Five Early Warning Signs Your Growth Engine Is Breaking (or Braking!)

For SaaS companies under $100M in revenue, growth rarely stops suddenly—it slows quietly. CEOs who recognize the early signals can correct course before performance stalls. 

1. Pipeline is growing, but revenue isn’t. 
When bookings lag despite a seemingly strong pipeline, the issue is often qualification, positioning, or deal quality—not volume. 

2. Sales cycles are getting longer. 
Extended decision timelines typically signal weak differentiation, unclear value, or misaligned target customers. 

3. Discounting is becoming routine. 
If deals increasingly require price concessions, your value proposition—or your ideal customer profile (ICP)—may be off, the competition may have caught up, or your offering may have become commoditized. 

4. Forecast accuracy is declining. 
Unpredictable outcomes usually reflect inconsistent deal quality or a sales process that isn’t repeatable. 

5. The CEO is still closing the biggest deals. 
Founder-led selling can drive early traction—but if it persists, the organization hasn’t built a scalable revenue engine. 

In our experience, these symptoms rarely point to a “sales execution problem” alone. More often, they reflect deeper issues in market focus, positioning, company culture, or go-to-market design. 

The key is early diagnosis. Companies that address the root cause—ICP, value proposition, and sales model—restore momentum faster and build a growth engine that scales.