, they should see when the last touchpoint was, when the next one is scheduled, and what the objective is. No more ghost leads or “I thought you had that” moments.

• Weekly proposal reviews with next steps clearly defined
  Open proposals are liabilities until they close or move forward. A suggestion is on every Friday, your team reviews proposals still open after 7 days. You identify who’s stuck, who needs a nudge, and what the next move is.

• Real pipeline health checks that list leads not contacts
  A bloated pipeline full of dead leads gives you false confidence. It just mucks up the whole process. A strategy is to run a pipeline review weekly or biweekly to identify hot, warm, and cold leads based on actual engagement. Be real, time focused on a lead going nowhere is taken from time nurturing a winner. Anything cold for 30+ days gets a re-engagement strategy or is archived so the team stays focused on what’s real.

Pro Tip: If you have a sizable list of leads and your marketing and sales team is small, have marketing nurture them longer and identify 25-30 leads for sales to prioritize. Research them, understand their pain points, stalk their profiles (don’t go over board though), and contact them consistently. Work them intimately and rotate through the leads with regular health checks.

5 - Use AI to Increase Output Without Sacrificing Your Brand

You can’t scale if you’re still writing every email from scratch, redrafting every proposal, or wasting hours trying to “sound just right”.  In this competitive landscape, you have to figure out how to be stronger, better, faster in the same amount of time.  To even have a slight edge.  That’s where AI becomes your strategic co-pilot. 

Here’s 5 smart ways to put it to work:

• Download the mobile app. The voice prompt feature is a game-changer for capturing your natural tone. It’s perfect for quick messages, on-the-go ideas, or posts that sound like you, not the standard AI tone template.

• Turn transcripts into traction. Drop a call transcript into the chat and prompt: “Use this transcript to create a recap email for a law firm owner client, highlighting their pain points and how our services solve them.”

• Research smarter. Use AI to surface insights from a prospect’s website or LinkedIn profile. Try prompt: “List some pain points and possible communication style preferences for the executive director of [company] based on [website] and how we would position ourselves as the solution.”

• Turn wins into stories. Repurpose a past client result into a quick, usable sales story. Prompt: “Create a short case study from this transcript for our sales team to use. Highlight how we helped the client save time, increase production, and drive revenue.”

• Use the Projects feature to organize thinking. If you're working across multiple clients, campaigns, or initiatives, Projects lets you organize conversations, drafts, and notes in one place. So you stop re-explaining things and start getting what you want faster. Add any supportive materials that will help create what you want as far as style, purpose, goal, etc.

This isn’t about letting AI replace your voice. It’s about making sure your voice actually gets out more consistently, more clearly, and without you drowning in draft after draft.

Your time should go toward driving strategy, deep conversations, and growth. Not formatting call recaps or rewriting cold emails at 11pm.

Let AI do the heavy lifting behind the scenes so you can stay in front of the business — where you belong.

How Ailm Will Reset the Way You Sell

Ailm is your partner in Fractional Chief Growth Officer Services

We help scaling business owners turn blind spots into growth so they can level up fast without losing momentum. Driving sales takes more than campaigns and leads, it takes a dedicated leader to own the entire growth. We plug in as your Fractional Chief Growth Officer to be your leader and uncover what’s stalling growth, fix what’s broken in your pipeline, and lead the strategy that drives real revenue.

Our fCGO approach goes beyond advice. We embed with your team, clean up your marketing and sales operations, and turn blind spots into scalable growth moves.

You get focused, flexible growth leadership without the overhead of another full-time hire.

Why Choose Ailm?

• Embedded sales + marketing strategy execution

• 360 growth assessment to expose your hidden gaps

• Tailored smart systems that move deals forward, not just track them

• Lead gen, follow-up, and close strategies that actually convert

Contact us to reset your sales and level up fast without losing momentum.