This article comes from an insightful panel discussion, ‘Tactics for accelerating pipeline growth’, at our New York 2023 Revenue Operations Summit.

For revenue teams feeling the squeeze of economic uncertainty, accelerating pipeline growth has gone from priority to necessity. But how do you keep the leads and opportunities flowing in a downturn? 

At our panel, three revenue leaders shared their hard-won strategies for driving pipeline acceleration: 

  • Molly McKinstry, Head of Sales at Calendly
  • Danielle Marquis, VP of RevOps at Zappi
  • Samantha Richey, VP of Marketing & RevOps at Squire

They covered everything from ideal customer profiling to ruthless pipeline inspection, value messaging to cross-functional alignment.

So if you're feeling the pressure to counter economic headwinds with serious pipeline acceleration, keep reading, you'll find plenty of been-there-done-that wisdom ahead…

Forecast and inspect your pipeline

When budgets are tight, it's tempting to try attracting anyone and everyone through the funnel. But our panelists agreed: Times like these call for zeroing in on your ideal customer profile with renewed focus.

As Samantha Richey put it: 

"When you're in a downturn market, a lot of teams' budgets are reduced. What I found is really helpful is to focus on your core ICP, and not try and be everything to everybody."

At Zappi, Danielle Marquis' team took an ultra-detailed approach to account planning and budgeting for their key accounts and segments.  

Squire also doubled down on their highest-velocity offerings for core ICP segments, as Samantha added:

"I'm looking at where we have the most velocity in terms of our skews and packages, as well as the highest likelihood to close, and really focusing our marketing investment there."

By relentlessly concentrating time and spend on their best-fit audiences, these companies were able to insulate their pipeline growth from economic storms.

Of course, just identifying your ICP doesn't guarantee a magically filled pipeline, it takes smart forecasting and heavy pipeline inspection to pinpoint risks and opportunities.