We just wrapped Q2 and missed our targets, again. Our annual target is starting to look unachievable.

Our team has been working hard but our customers are uneasy. The political and economic environment is shaky and it’s just harder to win business. Maybe we’ve had some turnover as well. Maybe our annual plan had assumptions baked in that weren’t based on reliable data and/or were too ambitious.

What do we do now? And how do we communicate this to the board?

As revenue leaders, is it our job to hit target (yes) at all costs (no) by chasing the next deal and cracking the whip on our team (probably not) or by building a better GTM Engine (definitely)?

Annual plans need adjustment, regardless of the economy, because no team ever bats 1000. This mid-year adjustment is an opportunity to find a new way to reach our target, to educate the board on reality, and/or to improve critical steps in our GTM process.

In this article, we’re going to walk through how we can turn setbacks into actionable insights and get our team back on a realistic, achievable path. And, even if we’re crushing it, we’re going to cover how to get even more out of GTM in the next two quarters.

When to Adjust

How do we know when it’s time to adjust? Obviously, if we’ve missed our target, especially two quarters in a row, it’s a big wake up call that something needs to change. The same is true if we hit target but lagged, or even overachieved, in certain areas. It’s time to tune the engine.

Taking a page from our GTM Metrics and Insights Framework, we want to look at each area of GTM to see how we’ve performed against plan.

Here are some example metrics:

Here’s a slightly more detailed list of some areas of the business and metrics we might want to look at.

New Business

• Pipeline Management

• • • Close Rate
    • Average Sales Price
    • Sales Cycle
    • Forecast Accuracy

• Pipeline Generation

• • Inbound/Outbound/Allbound
    • Leads
    • MQLs
    • Meetings
    • Pipeline Generated
    • Conversion Rates
    • Broken down by channel

Net Revenue Retention

• Onboarding
  • Customers onboarded/not

• Customer Success Management
  • Customer Health Scores
  • CSM/QBR Meetings

• Renewals
  • Renewal Rate

• Expansion

• • Meetings
  • Pipeline Generated
  • Close Rate, Sales Cycle, ASP

It’s important to look at where we’re missing targets and also where we are overachieving targets. We want to double down on strategies that are working. This often requires resource allocation that necessitates cutting things that are not working, or not working well enough. It’s the classic 80/20 rule.

What are the 20% of activities in GTM that are producing 80% of the revenue growth? Where can we shift resources to that 20% to generate exponential returns? What areas in GTM should be cut?

Let’s explore how to evaluate this.

Underperformance and Market Shifts

Consistent underperformance in an area is obviously the first thing to evaluate. We want to ask ourselves the following questions.

Is the Strategy flawed?

Has the market shifted? Or did we have a flawed strategy to begin with?

Are we still targeting the right buyers with the right solutions? These are hard questions to answer but we need to listen to our customers and prospects and also understand if they are facing headwinds preventing them from becoming our customers, staying our customers, or expanding with us.

We can’t answer all of these questions with data but looking at our best customers, the ones that were easy to close recently, the ones that renewed and expanded recently, researching their industries, segments, financials, etc and talking to them can give us a good view of what’s happening today.

Is the Process flawed?

What channels and messaging are we leveraging and how well is that working? This is where we can look at conversion rates, CAC, etc. to see where we are underinvesting and overinvesting in certain channels.

However, we also need to look at the step-by-step process. Maybe our inbound marketing channels have the right messaging and generate a lot of leads but they’re not closing. Are we responding quickly (within 5 mins) to all handraisers? Are we following up with all leads, via multiple channels, enough times before giving up?

We’ve worked with a number of clients here at USC that were generating leads the sales team couldn’t close. Often this was a breakdown in the follow up process and we had to help fix it. Sometimes that fixed the problem and generated revenue. Sometimes it proved the leads were not truly qualified.

Or, is it an Execution problem?

Do we just need to crack the whip? It’s hard to answer this without clearly defined and measured process, but if we have that, we can see if our team is executing the process correctly. We can see if they’re following up with leads, working sales opportunities, and engaging existing customers in the right ways.

This can be the easiest problem to fix because we know exactly what we need to do. The hard part is getting the process clearly defined and measured to arrive at this point. The best time to do that is 10 years ago. The second best time to do that is today.

We may also want to run a Capacity Plan, if we haven’t already, so we can clearly see how much each member of our GTM Team can realistically accomplish in a day, week, quarter.

Adjusting for Reality

Once we’ve got the unvarnished truth from our data, it’s time to adjust our goals. This isn’t about lowering our ambition; it’s about re-directing it strategically.

First, we recalibrate revenue targets based on our funnel insights, setting realistic expectations for activities and conversion rates across GTM.

If we discover that a certain lead source consistently yields lower-value deals or has a significantly longer sales cycle, we need to adjust our expectations for that channel. Similarly, if another channel is performing exceptionally well, and we can allocate more resources there, we may be able to raise the target. This is how we shift from guesswork to informed investment.

Second, we re-evaluate our GTM strategy and resource allocation. If our close rates are lower than expected, perhaps we need to:

• Invest in more sales enablement and coaching
• Refine our sales process, CRM, and management review process

If pipeline generation is lagging in a specific segment, it might be time to rethink:

• Our outbound messaging
• Even our ideal customer profile (ICP) for that segment

We cover capacity planning and territory management in our Annual Planning Framework because setting realistic targets requires understanding what our team can actually handle.

Third, we need to ensure our systems and processes support the revised goals. If we’re pushing for higher retention, is our CRM configured to track customer health scores and CSM and renewal activities effectively? Are there automated alerts for at-risk accounts? If we’re aiming for faster sales cycles, are our sales processes streamlined and consistently followed in the CRM?

Finally, and perhaps most critically, we need to communicate these adjustments to leadership and our team. Transparency builds trust. Explain why the adjustments are being made, using the data you’ve gathered. This isn’t about admitting defeat; it’s about demonstrating a sophisticated, data-driven approach to revenue growth.

It also sets realistic expectations and ensures everyone is aligned on the path forward. This iterative process of tracking, adjusting, and iterating is paramount to sustained success. We call this the “Track, Adjust, and Iterate” step in our Annual Planning Framework because a good plan is never static.

Are you struggling to get a clear, data-driven picture of your GTM performance and translate it into realistic, actionable goals? Our team of GTM Strategy and Operations consultants specializes in helping B2B SaaS companies just like yours build robust GTM strategies and operations.

We can help you:

• Identify gaps
• Build the right processes
• Implement the right metrics
• Ensure your systems support your growth

Reach out to us to learn how we can help you build a GTM engine that doesn’t just set goals, but actually crushes them.