When you have a lot of open proposals that just aren’t closing, it’s likely you aren’t spending enough time qualifying your leads, and, instead, are rushing to create a proposal before you’ve sold the potential client on the work. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s time to shrink your pipeline so you can focus on generating qualified leads with a strong chance of closing. 

When we’re talking about new business proposals, “yes” is the best answer we can get. And, “no” is the second best answer. If you’re getting “maybes”, see if you can move those prospects to a decisive yes or no.

Is there a big, scary problem that they urgently need to solve? (The problem needs to be something that they think is urgent and scary, it’s not enough that you see it that way!) If not, it’s unlikely they will hire you. Now, you can remove them from your pipeline and focus your energy on projects that have a chance of closing.