How an HR tech company got growth back on track

How an HR tech company got growth back on track
An HR SaaS and services provider was spending heavily on GTM with declining conversion and no clear diagnosis of what was broken. We identified the core problems across their funnel, tightened their ICP and messaging, rebuilt the outbound sales process, and improved conversion 2.5x.
The Problem
A growth stage startup offering HR software was burning cash on sales and marketing but seeing minimal return. Conversion rates were low, CAC was climbing, and leadership couldn't pinpoint the root cause: was it lead quality, sales execution, or even product-market fit? With runway concerns mounting and a growth plan at risk, they needed to diagnose and fix the problem fast.
The Engagement
Diagnose where the GTM motion was breaking down and implement fixes to improve conversion and pipeline efficiency.
What we Did
Diagnosis
Shadowed sales calls, reviewed deal records in their CRM, and conducted interviews with customers and lost deals to understand buying criteria and common objections.
Analyzed their marketing campaigns (funnel conversion, messaging, asset performance) and benchmarked against competitors to assess lead quality and source performance.
The issues were clear: their ICP was too broad, messaging focused on features rather than outcomes, and the sales team lacked a consistent discovery framework.
Rebuild
We tightened the ICP by industry, company size, and revenue range, then rewrote core positioning to emphasize risk reduction and ROI.
Working with marketing, we narrowed campaign targeting and updated assets to align with the new messaging. For sales, we built a qualification scorecard and discovery framework, then ran initial discovery calls to test and refine the approach.
Systematize
We established a weekly pipeline review with clear stage exit criteria, which we used to continuously refine the sales playbook based on real objections and patterns from live calls.
We also set up a dashboard to track lead source quality, conversion rates by stage, and deal velocity, giving the team visibility into what was working.
The Impact
Lead-to-opportunity conversion improved 2.5x within 6 weeks
Client closed 4 deals in the final two weeks of the engagement (vs. 3 in the 8 weeks prior)
CAC dropped by almost 15% through tighter ICP targeting and improved conversion efficiency
Bottom Line
The team went from second-guessing decisions to executing with conviction. They now have a growth motion they can trust with repeatable processes that scale with investment.