Author: Doug Johnstone, Principal Consultant at Digital Pivot
Date: January 2025
Outline
- Why pipeline volume won’t save you if your offer no longer resonates with the market
- How to spot the illusion of a healthy pipeline
- What true market fit looks like in today’s B2B environment
- The risk of scaling demand generation too soon
- How to pressure-test your offer before you scale
- The leaky bucket problem: pipeline without fit
Focus on Fit First, Then Build Pipeline
My experience working with and for organisations for over 30 years is that many IT Services and Consulting Providers fall into the trap of chasing quick pipeline wins without ensuring their offerings truly meet evolving market needs.
If this is occurring in your business then its time to review your offerings:
- Validate true product-market fit before scaling
- Refine offerings based on changing customer demands
- Build sustainable, high-conversion pipelines
- Align sales, marketing, and delivery teams around real value drivers
If your sales team is struggling to convert pipeline to revenue, it may be a signal that market fit needs attention first.
The Pipeline Dilemma
In B2B sales, few things are more celebrated than a strong pipeline. Forecasts filled with qualified opportunities, proposal volumes increasing, dashboards showing growth — these are the signs of life in most sales teams. But what if the signs are misleading?
We recently spoke with a team that had been selling the same core offering for several years. Over the last 12 months, they submitted multiple solid proposals. Good client logos. Clear use cases. Real budget. Yet, they didn’t close a single deal.
This wasn’t a team problem. It wasn’t a pricing problem. It wasn’t even a sales methodology problem. It was something more fundamental: a pipeline built on the wrong value proposition. And it’s a story that’s becoming all too common in today’s B2B landscape.
The Pipeline Illusion
In the sales world, pipeline often equals potential. The bigger the pipeline, the better the forecast. It keeps leadership confident, sales teams motivated, and investors happy. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: a full pipeline doesn’t mean product-market fit.
A healthy pipeline might still hide a toxic truth — that your offer no longer solves a burning problem, or no longer stands out in a crowded market. In this case, the offer had become stale. It was built for a market reality that had since shifted. Competitors had pivoted. Customers had new pain points. Procurement expectations had changed. But the offer hadn’t evolved.
So while the sales team continued pitching, prospects weren’t biting. Not because they didn’t like the company. Not because the features weren’t good. But because the solution didn’t feel like a fit anymore.
This is a sobering moment for any B2B leader. When your revenue engine appears healthy on the outside — but you’re running on fumes beneath the surface.
What Is Market Fit, Really?
Market fit isn’t just about “having customers” or “being in market.” It’s about resonance. It’s the degree to which your offer addresses a pressing, visible, and urgent need — in language your buyer actually uses.
It’s the magnetic pull that makes the buyer lean in and say, “Yes, this is exactly what we need right now.”
Market fit is dynamic. It shifts as customer expectations evolve, as new technologies enter the market, and as buyer behavior becomes more self-directed and digitally influenced. If your offer isn’t constantly being tested and refined, you can find yourself pitching the right thing… just five years too late.
And in today’s AI-driven, fast-moving, hypersaturated B2B environment, the window to evolve is shrinking.
When Pipeline Masks a Bigger Problem
At Digital Pivot, we often get asked to “help fill the top of the funnel.” But the real issue isn’t always pipeline volume — it’s pipeline conversion. When deals stall or go quiet after proposals, that’s often the signal. It’s not a sales effort issue. It’s a market fit issue.
We’ve seen:
- Teams chasing opportunities where the need is aspirational, not critical.
- Proposals written with generic business cases that don’t differentiate.
- Sales cycles that drag on, not because of price — but because the offer doesn’t compel urgency.
- Decision-makers engaged too late, because the offer didn’t have a strong enough hook.
You can’t solve this with more outbound, more discovery calls, or more sales enablement content. You need to go deeper — into the market context, the customer’s internal language, and the real reason deals don’t progress.
Testing Market Fit Before Scaling Pipeline
Before pouring energy into pipeline generation, smart B2B companies today are doing something different: they’re pressure-testing market resonance.
This saves months of wasted sales effort and ensures that what you’re selling isn’t just visible — it’s desirable.
Stop Selling What You Made. Start Building What They’ll Buy.
Market fit isn’t a one-time milestone — it’s a continuous loop of listening, testing, and refining. Your sales data is only half the picture. Without frequent feedback from buyers and lost deals, your offering might already be out of sync with market reality.
This is where Digital Pivot comes in. We work with IT services, professional services, and consulting firms across Australia and New Zealand who are stuck in “pipeline purgatory.” They’ve built good offers, run great campaigns — and still miss targets. Not because they lack skill or effort — but because they need to pivot the offer, not just the sales approach.
Sometimes, what you really need is to go back to market with a sharper story — one built for today’s buyer, today’s urgency, and today’s decision-making process.
Pipeline Without Market Fit Is Like…
Having a full tank of fuel… and driving in the wrong direction.
Or, to put it another way:
Pipeline without market fit is like pouring water into a leaky bucket — you’ll stay busy, but never get results.
If your team is stuck in proposal mode but not closing deals, it’s time to stop pushing harder and start thinking differently.
Fix the offer. Refine the fit. Then build the pipeline.
Have questions about validating Market Fit?
For more information, contact us
Key steps to pivoting your offerings into growth markets:
- Pipeline vs Market Fit: Which Matters More?
- What is the underlying cause of the decline in service demand?
- How do I Align Services with Evolving Client Needs?
- What is the Roadmap to Successful Portfolio Diversification?
- How do I measure the success of a Service Offering Pivot?
- Market Dynamics for ANZ IT Services and Consulting Sector (2024–2025)