If you find your business facing stagnant sales growth, there are a few diagnostic questions you can ask to get to the root of the problem. Gather your sales and marketing teams in one place and dive into these five questions:
1. Is this a temporary or permanent issue?
The first parameter to discuss is the timeline of the problem. Has your long history of successful pipeline development suddenly been disrupted by a sharp drop-off in prospect interest? If so, think about what changes you can make to your messaging or targeting to more closely align with audience pain points. But, if getting new opportunities has always been a challenge or it has been a sustained period of down revenue, it may be time to start from scratch with a fresh perspective.
2. How do you define an “empty” pipeline?
What does your team consider to be an empty pipeline? Is it a slow trickle of new opportunities, or none at all? This is a critical distinction to make, as the implications are fundamentally different for each scenario. If prospect interest is still there, your next steps should focus on strategy shifts to amplify your current efforts and turn more heads. But if the faucet has completely shut off, turn your attention to product-market fit — are you broadcasting the right message to the right people or do you need a major pivot?
3. Are you relying on one source of truth?
Can you identify exactly when prospects lose interest during the sales process? If not, you may lack visibility into your pipeline. Without a clear understanding of where your prospects are and who is — and isn’t — moving forward, you’ll only ever see one side of the story. The new era of marketing is hyper-focused on data-driven decisions. That’s why we strongly encourage all companies, but especially those in the medtech space, to use a CRM solution. With these platforms, you won’t just see your conversion rates. You’ll gain a holistic view of your pipeline to evaluate which strategies drive the greatest revenue-driving impact.
4. Are prospects engaging with your content?
Your pipeline relies on more than just sales conversations to move prospects toward the finish line. Content marketing is a central piece of the commercial puzzle that gives your team the boost it needs to generate and convert leads. If your prospects are actively engaging with your content but aren’t taking the next step, you may be dealing with a long sales cycle or your offering may not be a high enough priority. In this case, your campaigns should convince your audience that their current product or service doesn’t fully meet their needs. On the other hand, if content engagement is at or near zero, once again consider product-market fit. Spend some time determining who your ideal customer is, what their greatest pain points are, and which of your value propositions will resonate the most with their needs.
5. How are you building demand?
If all of your marketing efforts are geared toward capturing demand, while ignoring demand creation, your growth will be tied to the speed at which people are entering the market — and your pipeline will suffer as a result. If you present a solution without clearly outlining the problem, your lead gen efforts will inevitably fall flat. Generating ready-to-buy leads should always be a goal in your marketing campaign, but it’s important to also educate future prospects on why they should be dissatisfied with their current product or service. This brings more people into the market and ultimately creates a more robust pipeline.
Not sure how to revive your pipeline? Using these five questions, Jairus can work with your team to craft a tailored marketing plan to help you get back on track. Our expert medtech marketing team will identify the bottlenecks in your pipeline and launch data-driven campaigns proven to fuel buying behavior. Want to learn more? Let’s talk.