Why most funnels leak revenue – and how to fix yours with clarity, focus, and customer truth
‘If you're trying to speak to everyone, you're closing no one.’
That’s not a cliché – it’s a quiet killer in most B2B go-to-market strategies. In the rush to launch, scale, or hit next quarter’s number, many companies skip the hard work of building a truly aligned, customer-focused GTM strategy.
The real cost of misalignment
When marketing, sales, and product teams aren’t operating from the same GTM playbook, here’s what happens:
Up to 70% of B2B content goes unused by sales – because it doesn’t match prospect conversations. [SiriusDecisions]
Sales reps waste 30% of their time searching for or recreating assets. [HubSpot]
Inconsistent messaging leads to lost trust and lower win rates.
If your GTM feels disjointed, it's not a people problem – it's a systems problem.
The fix: clarity, alignment, and customer truth
Let’s stop calling it a ‘broken funnel’. What you really have is a misaligned go-to-market system – and the fix starts with truth.
1. Know your customer (deeply)
Most companies can describe their product in detail. Fewer can describe their ideal customer with the same precision.
Ask yourself:
Who do we serve best – and why?
What is their pain, urgency, and desired outcome?
What language do they use (not us)?
‘ICP ≠ anyone with a budget. Be specific or be ignored.’
2. Align sales, marketing, and product around one target
GTM fails when teams chase different goals. True alignment means:
Shared definitions of success
Joint ICP ownership
Cross-functional collaboration on messaging and funnel design
Alignment isn’t a meeting. It’s a mindset – and a metric.
3. Make your message razor-clear
In B2B, clarity converts. Your audience is:
Smart
Time-poor
Over-marketed to
Drop the jargon. Speak to the human behind the title. Not this: ‘Empowering scalable transformation for mid-market teams.’ But this: ‘We help mid-size RevOps teams fix broken handoffs – fast.’
Go-to-market strategy A–Z: a mini playbook
A – Alignment
Marketing, sales, and product working as one
C – Clarity
Define your ICP so clearly they know it’s them
F – Focus
If you say yes to everyone, you're saying no to revenue
K – KPIs
Track pipeline velocity and win rate – not just MQLs
T – Timing
Match message to moment. Personalise where it matters
Z – Zero in
Test, learn, and iterate fast. Precision over perfection GTM isn’t a launch moment. It’s a system built for learning.
B2B storytelling is your superpower
In the age of social media and AI-driven content noise, your best advantage is real, specific storytelling. Why it works:
Builds trust
Humanises your brand
Makes you memorable
Don’t pitch features – tell stories:
Of pain before the product
Of a customer win, not just your revenue
Of what it’s like to choose you over the competition
‘Story cuts through. Buzzwords bounce off.’
Final thought: fix it before it costs you more
Here’s your quick GTM audit:
Can everyone on your team describe your ideal customer the same way?
Does your messaging sound like something your customer would say – not just read?
Are you chasing leads, or converting the right ones faster?
If not, you're not alone – but you're leaking revenue every day you wait.
The best time to fix your GTM strategy? Last quarter.
The next best time? Right now.