30 May Spotting Broken Growth: It’s Not the Faucet. It’s the Cup With a Hole in It.

Sometimes growth efforts flop. Let’s get the most obvious reason out of the way: the person running growth and marketing just isn’t good. The company’s great, the product’s five stars, the sales team’s waiting eagerly – and then nothing. But for the purposes of this fine tale, let’s assume that’s not the issue. Let’s say the growth and marketing team is seasoned, sharp, and bringing the fire. Now what?

The Sales Team Wants Layups, Not Warmups

Marketing and sales are supposed to be friends. I love salespeople – they’re a riot at events, the energy is always high, and they make money happen. But sometimes they can be asshats. Especially when they demand leads where the prospect has basically signed in blood that they’re ready to buy.

Let’s be clear: marketing delivers interest, not inked contracts. We create awareness, trigger curiosity, and get the right people to raise their hands. It’s a handoff – and from that point on, sales is supposed to sell.

If marketing could close deals, we wouldn’t need a sales team at all. I’d just put an autoresponder with a DocuSign on every MQL and call it a day.

When the Blame Game Starts

Here’s where it gets dicey. The leads look good – right title, right company, tech stack fits. MQLs flow in. Most become SALs (Sales Accepted Leads), and off they go.

But suddenly the close rate drops. Sales starts saying lead quality is down. Marketing hasn’t changed. Nothing upstream has changed. So what’s really going on?

Maybe there was a sales team shakeup. Maybe the new rep isn’t great. Maybe someone insulted the prospect’s spouse on a discovery call. None of that has anything to do with the leads – but marketing often gets blamed anyway.

That’s when you pull out the numbers. Five hundred MQLs. Four hundred SALs. Two hundred SQLs. One hundred closed-won deals. A clean, predictable funnel. Then next quarter? Same five hundred MQLs, but now only 15% make it to SQL. Yeah, there’s a leak somewhere.

Sometimes, the Product Is the Problem

We don’t always want to admit it, but sometimes the product just isn’t good. Or it’s too average. Or it’s outdated. Or the company doesn’t innovate fast enough. We still do all we can – focus on the highs, minimize the lows, and package it to feel premium. We aren’t trying to scam anyone. We’re just trying to give the product its best shot.

But lipstick can only do so much. Marketing can’t talk its way out of a 2.6 out of 5-star rating on Capterra. Marketing can’t salvage a rollout that replaced human support with a clunky self-service help center. Marketing can’t overcome a product that costs twice as much as the competition while offering half the features.

Sometimes the product had a great run, but it’s already reached its ceiling.

Internal Sabotage Happens Too

People want to keep their jobs. Some will protect themselves at the company’s expense. Maybe reports never make it past a certain manager. Maybe good data dies in a spreadsheet graveyard.

These aren’t just marketing problems – they’re operational dysfunctions that quietly stifle growth.

Growth Is a System

You can’t just look at conversions. You have to look at context. Great growth leaders don’t just stare at top-of-funnel metrics. They study the whole machine – sales behavior, product experience, delivery quality, customer support, and even the internal politics that quietly shape it all.

Because this isn’t just a funnel – it’s a system of moving parts. Like gears in a machine. If one cog slips, even slightly, everything downstream gets thrown off. Sometimes that cog is sales. Sometimes it’s onboarding. Sometimes it’s a VP who won’t let bad news move upstream.

At SRGP, we watch every cog. We oil the squeaky ones. We escalate when something starts grinding. Because in growth, nothing lives in a vacuum – and one faulty gear can stall the whole engine.

Final Word

If you’re getting the volume but not the growth, don’t blame the faucet. Check the cup. Check the cogs. And maybe check Mike in sales, who’s Platinum rank in Call of Duty but has a sales response time that rivals the speed of continental drift.