A full pipeline that never closes is a diagnosis.

Three-x coverage, the board is calm, and the quarter misses anyway. A pipeline that is always full and never closes is not bad luck — it is a specific, diagnosable condition.

The usual pathogens: qualification theatre, stage inflation, and zombie deals kept alive because killing them makes the dashboard honest and the meeting uncomfortable.

The cure is a definition of 'real' that costs something: a customer-verified problem, a named budget, a date the CUSTOMER wrote down. Run the purge once and coverage drops by half — and forecasting suddenly works.

One operator called the week after the purge 'the most honest Monday in three years.' Revenue did not change that Monday. Every decision after it did.