This blog is a guest post from our friends at LeanData.
There’s a popular analogy circulating in B2B sales and marketing circles that states:
Leads are too narrow.
Accounts are too broad.
Buying Groups are just right.
After years of marketing teams passing so-called “leads” to sales and account-based marketing (ABM) teams overlooking new buying centers within accounts, it’s time for a go-to-market (GTM) revolution.
The primary motivator is that, for many organizations, the B2B buyer is not just one person, but a buying group made up of multiple stakeholders.
Relying on lead-centric or traditional ABM processes for members of a buying group can lead to longer sales cycles, a poor buying experience, lead leakage, and wasted marketing investments. A more effective approach is a buying group strategy where revenue teams focus on identifying, qualifying, and advancing opportunities through the sales cycle.
But how do you drive organizational change in systems and processes entrenched in leads? Here’s your pitch.
Limitations of the MQL Model
Sales and marketing teams are increasingly recognizing that lead-centric processes are faltering. Here are some common signs:
- Most opportunities are either closed-lost or recycled.
- Lead-to-opportunity conversion rates are low, wasting resources and budget.
- Opportunities often have only one contact, despite the presence of multiple members on the buying committee.
- Sales teams lack visibility into the engagement of the entire buying group.
- Marketing teams are incentivized to deliver high volumes of leads that don’t convert.
Despite these challenges, many companies remain stuck on a treadmill of MQLs that fail to drive revenue.
MQLs should never serve as your sole KPI or source of truth. They are merely leading indicators, a data point to help identify priority leads, and a means to refine messaging and follow-up strategies. By fixating on MQLs and, by extension, leads, sellers often overlook the various personas within the buying committee, missing essential context about the decision-making group and relevant buying signals.
Moreover, when focusing solely on leads and contacts, sellers cannot see the overlap among buyers or the influence these diverse opportunities have on the account as a whole.
The solution lies in gathering signals from the entire buying group.
Your B2B Buyer is a Group
According to industry insights, the traditional belief was that the buying committee consisted of around six people. In reality, buying committees often include 10, 12, 14 members, or even more.
Buying groups resemble the buying committees found in most ABM initiatives. In the context of GTM strategies, a buying group is tied to a specific deal moving through the sales cycle, assembled to address a particular organizational challenge.
These groups comprise multiple departments, roles, and personas, including subject matter experts, contributors from relevant departments, and other stakeholders or gatekeepers.
While an individual’s department and persona may remain static, their role within the buying committee can shift based on the organizational problem being addressed.
Phases of a Buying Group GTM Motion
There are five key building blocks that marketing and sales teams should consider in a buying group strategy:
- What solution(s) are relevant to the account?
- Who comprises the buying group for each solution?
- What are the key roles and buying drivers?
- How can we connect these individuals and qualify them?
- How can we orchestrate the go-to-market motion?
Given the organizational change involved in adopting a buying group strategy, a phased approach is advisable. The timeline can vary greatly based on your organization’s readiness and motivation.
Phase 1: Align
The initial phase focuses on achieving organizational alignment. There must be a clear rationale for this change and an explanation of its financial implications.
Phase 2: Build
In the build phase, processes and technologies are established to capture buying signals, prioritize them, and advance existing opportunities.
Phase 3: Orchestrate
This phase involves dividing responsibilities among marketing, SDR/BDR, and sales teams. Marketing will create and optimize campaigns to attract and engage members of the buying groups. SDRs/BDRs will identify buying group members, add them to relevant opportunities, and potentially schedule meetings. Sales and marketing will collaborate throughout the entire opportunity cycle to ensure a unified approach to engagement.
Phase 4: Measure
During the measure phase, companies will create reports and dashboards to evaluate the success of their buying group strategy. Suggested metrics include the number of engaged buying group members, average buying group members at a qualified stage, and the average number of buying group members who attended a meeting.
Using Technology to Operationalize a Buying Group Motion
On a tactical level, a buying group strategy unfolds in three basic stages:
Stage 1: The focus here is on detecting buying signals from members of a buying group. Technology platforms capture various forms of buying signals, match leads to unique contacts within the correct account, and surface contacts as part of marketing campaigns.
Stage 2: In this stage, either through automation or in collaboration with SDR/BDR teams, contacts are assigned to open opportunities as members of a buying group. Opportunities are qualified and prioritized, potentially remaining in an early stage until minimum qualifications are met.
Stage 3: Qualified opportunities with a predefined minimum number of buying group members are sent to the appropriate sales team or channel, or even Customer Success, ready for follow-up.
Organizations successfully transitioning to a buying group motion typically follow two paths concerning their technology stack: (1) re-architecting existing systems without adding new technology, and (2) reconfiguring existing systems while also acquiring new technologies.
Out with the Old, In with the New
Navigating the shift from lead-centric and ABM strategies to a buying group GTM approach is a significant undertaking. It will require both cultural and operational changes to align sales and marketing philosophies with this new focus.
At a high level, this transformation demands a thorough internal process evaluation, an understanding of industry best practices and data management strategies, and potentially the adoption of new technologies. Organizations using a buying group approach have reported:
- Reduced departmental silos
- Enhanced competitive advantage
- Shortened lead assignment times
- Faster sales cycles
