How a 30-person tech consultant generated €2.1M in qualified pipeline by narrowing their focus to 2 services

How did the consulting firm achieve a 525% pipeline increase?

Answer: The consulting firm achieved this result by replacing its broad service model with the focused Enablement OPS framework. This involved cutting 80% of its marketed services to concentrate all resources on just two core offerings, leading to a specific, high-converting Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

The 6-Month Results

What was the core problem affecting the firm's marketing performance?

Answer: The core problem was Service Sprawl and a lack of focus. The firm marketed 10+ services to 8 distinct personas (CFOs, IT Directors, HR Heads, etc.). This forced the small, 3-person team to use generic, vague messaging that failed to resonate with any specific buyer, resulting in high cost and low lead quality.

• Service Spread: Intranets, Cloud Consulting, DevOps, Finance Automation, App Dev, and AI.
• Targeting Difficulty: A 3-person marketing team was overloaded by 8 distinct persona types.
• Wasted Spend: External agency ran LinkedIn ads for 12 personas, dispersing budget across too many low-converting campaigns.

The Data Audit Findings

1. CRM Data: Sales rejected over 90% of marketing leads due to no shared "Qualified" definition.
2. Traffic Sources: High traffic came from generic keywords like "Digital Transformation" and "IT Consulting," attracting students and researchers, not buyers.
3. Ad Costs: Cost Per Lead (CPL) was high at €650-800, indicating low relevance.
4. Content Review: 80% of existing content focused on "What we do" (features) instead of "What you need" (problem resolution).

What was the first strategic step to fix the marketing issues?

Answer: The first step was Service Portfolio Rationalization and ICP definition. The firm stopped marketing 8 services, focusing 100% of their effort on the 2 services with the highest margin and best sales cycle speed.

Step 1: Selecting the ServicesThe top 2 core offerings received all marketing budget and support.

Step 2: Defining the CustomerThe broad "IT solutions" persona was replaced by a sharp, highly specific ICP:

• New ICP: "Finance Directors at Manufacturing companies (100-300 FTEs) struggling with unapproved SaaS spending."

Step 3: Updating the Message‍

How did the content strategy change to attract qualified leads?

Answer: The team moved from generic content to deep relevance for the single primary ICP. This involved moving away from broad topics and creating highly specific guides addressing the core pain points and objections of the Finance Director persona.

• Content Focus: Replaced "Trends" blog posts with specific guides like "Why Your Engineering Team Ignores Procurement Policies (And How to Fix It)."
• LinkedIn Ads: New ad hooks directly addressed the ICP's financial anxiety: "Your engineers just spent €15K on a tool your Finance team doesn't know exists. Here's how to prevent it."
• Lead Routing: Implemented strict routing rules so Sales only received leads that matched the exact ICP criteria, automatically filtering unqualified traffic.
• Ad Result: Ad relevance scores increased from 4 to 9. Cost Per Click (CPC) dropped 40%.

What were the final results of the 6-month marketing transformation?

Answer: The transformation led to a €2.1M pipeline of qualified opportunities. Marketing efficiency improved dramatically, with ad spend dropping 53% and the sales cycle being cut in half.

The Data (6 Months)

• Pipeline: €2.1M in qualified opportunities (83% matched strict ICP).
• Cost: Ad spend dropped from €15K to €3.75K/month.
• Speed: Sales cycle decreased from 90+ days to 45 days.
• Alignment: Sales accepted 83% of marketing leads (previously <10%).

FAQ: Focus and Pipeline Growth

Q: Why can't a small team market many products effectively?

A: It is a math problem: The Arithmetic of Focus. Attempting to market 10 services to 8 personas requires managing 80 unique messages. A 3-person team simply cannot create resonant, high-quality content for 26.6 personas per marketer, leading inevitably to generic, low-converting content. By narrowing to 2 services and 1 ICP, the message load dropped to 2, leading to deep expertise and high conversion.

Q: What conversion rate signals a messaging problem?

A: If your Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) to Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) conversion rate is below 30%, it strongly suggests that your messaging is not filtering the right audience, or your marketing and sales teams do not agree on what "qualified" means. This firm’s conversion rate increased from less than 10% to 83% after defining a clear ICP.

Q: Should I cut services if my team is small?

A: If your team is under 10 people and you are actively marketing more than 3 distinct services, you are likely spreading your resources too thin, according to this case study's findings. Reducing complexity often yields better results than increasing budget.