So when the number is off, it usually comes down to one spot in your sales and marketing that’s holding everything else up. I find that spot first, and then we fix it before you spend more on marketing.
Where it usually gets stuck
I look at five stages, in this order.
Demand. The right buyers don’t know you yet, or they don’t think of you when the need comes up. You’ll see it as a thin pipeline and a sales team chasing anyone who’ll take a call.
Pipeline. Leads come in, and then they sit. Follow-up is slow, or it sounds like every other vendor. You’ll see it as plenty of leads and very few meetings.
Deals. Meetings happen, and then deals drag or stall at the same step every time. You’ll see it as a forecast that keeps slipping by a month.
Customers. You win the deal, and then the first 90 days feel rocky. You’ll see it as churn, or customers who stay and never grow.
Expansion. Happy customers never buy the second thing or send a referral. You’ll see it as growth that only comes from new logos.
And usually one of these is the real problem right now. So that’s the one I start with.
How to tell which one it is
Answer these with a quick yes or no.
- Do enough of the right people ask about you each month?
- Do new leads get a real reply within a day?
- Do your deals close in about the time you expect?
- Do new customers see results in their first 90 days?
- Do your best customers buy more or send referrals?
Your first no is usually the place to start. If you want to go deeper, I wrote up the five steps I use to find it, plus a prompt you can run yourself.
What it looks like when it’s fixed
Milner is a family-owned business technology company. Their marketing ran every month, and very little of it tied back to sales. So I fixed the newsletter list first, and opens went from 16.8% to 29.0%. Then I wrote a customer case study that helped them close two new customers. Read the Milner case study.
Signature Insurance Group had three offices and almost nothing online. I built the brand and the local search presence office by office, then brought old quotes back with a win-back program. Today it has seven offices, and the business has almost quadrupled. Read the Signature case study.
Who this is for
Sales-led B2B companies, usually between $2 million and $50 million in revenue, where the founder, CEO or head of sales is asking why the number is off. Larger companies too, when one team or product line is stuck.
If you run a smaller local business here in Barrow County, Rogue Local is the better fit.
How we’d work on it
It starts with a strategy conversation with me. If it looks like a fit, I’ll do a full marketing and revenue assessment for free, and then walk you through a proposal live.
Retainers start at $3,000 a month, and the first week of month one is spent on strategy.
Questions people ask
Is it a sales problem or a marketing problem?
Look at where leads stop moving. If the right leads never show up, start with marketing. If they show up and stall, start with sales follow-up. Read more on sales vs. marketing.
Why did growth stall when nothing changed?
Something usually did change outside your team. Buyers got more options, a channel got more expensive, or a competitor got louder. So compare this quarter to your last good quarter, stage by stage, and the gap shows you where to look. More on stalled growth.
Do we need more leads or better follow-up?
Check how fast new leads get a real reply and how many turn into meetings. If most of your leads never get a meeting, fix the follow-up before you buy more leads.
How long does it take to find the bottleneck?
One conversation usually gets close if you bring your last 90 days of leads and sales. The free assessment goes deeper and comes before any proposal.
Do we need a full RevOps team?
Usually not under $50 million in revenue. What helps first is one person looking at the whole process end to end and fixing the stage that’s stuck. More on RevOps.