Why Invisible Work Kills Sales Progression

When 85% of sales work happens outside your CRM, it’s no wonder pipeline forecasts feel more like wishful thinking than actionable plans. Think about your day-to-day sales efforts: chasing internal approvals, coordinating with pre-sales and legal, juggling buyer follow-ups across Slack, email, and endless spreadsheets.

Here’s the catch: none of that is tracked.

Traditional CRMs are designed for linear processes—perfect for simple deals but woefully inadequate for today’s multi-stakeholder, multi-channel sales motions. Deals rarely progress in a straight line anymore. They’re messy, with buyers looping back, stakeholders getting added mid-process, and internal roadblocks stalling momentum.

This invisible work isn’t just hard to track; it’s impossible to optimize. And what’s invisible to your CRM is invisible to leadership, too.

The Hidden Costs of Invisible Work

Untracked sales activity leads to several problems:

1. Sluggish Deal Velocity: When reps spend hours coordinating with other teams or searching for approvals, deals lose momentum. This delay often gives buyers enough time to reconsider or bring in a competitor.

2. Poor Forecasting Accuracy: If most of the effort to close a deal isn’t captured, how can your team predict which deals will close and when? Educated guesses won’t cut it.

3. Missed Opportunities for Optimization: What’s not measured can’t be improved. Without visibility into the real work driving a deal, you’re flying blind when it comes to refining your sales process.

4. Frustrated Teams: Sales reps waste valuable time juggling tools, emails, and internal systems instead of selling. This fragmented workflow leads to burnout and underperformance.

Making the Invisible Visible

The solution isn’t another static CRM. It’s smarter, automated deal coordination that captures the nuances of modern sales journeys. Tools like Jointflows are designed to bring structure to the chaos, giving teams a clear view of what’s happening, what’s missing, and what’s next.

Here’s what it looks like in practice:

• Real-Time Deal Coordination: No more emailing approvals or guessing which stakeholder to nudge. Every task, follow-up, and dependency is tracked and centralized.

• Better Deal Health Insights: With full visibility into the actions driving (or stalling) progress, sales teams can address risks early and keep deals on track.

• Accurate Forecasting: By capturing all sales activity, leadership gains a realistic view of pipeline progression, allowing for confident predictions.

• Faster Conversions: Structured workflows eliminate bottlenecks, helping deals close faster and improving conversion rates.

The Bottom Line

Sales execution doesn’t happen in silos, and your tools shouldn’t either. If most of your team’s work is invisible, it’s time to rethink how you track and manage deals. When every piece of the puzzle is visible, teams can take control of their pipelines, improve forecasting accuracy, and close deals with confidence.

How much of your sales effort is still in the dark? It’s time to shine a light on invisible work and turn chaos into progress.