Talking to the wrong side of the org chart.
The firm sold to L&D teams who understood the value but rarely controlled the budget. Deals progressed enthusiastically and then stalled at the point where a business case had to be defended to an operational leader.
Details anonymised at client request.
What changed
We shifted the entry point to the operational leaders carrying the performance problem, and built the business case L&D needed to advocate internally.
- Moved the first conversation to operational and revenue leaders.
- Rebuilt messaging around performance cost rather than learning features.
- Equipped L&D champions with an internal business-case template.
- Added multi-threading as a stage requirement before proposal.
The outcome
72 qualified meetings and $112K in pipeline, with materially fewer deals stalling at the budget-approval stage.
What we would do next
Renewal is where this model compounds. Measuring the performance change during the engagement makes the second contract straightforward.