Tetsuro Hara Whiskey and Chaotic Lead Journeys

In Panos Cosmatos' film The Viewing, a rare whiskey called Tetsuro Hara takes center stage. This 50-year-old single-malt survived wartime bombings, a massive earthquake, and decades of turmoil before finally being opened.

Sound familiar?

That story reminds me of B2B leads. By the time a lead reaches the bottom of the funnel, it has already survived an obstacle course of emails, form fills, demos, and back-and-forths. In B2B SaaS, it takes 8-12 touchpoints, if not more, before a deal closes. And in that span, a lot can go wrong.

We’ve talked before about how ToFU has become a boardroom-level discussion, but the Mid-Funnel (MoFU) to Bottom-of-Funnel (BoFU) journey, especially demo to deal, is just as critical.

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Demo to Close: What Could Go Wrong?

Once a lead hits the demo stage, it feels like you're halfway home. But this is often where B2B teams realize the harsh truth: the demo just reveals the real qualification. Is this lead actually ICP-fit?

At this point, most teams start seeing drop-offs. And the causes often boil down to:

• Poor qualification at the MQL level
• Poor CRM structuring that discourages tracking dropped deals

Let’s unpack the first. A sales rep might drop a deal because the lead didn’t have budget or misunderstood the offering. But the deeper issue? That lead shouldn’t have made it to demo at all.

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Understanding the Scale of the Problem

Let’s say you generate 500 MQLs this quarter.

• 300 become opportunities (60%)
• Of those, 80 are dropped (27%) because they’re unqualified

That’s hundreds of hours of wasted effort. If your SDR team works high-volume and lacks strong guidance, they’ll pursue anything that breathes.

So how do you avoid this? You analyze historical patterns:

• What industries convert best?
• What job titles or regions outperform others?
• What campaigns consistently produce ICP-fit leads?

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Stage-by-Stage Intelligence Changes the Game

RevSure’s Funnel Health Intelligence lets you break down conversion rates by stage, region, title, and campaign. You can see:

• 33% of pharma opps convert from Demo to POC
• 21% of APAC opps move from POC to Negotiation

That’s insight you can act on. Focus reps on what works, not what’s logged. You’ll improve win rates, velocity, and revenue.

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What About What’s Not Working?

We focus so much on what converts, but ignoring what doesn’t is just as dangerous. If only 3% of Entertainment industry opps convert, but your pipe is filled with 12 of them worth $500K, why chase them equally? That’s pipeline waste. It also signals a ToFU problem: maybe your paid campaigns are targeting the wrong personas or industries.

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Predictability Starts With Visibility

The key isn’t just analysis, it’s connection. You need:

• Campaign insights tied to real downstream pipeline
• ICP validation based on actual conversion data
• Forecasting that includes even unlogged, high-intent leads

RevSure’s AI Funnel Conversion helps predict which leads are most likely to move from demo to deal, even before the sales team manually updates the CRM.

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Final Word: Funnel Analytics Should Tell One Story

The ultimate goal? Let marketing, sales, and RevOps rally around one truth:

• Which reps close best at each stage
• Which outreach and paid campaigns drive real conversion
• Which leads to pursue, and which to pause

RevSure automates this story. No spreadsheets. No blind spots. Just one full-funnel view from Demo to Deal. Book a Demo and see how we turn your funnel chaos into clarity.

Happy Hunting and Hustling!