You are Sylvie Marchand, eleven days into the job as marketing director of Northbridge Systems, a software company in Mississauga, Canada. The board has just frozen the commercial budget and given you ninety days to spend it differently. Your first working session has to end with a single answer: where the funnel is losing.
The situation
On 16 June 2026 Northbridge's board froze the commercial budget at CAD 9.6 million. Recurring revenue of CAD 64 million is growing at 8%, against 22% three years ago, and the win rate has slipped to 18%. The chair asked what a tenth million would buy that the first 9.6 had not. By 14 September you owe the board a plan that marketing and sales both sign. There is no new money: you can only reallocate.
The funnel itself is not in dispute; both functions quote the same report. Marketing generates 2,000 leads a quarter for 45 sales representatives. Sales works 22% of them, and about 1,560 leads a quarter are never touched. Of the leads worked, 9% become opportunities, against a sector norm near 13%; of the opportunities, 18% are won, against a norm near 22%. Representatives still close the deals they source themselves.
Each side reads the same page its own way. Marketing says it delivers pipeline and sales sits on it. Doug Merrick, vice-president of sales and nineteen years at Northbridge, calls the leads "tourists": nobody has ever written down what a qualified lead is, and commission is paid on the number of customers closed. One or two board members simply think 2,000 leads is too few for 45 reps. You have no authority over the sales force, and your own targets are written in growth and win rate.