GTM strategy · B2B software
The pipeline looked healthy. The buying signals didn’t.
Build a more predictable sales pipeline by identifying customers with a clear operational problem, a credible buying process and a reason to act.
Discuss a similar challenge01 / The challenge
Where the work began.
A workflow software company had plenty of demos but too few decisions. Marketing saw growing interest, while sales found that prospects were not ready to buy. The CRM showed an active pipeline, yet too many conversations ended with an agreement to reconnect next quarter.
The team needed to distinguish interest in the product from a customer with an operational problem, a credible buying process and a reason to make a change.
02 / The approach
What we did.
RFA brought a GTM lead and revenue operations specialist together with the founder, sales team and customer success lead. They reviewed won and lost opportunities, discovery recordings, lead sources, CRM stage histories and onboarding notes. The review separated genuine buying triggers, such as a system migration or an operational bottleneck, from general curiosity about the software.
The team used those findings to narrow the ideal customer profile and define account selection criteria. Discovery questions tested urgency, stakeholder involvement and purchasing constraints. Each CRM stage received explicit entry and exit criteria, distinguishing a booked demonstration from an opportunity with a confirmed problem and an agreed next step.
RFA also aligned demonstrations and sales materials with the prospect’s workflow. Materials shared after a demo addressed implementation effort, internal ownership and the business case for changing systems.
03 / The scope
What the work covered.
- Ideal customer profile and account criteria
- Discovery and opportunity qualification framework
- CRM stage definitions
- Workflow led sales messaging and materials
- Pipeline evaluation framework
04 / The outcome
What the work established
The engagement established a shared qualification framework for sales and marketing, supported by an ideal customer profile, account criteria, discovery questions and CRM stage definitions.
It also established a framework for tracking stage conversion, opportunity aging, sales cycle length and recorded loss reasons across comparable customer segments. The framework connected pipeline evaluation with the agreed customer profile and qualification criteria.
We kept asking how to get more demos. The more useful question was why the right prospects weren’t moving forward. The qualification work gave sales and marketing a shared definition of an opportunity worth pursuing.