Thin-Air Pipeline

Every startup has lived this scene.

The boardroom pressure builds: “We need more pipeline, double it this quarter.”

Suddenly, the scramble begins. New campaigns are spun up. SDRs are told to hit the phones harder. Marketing pushes out content that’s more about filling forms than helping buyers.

And for a brief moment, it looks good on the dashboard. Pipeline numbers shoot up. Leadership breathes a little easier.

But then sales starts calling. And that “pipeline”?

It evaporates.

This is thin-air pipeline. Metrics that exist in slides and spreadsheets but disappear the moment buyers are asked to move forward. It’s pipeline that never should have been in the first place, that distracts teams from building what actually drives revenue.

The Pressure Trap

Pressure to build pipeline fast creates shortcuts that backfire. Reps take meetings with anyone who has a pulse. Opportunities get created just to show progress, even if the buyer never intends to move forward.

The trap looks like growth, but it isn’t.

• It wastes time. Energy goes into accounts that will never buy.

• It misleads leadership. The chart goes up, but revenue doesn’t.

• It destroys focus. Teams chase activity instead of strategy.

• It widens the gap. More finger-pointing between sales and marketing.

Pipeline built under pressure disappears just as quickly. Pipeline built on fit and focus compounds.

What Works Instead

Real pipeline doesn’t come from cranking the volume. It comes from focus, trust, and alignment with how buyers actually buy.

1. Pick one place to win.
Most companies start out by trying to sell to everyone. The result? Diluted messaging, scattered campaigns, and a sales team chasing accounts that were never a fit.

Instead, focus limited resources on one segment of the ICP. When you focus on the accounts where you can truly create value, you sharpen positioning, simplify targeting, and build credibility faster.

Win somewhere, or lose everywhere.

2. Teach, don’t chase.
Pipeline is a byproduct of trust. And trust is built by educating, not hunting. Buyers are already 70% through their journey before they ever talk to sales. If your “content” is just a thinly disguised lead trap, you’re out of the running.

The companies that make the shortlist are the ones that share their POV openly, help buyers understand the problem, and create resources people use. Teaching earns attention. Chasing burns it.

3. See pipeline as an outcome, not an input.
Pipeline isn’t created by dialing harder or pushing out more ads. It’s an outcome of sharp positioning, focused targeting, and credibility built over time.

Companies that treat pipeline like an input, something they can force into existence, end up with inflated numbers that collapse under pressure. The companies that win see pipeline as the scoreboard. The real game is building systems that naturally produce it.

Why It Matters

Companies have limited resources. Running in a reactionary mode to temporarily bandage a weak pipeline only wastes those resources and creates the type of pipeline that disappears.

Thin-air pipeline is easy to inflate, but it doesn’t scale. Trust does. Positioning does. Clear ICP targeting does.

That’s the work worth doubling.

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