By February, most CEOs already know how Q1 is going.
Forecasts are being revised.
Pipelines look full, but somehow, revenue isn’t following.
Sales leaders are pointing to “tough buyers,” “longer cycles,” or “missed closes.”
But here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Most deals aren’t lost at the close. They’re lost at the very first question.
According to CSO Insights, 53% of lost deals happen because the buyer’s real needs were never uncovered early enough. Not pricing. Not competition. Not timing.
Discovery.
Why Q1 Exposes Weak Discovery Faster Than Any Other Quarter
Q1 is different.
Budgets are fresh.
Initiatives are newly approved.
Decision-makers are under pressure to act, but also to act right.
In February especially, buyers are no longer “exploring.” They’re validating. They’re stress-testing vendors. They’re asking one question silently throughout every sales conversation:
“Do these people actually understand our business or are they just selling us something?”
When your sales team fails to diagnose the real problem early, the deal may continue moving forward, but it does so on shaky ground. It reaches proposal. It reaches pricing. It even reaches “verbal yes.”
And then it stalls. Or dies. Or gets “pushed to Q2.”
The CEO Mistake: Fixing the Close Instead of the Cause
Many CEOs respond by investing in:
Better closing techniques
New CRM dashboards
Tighter forecasting calls
More pressure on reps to “ask for the business”
But closing isn’t the issue.
You can’t close a problem you never fully uncovered.
At The Ruby Group, we see this pattern across organizations in Akron, Columbus, Jacksonville, and the Capital Region:
Sales reps ask questions, but not the right ones.
They hear answers, but don’t go deep enough.
They identify symptoms, but never reach root cause.
And buyers sense it immediately.
What High-Performing Discovery Actually Looks Like
Elite sales teams don’t “run discovery calls.”
They diagnose business problems.
Effective discovery includes:
1. Layered Questioning
Not one good question, but a sequence.
Initial answers are rarely the real issue. Top performers know how to peel back layers until the true business pain is exposed.
2. Financial and Emotional Drivers
Buyers don’t act on logic alone. They act on risk, pressure, reputation, and consequence.
If your team only uncovers surface-level metrics, they miss the urgency that actually drives decisions.
3. Decision-Committee Awareness
Modern deals don’t die because of one “no.”
They die because someone unseen wasn’t convinced early enough.
Strong discovery proactively engages the full decision ecosystem before objections ever surface.
Sandler Research shows that sales professionals using structured discovery outperform peers by more than 25% in win rates. Not because they talk better, but because they understand better.
The CEO Perspective: Discovery Is a Leadership Issue
Discovery is not just a sales skill.
It’s a leadership expectation.
When discovery is weak, CEOs feel it downstream as:
Inaccurate forecasts
Slipping close dates
Discounted deals
“No decision” losses
Sales cycles that drag into the next quarter
Strong discovery compresses time.
It sharpens qualification.
It protects margin.
And it gives leadership clarity instead of surprises.
If your team can’t clearly articulate a buyer’s problem in the buyer’s own language, you don’t have a real opportunity, just activity.
Why February Is the Moment to Fix This
By February, Q1 is still salvageable, but only if the right behaviors change now.
Waiting until Q2 means:
Repeating the same stalled deals
Carrying weak opportunities forward
Compounding forecasting errors
Losing buyer trust before renewal season even begins
The strongest CEOs use Q1 not to panic, but to recalibrate.
They don’t ask, “Why didn’t we close?”
They ask, “What did we miss early?”
Final Thought
Your team doesn’t need better closing lines.
They need better first conversations.
Because when discovery is done right, closing isn’t a tactic, it’s a natural conclusion.
Ready to Fix Discovery at the Root?
If you want your sales team asking smarter questions, uncovering real buyer pain, and winning deals earlier in the cycle, not later.
Speak directly with one of our Sales Trainers at The Ruby Group here!
