16 questions to identify what's working, what's slowing growth, and what to fix first.
Most leadership teams know when their pipeline is struggling. Fewer know exactly why.
Is it positioning? Lead quality? Poor conversion? Sales and marketing misalignment? Or a reporting problem that's hiding what's really happening?
This checklist helps you find out.
It covers 16 statements across four areas of a healthy growth system: positioning, pipelines, processes, and performance.
The rule is simple: Only check a statement if you can prove it. "We sort of do that" counts as no.
For each statement, you'll find a way to verify it and a practical first step if the answer is no.
How to Use This Checklist
- Set aside 30 minutes with your marketing and sales leaders.
- Review each statement together.
- Check it only when you can show supporting evidence.
- Give yourself one point for each verified statement.
- Calculate your total and section scores.
- Prioritize the gaps with the greatest impact on revenue.
Prefer an online assessment? Take our free Pipeline Health Assessment to get your score and recommended next steps.
1. Positioning
1. We have a documented ideal customer profile (ICP) based on actual customer evidence.
How to verify: Can you produce a written ICP based on your best customers and closed-won deals, rather than assumptions?
If not: Review your 10 best customers. Identify common industries, company sizes, buyers, trigger events, and business problems. Use those patterns to define your ICP.
2. Our messaging communicates clear business outcomes.
How to verify: Read your homepage headline. Does it communicate a result your buyer cares about, or simply describe your product's features?
If not: Rewrite your homepage headline and sales deck opener around the business outcome your solution delivers.
3. We know which customer segments convert most effectively.
How to verify: Can you identify your highest-converting segments and support the answer with data?
If not: Compare opportunity-to-customer conversion rates by segment over the last two quarters. Where sample sizes are small, look for directional patterns rather than definitive conclusions.
4. Sales and marketing communicate a consistent value proposition.
How to verify: Compare your website, sales deck, and latest campaign. Do they communicate the same core value proposition?
If not: Agree on a clear value proposition and update your most important customer-facing assets.
Positioning score: _____ / 4
2. Pipelines
5. We know which channels generate qualified opportunities.
How to verify: Can you identify your main sources of qualified pipeline using CRM data, customer feedback, and available attribution insights?
If not: Improve source tracking, ask buyers how they discovered you, and review channel contribution monthly. Focus on useful evidence rather than perfect attribution.
6. Our pipeline generation targets are connected to revenue goals.
How to verify: Do you know how many qualified opportunities you need to achieve your revenue target?
If not: Work backward from your revenue goal using average deal size, win rate, and sales cycle length. Establish a realistic monthly pipeline target.
7. We understand where prospects drop out of the funnel.
How to verify: Can you show conversion rates between your major funnel stages and identify where the greatest losses occur?
If not: Map your funnel stages and calculate conversion rates. Investigate the largest meaningful drop-offs before increasing lead volume.
8. We have a repeatable process for nurturing potential buyers.
How to verify: What happens when a prospect is interested but isn't ready to buy? Is the next step documented and consistently followed?
If not: Create a simple nurture process with relevant content, follow-up timing, and clear triggers for sales engagement.
Pipelines score: _____ / 4
3. Processes
9. Marketing and sales use shared qualification criteria.
How to verify: Ask both leaders to define a qualified lead independently. Do their definitions match?
If not: Agree on qualification criteria, document them, and ensure both teams use the same definitions in their reporting and handoffs.
10. Our CRM reflects how buyers actually buy.
How to verify: Does each opportunity stage represent a meaningful step in the buyer's decision process, with clear entry and exit criteria?
If not: Redesign pipeline stages around buyer actions and verified progress, rather than internal sales activity alone.
11. Lead routing, ownership, and follow-up expectations are documented.
How to verify: If a qualified lead arrives today, does everyone know who owns it, how quickly to respond, and what happens if no action is taken?
If not: Define ownership, response-time expectations, and escalation rules. Monitor whether the team follows them.
12. Our marketing workflows are consistent and measurable.
How to verify: Are campaign launches, lead handoffs, and performance reporting managed through repeatable processes with clear ownership?
If not: Document your core workflows, assign owners, and establish a small set of measures to track execution quality.
Processes score: _____ / 4
4. Performance
13. Leadership receives reliable pipeline reporting.
How to verify: Does leadership trust the pipeline dashboard enough to use it for investment and forecasting decisions?
If not: Agree on a core set of pipeline metrics, standardize their definitions, and establish one reliable reporting source.
14. We track conversion rates across the revenue funnel.
How to verify: Can you show how conversion rates between major stages have changed over the last three to six months?
If not: Establish monthly conversion reporting. Track trends and investigate meaningful changes rather than reviewing totals alone.
15. We understand our customer acquisition economics.
How to verify: Can you calculate customer acquisition cost (CAC), CAC payback period, and customer lifetime value relative to acquisition cost (LTV) using consistent assumptions?
If not: Start with CAC and CAC payback using your available revenue and acquisition cost data. Estimate LTV when retention, margin, and customer history support a meaningful calculation.
16. We adjust marketing investment based on commercial outcomes.
How to verify: When did you last change a marketing investment because of evidence about pipeline quality, conversion, acquisition efficiency, or revenue contribution?
If not: Review channel spending and commercial outcomes quarterly. Reallocate investment based on results, while accounting for sales cycle length and longer-term demand creation.
Performance score: _____ / 4
What Your Score Means
Add your four section scores to calculate your total.
Score Assessment What it means
| 0–6 | Reactive growth | Too many critical capabilities are missing or unverified. Growth may depend heavily on individual effort rather than repeatable processes. |
| 7–11 | Developing system | Some foundations are in place, but gaps between functions may be limiting pipeline quality and conversion. |
| 12–14 | Strong foundation | Most core capabilities are established. Focus on the remaining weaknesses and validate whether they are affecting revenue performance. |
| 15–16 | Strong operational foundation | Your core systems are largely in place. The next priority is improving conversion, acquisition efficiency, and the ability to scale consistently. |
Important: This score measures how well your pipeline management foundations are established. It does not guarantee revenue growth or forecast accuracy.
Look at your section scores, too. A total of 10 with one section scoring zero tells a different story from a total of 10 distributed evenly across all four areas.
Where Should You Start?
Your lowest-scoring section is a good place to investigate, but it isn't automatically your biggest problem.
A company with strong positioning and weak lead routing may be losing valuable opportunities through poor follow-up. Another with excellent processes but weak positioning may be efficiently generating interest from the wrong buyers.
The priority is the gap with the greatest impact on revenue.
Ask yourself:
- Which weakness is costing us the most qualified opportunities?
- Which problem is reducing conversion or extending our sales cycle?
- Which improvement would have the greatest measurable impact?
Start there.
Avoid trying to fix all 16 items simultaneously. Address the most consequential constraint, measure the results, and move to the next.
Turn Your Checklist Into a Growth Plan
A healthy pipeline requires more than a steady flow of leads.
It depends on clear positioning, repeatable demand generation, connected revenue processes, and reliable performance measurement.
When those capabilities work together, growth becomes easier to understand, manage, and improve.
If this checklist revealed gaps in your growth system, take the next step with our free Pipeline Health Assessment.
In about three minutes, you'll receive a structured assessment of your pipeline health and practical recommendations for improvement.
For companies facing multiple interconnected challenges, our Growth Diagnostic provides a deeper evaluation of the underlying constraints and helps establish what to fix first.
Predictable growth starts with knowing where your pipeline is strong, where it's vulnerable, and what needs to change.
