Pipeline Generation Audit
Pipeline Generation Checklist — Find the Gaps Holding Back Your Pipeline
Most teams are running five or six channels and leaving the rest to chance. This checklist covers every activity that drives pipeline, grouped under four pillars — Infrastructure, Thought Leadership, Outbound, and Inbound — so you can see exactly what you're doing, what you're missing, and what matters most.
4
Pillars
13
Channels
71
Activities
Keep the markdown these prompts produce in a shared place.
Each activity below hands off to a Claude prompt that generates markdown — personas, ICP definitions, category positioning, proof points. Stash the outputs somewhere your whole team (and their own AI agents) can reach: a Git repo (promise it's not scary and not just for engineers), a Notion wiki, a shared Claude project, whatever your team already lives in. The value compounds when everyone is drafting off the same source of truth instead of regenerating from scratch.
Infrastructure
2 channelsMessaging
Lock in your ICP and personas
Title, company size, industry, signals — and who within that account you're actually talking to. If your list could be anyone, it's no one.
Define the category you belong to
Buyers need to place you in a mental box before they'll evaluate you. Pick the closest familiar category, then explain how you're different within it.
Define your status quo and outcome story
What is your buyer living with today, and what does life look like after they use you? If you can't articulate the before and after, your messaging will always feel generic.
Establish your proof points
The stats, customer names, or outcomes that make your claims believable. Assertions without evidence don't convert.
Define your value proposition by persona
Not one generic pitch. Each buyer type has different pain and different stakes. Know what you're saying to each one.
Website
Map the conversion flow for every persona
What does each buyer type see when they land? Where do they go next? Every persona should have a clear, intentional path from landing page to booked meeting — no dead ends, no guessing.
Confirm every form fill has a response workflow
Every demo request and form submission should trigger an immediate, automated response. If someone fills out a form and hears nothing for hours, you've already lost them.
Keep messaging and product videos current
Stale content signals a stale company. Use Claude Code connected to your knowledge base to keep copy fresh as the product evolves. Use Remotion.dev for product videos so they can be programmatically updated without reshooting.
Add social proof at every decision point
Logos, case studies, testimonials, and outcome stats. Don't save them for a dedicated page — put them where buyers are making decisions.
Nail your SEO fundamentals
Every page needs a clear meta title, meta description, and H1 that matches how your buyers search. If the basics are broken, nothing else matters.
Audit speed and mobile experience
A slow or broken mobile experience kills conversions silently. Run a Core Web Vitals check and fix what you find.
Thought Leadership
4 channelsLinkedIn Posting
Document your content pillars
Pick 3-5 topics you want to own. Every post should tie back to one of them. If your content doesn't ladder up to a POV, you're just making noise.
Post consistently
Every day or near-daily. The algorithm rewards volume, your audience rewards presence. Skipping a week resets your momentum.
Mix post formats
Text, carousel, image, video. Different formats reach different slices of your audience and the algorithm treats them differently.
Engage on other creators' content in your space
Comment on posts from people your buyers already follow. This puts you in their feed without having to post your own content.
Follow up with everyone who engages with your posts
A like is a signal. A comment is a bigger one. Every engagement is someone raising their hand — message them.
Build a repeatable writing system
Voice guide, prompts, batch writing process. If writing each post from scratch takes an hour, you'll burn out by week three.
Podcast
Define your audience and POV
Who is the podcast for and what's the angle only you can bring? Generic shows don't break through.
Record episodes on a consistent schedule
You can't build an audience on a backlog. Release cadence matters more than perfect production.
Invite ICP prospects as guests
The interview is the pitch. Great guests become great customers, or at minimum great referrers.
Repurpose every episode across channels
One episode = clips, LinkedIn posts, newsletter sections, social cards. If you're not repurposing, you're leaving 80% of the value on the table.
Prospect strangers using the podcast as an opener
People interested in the topic are more likely to be interested in your solution. The show is your best cold email.
Engage with everyone who interacts with episodes
Comments, reposts, DMs. Each one is a signal you have a potential buyer in your orbit.
Newsletter
Define a clear POV and topic niche
What's the one thing your newsletter is about? If you can't answer in a sentence, neither can your subscribers.
Publish on a consistent cadence
Weekly or bi-weekly. Inconsistent publishing kills subscriber trust faster than anything else.
Grow subscribers beyond your LinkedIn network
LinkedIn is the start, not the ceiling. Build signup flows in your email footer, on your site, and in every piece of content you publish.
Include a clear CTA in every issue
Book a meeting, reply to the email, share the issue. Every newsletter should move the reader somewhere.
Repurpose content from your podcast and other channels
Your newsletter shouldn't require 100% fresh writing every week. Pull from what you've already said elsewhere.
Masterclass
Pick a narrow topic and specific audience
"AI for sales leaders" is too broad. "How AEs can use AI to personalize outbound at scale" is a masterclass. Specificity drives signups.
Run masterclasses on a consistent cadence
Monthly works for most teams. Sporadic one-offs don't build the flywheel.
Build a dedicated landing page for each
Every masterclass needs its own page with clear outcomes, agenda, host bios, and a single CTA. Generic signup pages convert poorly.
Promote across every channel you own
Email, LinkedIn, podcast, partners. A masterclass without a promo plan is a waste of the prep time.
Follow up with every attendee with a clear next step
Attendance is a qualifying signal. Don't let it die in the webinar platform — move everyone into a conversation.
Outbound
4 channelsCold Outbound
Build and maintain a targeted account list
A list of every company that fits your ICP, refreshed monthly. Everything downstream fails if the list is wrong.
Enrich contact data for every account
Every target account needs the right people identified — title, email, LinkedIn, phone. Bad data kills outbound faster than bad copy.
Write persona-specific cold email sequences
One-size sequences convert for nobody. Build separate sequences for each buyer persona with different pain, hooks, and CTAs.
Run a multichannel cadence
Email, phone, LinkedIn, video — sequenced together. Single-channel outbound is a relic.
Hit meaningful cold call volume
Under 500 dials a week and you don't have enough data to know what's working. Pick up the phone.
Personalize video outreach for top accounts
Loom or similar. One video per high-priority prospect. Higher effort, meaningfully higher reply rate.
Warm prospects on LinkedIn before reaching out
Comment, react, reply on their posts before sending a cold ask. Warm the name so you're not a stranger.
Respond to every reply within minutes
Speed matters more than script. If you're not responding same session, you're losing momentum.
Events / In Person
Identify the 3-5 events your buyers actually attend
Don't chase every conference. Pick the ones where your ICP shows up in volume.
Run pre-event outreach to target attendees
Message everyone you want to meet before you land. Walking in cold is a waste of a flight.
Host small dinners or side events in target cities
Small, curated, no pitch. 8-12 people. This is where real relationships start.
Visit cities for in-person meetings with top accounts
Remote-first doesn't mean in-person-never. Pick 2-3 cities a quarter and stack meetings.
Follow up with every person you meet within 48 hours
Business cards don't close deals — follow-ups do. If you wait a week, the conversation is dead.
Referrals
Systematically ask your network for referrals
Build a quarterly process for asking your network for intros. Most people will help if you make it easy.
Ask customers for referrals during peak value moments
Right after a win, an implementation milestone, or a strong QBR. Don't wait until renewal.
Build a light referral program or incentive
Doesn't have to be complex — a small gift card, a discount, or public recognition goes further than you'd think.
Make referring you frictionless
Prepare a one-liner, a company overview, and a calendar link that anyone can forward. Remove every step of effort from the referrer.
Close the loop publicly when referrals turn into deals
Thank the referrer publicly (with permission). It reinforces the behavior and signals to everyone watching that referrals matter.
Partners
Identify 5-10 potential partners whose customers are your ICP
The best partners already sell to your exact buyer. Build a target list before doing any outreach.
Build a clear partner value proposition
What do you give them? Revenue share, co-marketing, product integration, customer intros? If there's no answer, there's no partnership.
Establish a repeatable co-selling motion
A process for how partners surface deals, how you engage, and how revenue is attributed. Without this, partners stall at "we should do something together."
Co-market with each active partner
Joint webinars, co-written content, shared events. This is what turns a signed agreement into pipeline.
Track partner-sourced pipeline separately
If you can't see what partners are producing, you can't scale the program. Attribution is the foundation.
Inbound
3 channelsSEO / AEO
Research the keywords your buyers actually search
Before writing anything, map the terms your ICP types into Google. Volume matters less than intent.
Publish articles targeting buyer search terms
Consistent publishing beats one-time effort every time. Monthly minimum, weekly ideal.
Optimize for AI search engines and LLM citations
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews are the new front page. Structure content for how LLMs cite — clear answers, schema, source attribution.
Build backlinks through outreach and partnerships
One good placement beats ten mediocre ones. Guest posts, podcast appearances, and expert quotes all count.
Monitor keyword rankings and LLM mentions
Know what's moving and what's not. Track both traditional SERP rankings and how often LLMs cite you.
Refresh old articles that are almost ranking
Articles on page 2 of Google are the highest-ROI SEO work. A small refresh can move them to page 1.
Dark Research
Search what prospects see when researching the problem you solve
Do the search yourself. Read what they read. Know the exact results they're making decisions from.
Search what prospects see when researching you specifically
Google your company, your product, your founders. Then fix what's broken or missing.
Audit what AI assistants say about you and your category
Ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity about your product and your category. What they say is what your buyers hear.
Check third-party review sites and communities
G2, Capterra, Reddit, industry Slack communities. These are where real buyers look for validation. If you're not there or poorly represented, fix it.
Paid / Demand Gen
Run LinkedIn Thought Leadership Ads
Boost your best organic posts with a small budget. Low risk, high signal.
Build a propensity model
Which accounts in your ICP are most likely to buy right now? Signal-based prioritization turns a big list into a focused one.
Test paid channels with small, contained budgets
LinkedIn, Google, YouTube, podcast ads, Reddit. Pick one, test for 90 days, kill fast if it doesn't work.
Run a branded search campaign
When someone searches your name, you should own that page. Cheap, high-intent, and often ignored.
Measure pipeline generated per channel
If you can't tell which paid channel drove which deal, you're spending blind. Attribution first, budget second.
Run this audit on your own company
Copy the prompt below and paste it into Claude. It will scrape this checklist and output a Google Sheets-ready table you can use to track your pipeline generation efforts.
Go to https://gotopiq.com/pipeline-generation-checklist and scrape the full checklist from the page. Once you have it, output a table with these columns: | Category | Activity | Description | Impact | Status | - Category: the section header (e.g. Messaging, Cold Outbound, etc.) - Activity: the name of the checklist item - Description: the short description under the activity name - Impact: High / Medium / Low (from the badge on each item) - Status: leave this blank — it's for me to fill in Format the output as tab-separated values (TSV) inside a code block, with one row per activity. This pastes directly into Google Sheets with a normal Cmd+V — no Paste Special needed.
Paste into Claude at claude.ai — no edits needed, it's ready to go.