Co-Founder @ Omni Lab | Paid Media for B2B SaaS brands

Over the last 15+ years, I've worked for 4 VC backed SaaS companies, consulted with more than 100+, helped 1 get acquired, 1 reach unicorn status, and many more generate millions in net new revenue.

I've also seen a handful of those startups go out of business...including my own SaaS business so I know many of the mistakes. 

Over that time I've noticed that the buyer's journey has evolved. 

Today buyers have the power.

Yet, many SaaS businesses still continue to run the same programs that worked a decade ago. 

They continue to over-rely on lead gen and create friction in the buying process. 

This is pushing customer acquisition costs sky high and causing many to miss their targets. 

The way forward is to take a buyer-centric approach to creating and capturing demand. 

Buyer-centric demand gen is when your funnel aligns with how the buyer wants to learn about your company. 

It means you write in the language your buyer understands, you consider how they consume information, and when and how they want to buy. 

When you take a buyer-centric approach you generate more pipeline and revenue and an enduring brand. 

This is why we started Omni Lab.

------------------------------------------------------------

What we do for Series A to Series C SaaS startups:

→ Manage and optimize paid media across any digital channel
→ Distribute content/messaging via paid to grow pipeline and revenue
→ Build out engaging ad creative
→ Focus on optimizing the funnel based on pipeline and revenue. 

Results from SaaS companies we have worked with: 

→ Unicorn Status in 10 months
→ Grew pipeline 372% and lead > opp rate 266%
→ 1,300% increase in revenue Q3 > Q4
→ 20% increase in revenue Q over Q

If you are looking to create and capture demand via paid media, let's chat :) 

email: jonathan@omnilabconsulting.com or DM me

Jonathan Bland

🦄 A customer of ours, Upwind Security, just raised $250M at a $1.5B valuation!! 

Can you say uunnniiiicccoooorrrnnnnn. :) 

Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, bringing total funding up to $430 million! 

Wild for a company that was founded in 2022. 

Its core focus is helping organizations prioritize real risks over irrelevant alerts and streamline cloud security operations in complex environments.

Rinki Sethi, the CSO at Upwind, argues that cloud security has fundamentally changed: modern cloud, data, and AI environments are too dynamic and complex for traditional, static security tools to work effectively.

I just had to give a huge shoutout to the whole team and especially Chas Larios and Jeanette Stepanchuk, whom I've now had the pleasure of knowing at two different companies. 

Anyone looking for a great marketing leader to work for, they are it. 

It's going to be a fun year, ya'll! :)

Co-Founder @ Omni Lab | Paid Media for B2B SaaS brands (HIRING)

We just wrapped 2026 planning, and we’re hiring two new roles at Omni Lab!

And it’s not because we want to do more of the same.

It’s because the way B2B paid media has been run for the last decade is broken.

Categories have become significantly more crowded and complex. 

And many SaaS brands are competing using the same channels, the same intent data, and increasingly similar messaging and tactics, making meaningful differentiation harder to achieve. 

In less competitive markets, it was rational to rely heavily on short-term demand capture.

Buyers were more responsive as there was less available information on the web, media was cheaper, and intent signals were scarce enough to provide a real advantage.

The core problem is not a lack of tools, data, or optimization sophistication. 

It is a mismatch between how paid media programs are designed and how modern B2B buyers behave. Buyers spend long periods out of the market, are highly risk-averse, and actively avoid friction. 

By the time intent is expressed, preferences are often already formed, leaving programs focused solely on in-market demand competing too late and on increasingly unfavorable terms. 

You don't need an "execution factory."

You need someone who can: 
- Build category presence before demand exists
- Earn attention in zero-click environments
- Allocate budget to make capture channels more efficient

Behind this approach is an AI platform we internally call "Omni OS" to automate repetitive work, so we can focus more on strategy, interpretation, developing creative campaigns, and making better optimization decisions. 

 If any of that sounds interesting and up your alley, we are hiring for two new roles: 

- Performance Marketing Manager ($70-90K base + variable comp) ; U.S. Based 
- Sr. Demand Gen Manager ($90-$120k base + variable comp); U.S. Based 

Please tag someone who's looking! Thank you. :) 

Go to https://buff.ly/FGtIIFp to find the recs.

The future of agencies will move away from pure execution.

And agencies built solely to produce deliverables will struggle as AI takes over their creation.

Everything from ad copy and creative to campaign planning, budget recommendations, and even audits can be done with AI. 

That doesn’t kill agencies. It changes where the value lives.

The future role of agencies is not just make things; it’s to decide what matters, interpret outputs, and give brands direction.

I recently read an article from Marketing Week called "Why AI-powered agencies will be at the forefront of marketing’s next digital revolution."

The biggest takeaway is that the value exchange will start to shift to buyers looking for things like: 

- Diagnose the market and the buyer
- Segment and choose a target properly
- Position a brand in a way that is actually distinctive
- Decide the right balance between brand, activation, and channels.

Funnel found that 72% of agency marketers believe generative AI will replace some of the services they provide to clients.

And In-house marketers agree even more strongly at 88%.

At Omni Lab, we have invested significant resources in AI-based workflows over the last two years to streamline our services, improve consistency, increase quality, and ultimately enable our team to focus more on strategy and interpretation.

And very soon, we will be releasing Omni OS, which will power Omni Lab with budget pacing, bid management, audience creation, campaign planning, and more. 

That means more time to focus on deciding what matters, interpreting outputs, and giving brands direction.

It's already starting to happen, but if you're a CMO or VP of marketing, you should be asking how your agency is leveraging AI.

You don't only want to pay for deliverables and repetitive work. 

Check out this guide from Funnel below. 

#funnelpartner

If your AI output feels ‘generic,’ that’s not an AI problem. That’s a brand problem.

Models trained on undifferentiated inputs produce undifferentiated outputs.

Many don’t like the results they get because they go to an LLM and, in broken English, ask it to write a blog post about "the difference between demand gen and lead gen."

When it has: 
- No context
- No idea your core POV
- No idea about your messaging
- No idea about your brand
- No idea about your tone
- No idea about your audience
- No idea what format you want the output in

Funnel released a report that showed 39% of agency marketers and 23% of brand marketers
say AI tools create repetitive, generic campaigns.

I honestly think there are even more people who think this. 

The reason they sound repetitive, generic, or use words that you’d never say to a friend is that you haven’t built AI workflows that pull from a store of data to provide guardrails and direction on exactly what you want. 

That store of data can hold your:
- POV
- Tone
- Messaging pillars
- Positioning
- Audience
- And more

Just like talking with a human, AI needs context. 

And the more input you give it (e.g. draft, transcript, sample blog post, etc.) the better it's going to be.

Check out the report from Funnel below. 👇

P.S. You can even program in grammatical mistakes.

#FunnelPartner

I've been embarking on creating more short-term videos this year and already getting great feedback. 👇

Right now, I have a pretty simple workflow:

- Post on LinkedIn
- Create a short 2-3min clip of that post
- Edit in Descript
- Schedule via Buffer
- Post across TikTok, Insta (personal/business), YouTube Shorts (personal/business)

I'm still really bullish on LinkedIn, but I think it's time to expand out to other channels to increase reach and produce different formats. 

Right now, I'm not too worried about high production and am going for a more authentic feel with selfie videos directly from my iPhone. 

Then I'll review engagement across different platforms to determine topics to go deeper on in our newsletter + adding Substack to the mix. 

Anyway, cheers to my first friend below. 

I hope she has a better day. :)

I couldn’t agree more with Justina Perro's post late last week. 

In her words, "one of the hardest marketing pills to swallow is that not everything is measurable."
 
What I said...

"On most ad platforms, CTR is sub-1%. Organic engagement is often 2–5%. 

That means 95%+ of people might be watching, reading, skimming, and absorbing without a single click, like, or comment.
 
And that’s normal behavior; we all do it. 
 
People don’t need to engage publicly to be influenced. How many times have you:

- Forwarded a video to someone
- Visited a brand later after seeing an ad
- Taken value from content without ever clicking a link
 
None of that shows up cleanly in UTMs.
 
This is where attribution can be dangerous if it’s treated as a rulebook rather than a guide. 

Buyers don’t follow the neat, linear funnel we design for them.
 
Instead:

- Use proxy metrics like brand traffic, share of search, brand mentions, and engagement to understand if you are headed in the right direction.
- Leverage quantitative data (in your CRM) with qualitative signals to go beyond last-touch reporting and understand what's resonating and what channels are being mentioned (sales calls, comments online, reactions on webinars, etc.) 
- And then compare harder to measure marketing programs to bottom of the funnel efficiency metrics like cost per SQL and cost per opportunity; over time, we want to see increased efficiency so we aren't just sharing vanity metrics. 
 
Attribution should inform judgment, not replace it.

Short-termism is killing good marketing. 

But it doesn't change the reality of what execs want: 

- Fast results
- Predictable returns
- Easy to measure channels

It then forces all product category competitors to optimize for:

- The same in-market keywords
- The same intent/signal audiences
- The same platforms
- At the same moment

That means: 

- Higher CPCs & CPMs
- Rising CAC
- Declining marginal returns

Even with “best-in-class” execution, you'll see prices increase and volume decline as you narrow down audiences. 

Meanwhile, 71% of buyers reported purchasing their first-choice product according to TrustRadius. 

And 9 out of 10 consumers name trust as a primary purchasing criterion, driving buyers to rely on familiar, trusted brands.

Keyword = "famiilar"

If you aren't a familiar, and have established brand preference BEFORE someone comes in-market, it will make it even harder to compete. 

And let's not forget how competitive product categories have become. Here's what the call recording space looks like: 

1.) Fireflies.ai
2.) Otter.ai
3.) Grain
4.) Avoma
5.) MeetGeek
6.) Read.ai
7.) Fathom
8.) Krisp
9.) Sembly AI
10.) Jamie
11.) Tactiq
12.) Supernormal
13.) Notta
14.) Fellow
15.) Nyota
16.) Airgram
17.) Gong
18.) Chorus
19.) Clari Wingman
20.) ExecVision
21.) Jiminny
22.) Modjo
23.) Observe.AI
24.) Dialpad
25.) RingCentral
26.) Aircall

Now let's go after the most obvious target, high-intent keyword "call recording software" = 880 monthly searches at $51/click (top bid)

The top three vendors will likely capture most of the demand, leaving the rest to fight over the scraps. 

And that's just one category. 

- This isn’t a tooling problem.
- It’s not a tactic problem.

It’s a misunderstanding of how B2B buyers actually make decisions.

Short-term optimization is necessary, but insufficient on its own.

Real leverage comes from shaping preferences before buyers ever show in-market signals. 

That means adjusting channel mix, objectives, budget allocation, and CTAs to focus on your narrative, what you do, your POV, proof of work, etc. before they come in-market. 

That will make your capture channels more efficient.

undefined undefined

Omni Lab 

Snapdata, in the business of waste and recycling analytics, was selected to participate in NUMA's Smart City Program in Paris to connect with corporate leaders like Cisco, Suez, and City of Paris Government to discuss innovative solutions for cities. Out of 200 startups, we were one of 4 selected to participate. 

Google Exchange Program Finalist - NUMA; Paris

Ogilvy partnered with IE Business School to invite IE based startups to pitch their ideas to Ogilvy to compete in getting the chance to have Ogilvy support their branding & marketing needs as well as partnering with some of their clients to bring about new innovation. 

Ogilvy Competition, Top 3 Startups

Achieving outstanding performance during the IE Business School Startup Lab. Voted best Startup to invest in. 

Investors' Award

Small team of marketing professionals at IE Business School were tasked to develop a new marketing strategy for a SMB company called DriveGum. DriveGum distributes and manufactures CPG goods like gum, granola bars, and others in Europe. We:

•	Repositioned the key value proposition.
•	Created three new strategies to grow brand recognition and improve sales.
•	Made improvements and updates to current marketing material. 




IE Business School - Marketing Case Competition, Finalists

James Madison University Austin Alumni Chapter

Managing Director

Snapdata designs and develops a range of sensors and data analytics platforms for the Internet of Things.

Primarily responsible for European operations developing a go to market strategy and doing business development in the waste and recycling sector.

Confirmed 3 letter of intents with governments and corporate size clients to test our product. 

Developed pricing matrixes for products and services, ROI for our clients, and detailed process for proof of concepts. 

Managed Google AdWords campaigns and analyzed Google Analytics to improve our messaging and positioning. 

Won four separate competitions for leading innovative technology and startup in Spain:

Venture Day Finalist, IE Business School
Investors Award, IE Business School
Google Exchange Program Finalist, NUMA 
Top 3 Startups, Ogilvy


Snapdata

Learn how Omni Lab helps 100+ B2B SaaS brands create and capture demand with paid ads.

Book a Call

The other day, a marketer I talked to said, "This year, we are going to ungate all of our content."

Here's what I said...

You don't have to ungate all of your content. 

You have to convert more of your gated content into short-form ungated content. 

That means: 

- Carousels
- Clips
- Text posts
- Templates
- Highlight reels
- Checklists

Remember, the brain evolved to sample information cheaply, prioritize novelty, and minimize cognitive and energetic cost before committing attention. 

The brain defaults to low-commitment information sampling to decide whether deeper processing (aka long-form content) is worth the energy. 

That's why it's so hard to get people to consume long-form content, especially if they don't know your brand. 

Prove to them that you are worth the attention. 

A distribution system could look like: 
- Create long-form content 
- Gate it on your website 
- Create 10x the number of short-form assets
- Get your employees to all reshare/post
- Direct traffic back to the asset if they want to learn more

This works organically or via paid. 

Gong did this for a while and still does this…

I did this for a LinkedIn Guide we created; gated on website, but I’ve dripped out 30-40 posts ungated about the guide. 

Stop making this a "do we ungate ALL our content" or "do we keep our content gated" decision. 

Do BOTH.

Increase reach and consumption.

LinkedIn is not a high-intent channel.

People don’t open LinkedIn thinking, “What software should I buy today?”

They open it to connect with colleagues, learn something new, share opinions, or simply waste time between meetings. 

Compare that to Google or even an LLM.

When someone searches “best cybersecurity training software,” they are explicitly signaling intent. They’re evaluating. They’re buying. Search captures demand that already exists.

Social doesn’t work that way (with the exception of TikTok)

You don’t go to the LinkedIn search bar asking, “What are the best cybersecurity training companies?”

That’s not the job the channel is doing.

Your strategy on any social channel should really accomplish one of three things: 

- Teach someone something
- Entertain them with something
- Or some combination of both

While scrolling, people get exposed to ideas, brands, and messages. If something resonates, they may engage. 

There are in-market buyers on LinkedIn, and you should have some campaigns/content focused on offers or hard CTAs, but they represent a small percentage at any given moment. 

Adjust your strategy accordingly.

For those who haven't heard, LinkedIn launched a new feature last year called Partnerships. 👇  

What is it?

Any time someone posts and mentions your brand, you will see it in the partnership section, allowing you to get approval to promote that post via thought leader ads. 

Discoverable posts in Partnerships include: 

- Employee posts from your organization
- LinkedIn articles authored by members
- Newsletter articles published by members
- Posts from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree+ connections
- Video content from vetted publishers available for in‑stream ad placement for select accounts 

For those not already using a brand monitoring tool, this is pretty cool. 

It's pretty straightforward: 

- Go to campaign manager
- Go to the partnerships section
- Click on the post that mentioned your brand
- Request to promote
- Promote

The biggest use case we've seen for Omni and other SaaS brands is creating dedicated influencer campaigns featuring customers, prospects, or people who give positive brand mentions. 

Instead of relying on organic reach, you pay for more reach, plus control who actually sees the post. 

Trust and authentic real stories are a top priority for many brands and this is one way to bring those stories to light.

For all marketers, what newsletters do you "actually" read?

And for those you read, why do you like them? 

Tag a company/person below that's creating awesome content. 

I want to subscribe.

Here's what I said to a Head of Demand Gen who wanted to 2x SQL volume on Google Ads. 

"Sure, but here's what we need to do first. 

- Analyze what keywords have the highest conversion rate + lowest cost per SQL
- Determine if there is enough in-market volume to capture
- Understand if we have enough budget based on established baselines (e.g., cost per SQL)."

After analyzing a mix of offline conversion data in Google, paired with Salesforce data, we identified ~10 keywords driving the majority of SQLs over the last 6 months. 

Then we reviewed the available impression share and whether we were losing impressions due to the budget. 

And then we reviewed baseline data from the last 6 months, which showed that: 

The ~600k in spend over the last 6 months resulted in a cost per SQL of around $3,500.

For context...SQL = demo request that meets ICP criteria

However, across all keywords, the baseline is closer to $4,700. 

The primary reason?

- Some keywords have a lower conversion rate
- Some have much higher costs due to competition

So then we had to make a decision...

1.) Stay live on all keywords, accepting a higher cost per SQL
2.) Narrow down on the 10 keywords with a more efficient cost per SQL

No surprises here... we are narrowing down for now, as we have more efficiency with these 10 keywords + available in-market impression share, since all keywords are high-intent. 

So to 2x the number of SQLs, here's the quick math: 

- $100k spend at $4,700 = 21 SQLs / month

Compared to the 10 keywords at a lower cost per SQL

- $100k spend at $3,500 = 28 SQLs /month

We're still a bit short on the same spend, so we'd have to increase the budget or find another lever to pull (e.g., improve the conversion rate or invest further in out-of-market buyers on social channels to increase awareness). 

I'll let you know in the next month or two once we get more data, but this is the high-level process to think through. 

A few caveats to be aware of:
- Avoid dramatic swings in budget
- As you scale budgets, be prepared for efficiency to fall
- We didn't analyze ACV/pipeline value for this (due to some data accuracy issues with sales), but is important as some keywords could be more valuable than others. 

P.S. While this is a performance marketing approach to scaling budgets, channels like Google Ads don't operate in isolation. 

Google Ads heavily favors last-touch models where CRMs single-source conversion points. 

It's important to understand the other trackable touchpoints across the buyer's journey to make capture channels like Google even more efficient. 

The efficiency of your capture channels is strongly correlated with your investments in out-of-market buyers, where brand preference is established.

Seeing what your competitors are bidding on is mostly a waste of time.

Yes, it’s “directionally interesting.”

But, at the end of the day: 

1.) You have no clue how that keyword is performing. 
2.) They may not even be intentionally bidding on those keywords. 
3.) They likely have a different strategy and ICP definition than you

Instead, you should focus more on your own customers to understand:

- The words your customers use to describe your product on sales calls.
- The problems and jobs they repeat in demos. 
- Then see what keyword themes have keyword volume and which ones have historical performance.

TL;DR Sure, you might get some keyword ideas from Ahrefs, Spyfu, Semrush, and others, but take anything you see with a grain of salt. 

Focus more on your customers and your own performance. 

It was awesome to finally meet Valerie Riley! Appreciate you having me on the Unbounce show. 

Want to watch the rest, just go to YouTube and type in: Paid media strategy 2026: Surviving rising CPCs and budget shifts in SaaS

Please be careful when interpreting these emails from Google. 

While the intentions behind this email, I'm sure, mean well. 

These can have serious consequences without additional thought. 

For example: 

1.) Does lower CPA mean better quality down-funnel to SQL/pipeline?
2.) Does this mean I'll have better coverage on key high-intent terms?
3.) As I scale, what control do I have over keywords I'm spending money on?

No doubt, you, me, your mom, and your 2nd-cousin-removed all want greater efficiency. 

But not at the cost of quality. 

Stay safe out there.

Andrei Zinkevich

Co-founder @Fullfunnel.io| ABM & full-funnel marketing for B2B tech companies with high ACV and long sales cycle

We transform B2B Tech and Service-based companies from siloed sales and marketing to full-funnel account-based marketing and demand generation. 

We help your team develop an ABM strategy, launch pilot programs, operationalize and scale the programs without ramping up budget or depending on external agencies.

Here is how.

1. ABM STRATEGY.

We go together through a 3-week initial strategy sprint that includes: 

- Deep assessment of current marketing and sales processes
- Challenges both teams face and the root reasons behind them
- Revenue and channel analysis to identify focus markets and ICP for the ABM campaigns
- Custom ABM strategy development including detailed:
- Marketing and sales alignment with ICP, strategy and playbooks

2. LAUNCH PILOT ABM PROGRAM.

Within a single quarter, we’ll work with a pilot team to implement a minimal viable full-funnel program, without pausing existing processes. The pilot team usually consists of one marketer and one sales development rep.  

When we hit the target KPIs, we move to the operationalization and scaling stage.

3.DEVELOPING FULL-FUNNEL ABM FUNCTION.

At this stage we combine ABM with demand generation function to create a holistic model that creates awareness, generates demand and activates accounts that are already engaged across the full funnel.

SPRINTS INCLUDE:

-> Account-Based Marketing

-> LinkedIn demand generation and social selling

-> GTM strategy

-> Sales enablement

-> Demand generation and accounts warm-up

Why Work With FullFunnel.io?

1. 30+ years of niche experience

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge.

2. Knowledge transfer.

Your team gets consistent support and training, including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack, and process maps.

3. Revenue alignment.

We align marketing and sales teams around revenue, ideal customer profile, target accounts and lead scoring criteria which helps to consistently hit your revenue quota and operate as one Revenue Operations team.

OUR CASE STUDIES INCLUDE

- $300k from a pilot ABM campaign with a software development company

- 9 qualified sales opportunities and 3 new contracts, 10x ACV from an account-based demand generation campaign with AdTech development company

- 7 sales-qualified opportunities from a pilot ABM campaign in the Nordics region with a cloud solutions vendor

- 76% response rate, 36% accounts engaged, 5 opportunities from a pilot ABM campaign

Co-founder

At Fullfunnel.io we are growing B2B companies with long and complex sales cycles since 2006.

We were and still are “in trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, and bring to the table our 30+ years of combined experience and knowledge. 

I live and breathe B2B marketing since 2006. 

Before launching Fullfunnel.io, I spent 8 years in the enterprise segment working for Kimberly Clark and Biosphere Corporation.

What makes Fullfunnel.io different?

1. Ins and outs of selling to enterprise

Coming from the mid-market and enterprise world, I know all the ins and outs of selling to these segments: the research and evaluation processes, decision-making procedures inside the buying committee and the approval workflows. 

We’ve been there, done that, and know how to generate opportunities with these segments and influence the decision-making processes.

2. Niche experience

While we could help many B2B business, since 2007 we focus exclusively on two verticals: high-value B2B tech (enterprise SaaS, blockchain technology, hardware) and service-based companies (software development, consulting, cybersecurity, DevOps as a service, etc). 

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge. 

3. Knowledge transfer and in-house operations

We believe that the real growth can only be driven in-house. You need to have people who are in the trenches every day, talking to customers, experiencing the sales hurdles, refining the messages and positioning.

We join your team as external marketing advisors, provide consistent support and training including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack and process maps.

As a result, you get an evergreen in-house growth engine.

Here is our entire updated ABM cheat sheet: Use it to launch or refine your ABM program👇


We see ABM as a bridge between marketing and sales. 

It is the best way to connect top-of-the-funnel with bottom-of-the-funnel activities, while actively working with sales on pipeline and revenue.

Over the last 5 years, Vladimir Blagojević and I wrote more than 50 detailed guides about ABM. 

Here is a list of the best guides to help you plan or refine your ABM program:

ABM STRATEGY

- ABM strategy: the step-by-step guide: https://lnkd.in/etWEeJGG
- The ABM mirage: https://lnkd.in/dJK6-EXt
- Who owns ABM: https://lnkd.in/dN4MPdT6
- Planning, budgeting and forecasting ABM: https://lnkd.in/dn6pEQCi
- Shifting from lead gen to ABM: https://lnkd.in/dvhtU2GV
- ABM readiness checklist: https://lnkd.in/dJkaGx7y
-  How to target accounts in 2026: https://lnkd.in/deJWVK8e

DEVELOPING ABM PROGRAMS AND PLAYBOOKS

- ABM pilot: https://lnkd.in/dw-TZREp
- Account-Based Content Strategy: https://lnkd.in/dTszwX_8
- Operationalizing ABM: https://lnkd.in/d2wRUZQf
- Expansion & upsell: https://lnkd.in/d-BQPF33
- How to create ABM playbooks: https://lnkd.in/dj3sJhTf
- ICP for ABM: https://lnkd.in/diePETma
- Selecting accounts: https://lnkd.in/dkYBZN7X
- How to create playbooks for long sales cycles and multiple buyers: https://lnkd.in/dFhrbBN6

HOW TO WORK WITH SALES IN ABM

- Sales KPIs in ABM: https://lnkd.in/dewNCkJT
- Buying committee engagement: https://lnkd.in/dwSyR96v
-Sales perspective on ABM: https://lnkd.in/dXi5M6wc
- Role of SDRs in ABM: https://lnkd.in/eXin7VNF
- How to create awareness among strategic accounts through B2B buyer ecosystem: https://lnkd.in/esXKq2xc

ABM REPORTS

- ABM KPIs and reports: https://lnkd.in/drsUKFNa
- How to measure ABM: https://lnkd.in/dncUBUBX

ABM TACTICS AND CASE STUDIES

- 4 ABM Programs that Drove $7mln Pipeline: https://lnkd.in/dEMYSY7g
- $300k in revenue from pilot ABM: https://lnkd.in/dThUk_C 
- The ABM Pilot Program With 60% Marketing-Sourced Enterprise Pipeline (feat. Ken Roden and Magali Finet-Perdu): https://lnkd.in/dBKymbaT
- ABM in 2-year sales cycles (feat. Joseph Threlfall, Astrid van Dam, Bowin Cai and Raf Schroons): https://lnkd.in/dKVE2bnF
- Lean ABM (feat. Briana (Manrique) Casey, Megan Barenie, Jalynn Close): https://lnkd.in/d-rSjKeT

---
The success of ABM doesn't depend on your stack or budget. 

It depends on solid foundations, marketing and sales alignment, and shared playbooks to drive pipeline and revenue.

The biggest problem we faced last year with ABM - selling to sales the new operational model. Here is why.

In many B2B companies, sales and marketing planning happen in silos. Once a year during sales kick-off (SKO), sales:

-Pick up the biggest accounts
-Define target stakeholders
-Assign accounts to AEs and BDRs

Then, BDRs launch outreach sequences. AEs create account development plans and work on accounts that are already in the pipeline.

Collaboration with marketing is often limited to: "I need this deck, can you create it?" Marketing supports sales based on their requests, handover MQLs and inbound inquiries.

Nobody questions the status quo until the revenue targets are hit. But when the targets are missed, here is when the fun begins:

-fingerpointing and blaming
-strategy changes
-layoffs.

Nobody questions the status quo and ignores the elephant in the room:

The traditional pipeline generation model is completely misaligned with the B2B buyer journey.

B2B buyers don't buy according to our sales plans and timeline.

B2B buyers don't care if they are marked as "MQL" in our CRM.

B2B buyers don't want to receive 21 emails and LinkedIn messages.

The new operating model is accepting the complexity of the B2B buyer journey and aligning marketing & sales processes with it.

It doesn't change the incentives and core metrics:

Revenue, sales opportunities and pipeline coverage are still the top priority.

But it changes how marketing and sales:

-Select and prioritize accounts
-Plan and engage the entire buying committee
-Work together from awareness creation till closed won.

Three key changes:

1. Territory planning and account selection happens quarterly instead of annual SKO. Accounts are piroritized weekly based on the 1st party and 3rd party signals, and buyer engagement.

2. Buying committee engagement is shifted from decision-makers to the entire buying committee. Static outbound cadences are substituted with continuos nurturing. It includes time-based and signal-based playbooks.

3. Marketing doesn't work as sales assitants working on requests and transferring leads. Both teams create weekly account plans asking: How can we influence this account together?

These changes are inevitable.

We live in an era of abundance: technology, signals, automation. It's not a competitive advantage anymore.

The only competitive advantage you have is a cross-functional collaboration with a value-added engagement for the accounts that really need your product.

The best ABM playbooks we've run always follow these 4 principles:


1. Run activities that generate 1st party signals (aka Always-On Playbooks)

- Connecting with the entire buying committee
- Personalized "account love letters" posted on LinkedIn that mention target accounts' initiatives
- Personalized invites to the events
- Content hubs
- Expert roundups featuring industry thought leaders
- Thoughtful commenting on buyers' posts
- Thought leadership content

2. Build one activity on another for continuous account nurturing, research and penetration (aka Time-Based Playbooks).

Every time-based playbook is built on the previous ones.

Example: content → webinar → expert roundup → market research → webinar presenting market research.

It creates a constant mix of value-added touchpoints across the long buyer journey. It helps to stay top-of-the-mind instead of "send and forget" playbooks.

3. Use 1st party and 3rd party signals for value-based touchpoints with engaged buying committee groups.

- Monitor hiring announcements 
- Track management changes t
- Follow P&L reports and press releases to identify business challenges and key initiatives
- Look for questions in communities asked by target buyers
- Monitor content engagement 
- Track high-intent pages visits for timely outreach

We use these insights to share relevant content, suggest help, ask additional questions—everything that adds value to the current thread. Every insight also triggers multithreadin when relevant to engage more buyers.

4. Have a mix of fully personalized 1:1 activities for active focus accounts.

The most engaged accounts are moved to fully personalized account development, including:

- Create personalized solutions and content hubs
- Offer free strategy sessions/workshops with SMEs or clients
- Creating business cases

---
HockeyStack once shared a report that it takes 417 touchpoints and 5493 impressions to generate >$100k deals. Most ABM playbooks I've seen account, maybe, for 5-10% of the necessary touchpoints. And there is a reason:

B2B vendors want pipeline today. 

What they forget is the real length of the buyer journey. 

The pipeline you're trying to close this quarter started 9+ months ago. You can capture some of the demand, but it's always not enough to hit the targets. 

If you're not building future pipeline right now with the playbooks optimized for long sales cycles, you'll be having the same "pipeline dried up" conversation in Q4.

Sales: We want to run ABM with you. We need to improve lead quality and pipeline coverage. But our BDR has only 5 hrs/week. Here is what happens next:

ABM WITHOUT DEDICATED SDR.

- Broad list-building. No prioritization based on awareness, engagement and intent signals. All accounts are assigned by territory and size.

- AI-based "research" pulling generic public information anybody can get in second from ChatGPT

- Marketing runs more targeted demand gen to generate MQLs and inbound inquiries with further handover to sales

- Sales sends the same outbound cadences personalized by title and the research pulled from ChatGPT

- All accounts are treated the same way

Pause for a second and guess:

Who is blamed when this program fails?

The right answer is.....

Marketing!

ABM WITH A DEDICATED SALES REP

- Joint program planning: from narrative and account selection to account development

- Clusters replace segments and verticals for targeting

- All accounts are prioritized based on revenue potential, vendor awareness, relationship, and product-need evidence

- In-depth desk and 1:1 research mapping product value to key initiatives and buyer JTBDs

- Detailed buying committee mapping including Champions, Decision-makers, Power Users, and Influencers

- Continuous nurturing and engagement playbooks aligned with intent level and vendor awareness

- Constant multi-threading

- Constant value-added touchpoints: personalized messages based on captured signals, thoughtful commenting, content sharing, event invites

- Joint weekly reviews and planning

TLDR;

To make ABM work you need to have a rep that is constantly researching and engaging with the buying committee groups of target accounts. Not via automated cadences, but via constant, personalized engagement.

No budget and technology will compensate it.

Some sales teams sometimes think that "not pitching all the time" is not prospecting. But they forget about the reality of enterprise B2B buyer journey.

First, you need to be known.

Second, you need to get into a shortlist.

Third, you need to have credibility.

Fourth, you need to help creating a compelling reason to change now and sell internally.

It's not possible with quarter air cover, marketing campaigns and outbound cadences. It's possible with a continuous relationship building with strategic accounts.

In Q4, we ran a quarter ABM campaign with 51 accounts. One became closed won, 4 became sales opportunities. Here is how we selected the accounts:

We used our account prioritization framework, segmenting all accounts by:

-Revenue potential
-Level of awareness
-Relationship with buying committee
-Product-need evidence

1. REVENUE POTENTIAL.

We looked at companies that fit our Tier 1 & Tier 2 criteria:

These accounts represent the highest value and largest scale targets.

Company Size: Large scale (201–500 / 501–1,000 / 1,000–5,000 employees)
Annual Revenue: >$50M
Distributed GTM Teams: 3 or more business units or Go-To-Market teams
Sales + Biz Dev Size: 50+ members
Marketing Team Size: 10+ members
Industry: Enterprise B2B SaaS
Priority Markets: US, Canada, UKI, Benelux, DACH, France, or Nordics.

2. LEVEL OF AWARENESS.

We paid attention to several criteria:

-Spikes in visiting our consulting page in the last 90 days. We set up a filter in Dealfront applying our qualification criteria. Accounts with a high engagement score were added to the draft list.

-Known engaged buyer (see next point)
-2+ buying committee members are subscribed to our Substack newsletter

3. RELATIONSHIP.

We prioritized accounts where we had a known engaged buyer (the matching was contact->account level):

-We had recent engagement or conversation on LinkedIn
-A contact has signed up and attended at least one of the previous 10 episodes of Full-Funnel Live
-A contact is subscribed to our newsletter more than for 6 months

4. PRODUCT-NEED EVIDENCE.

We looked for a combined evidence between 1st party and 3rd party signals.

1st party:

-Reading ABM articles on our blog or Substack
-Attending ABM-related podcast episodes
-Visiting our consulting page

3rd party:

-Growing a new regional team and actively hiring SDRs and AEs (they will need marketing support)
-Promoting enterprise case studies and sharing enterprise logos on the website
-Executive interviews mentioning expansion to a new market
-LinkedIn posts mentioning ABM initiatives or purchasing ABM platforms
---

One takeway (though with a hindsight it is obvious) that the most responsive and engaged accounts were those who matched all 3 criteria:

-Were connected or following us on LinkedIn
-Reading newsletter for 6+ months
-Attended at least one of our events

Which proves our theory:

Always focus on the most engaged accounts and invest in cluster awareness. Your future pipeline is created today.

P.S. What's your approach to selecting accounts for the ABM program?

I've created 50+ ABM playbooks in the last 5 years. 

Here are 6 core principles:

1. ALIGN ON THE ROLE OF MARKETING AND SALES IN ABM.

Who owns ABM? Here is a breakdown of marketing and sales responsibilities in ABM: https://lnkd.in/dN4MPdT6

2. CREATE PLAYBOOKS FOR CONTINUOUS NURTURING AND LONG SALES CYCLES.

Our framework to engage & nurture accounts across 18-month sales cycles and multiple stakeholders leveraging time-based and signal-based playbooks: https://lnkd.in/dFhrbBN6

3. CLUSTER TARGETING.

Here is our cluster-based ABM framework: https://lnkd.in/deJWVK8e

4. SELECTING ABM ACCOUNTS.

Here is the account qualification and prioritization framework: https://lnkd.in/dkYBZN7X

5. MEASURE ABM.

Reports for new logo, expansion and renewals + integrated ABM dashboard: https://lnkd.in/dncUBUBX

6. 6A FRAMEWORK TO CREATE AN ABM PLAYBOOK.

6 essential pillars of the ABM playbook:

https://lnkd.in/dj3sJhTf

Marketing and sales should stop the WISH LIST approach to territory planning.
Here are 5 pillars we apply to account selection.

1. QUALIFICATION CRITERIA.

Before prioritizing and selecting accounts, all of them should be qualified. Just because the account is in your area or meets firmographic criteria (e.g. big manufacturing company in North America) doesn't mean that it's a good fit.

Qualification criteria examples:

- Losses are stated in the annual report because of the currency volatility.
- Product release cycles >1 month, etc.

2. REVENUE POTENTIAL.

What is the real opportunity potential? Are you hunting antelope or mice?

Prioritize accounts with the highest and medium revenue potential.

3. LEVEL OF RELATIONSHIP.

Do we know anybody who works for the target accounts, or who is closely connected to the buying committee?

Somebody who can make an intro or share insider information about the account's needs and challenges.

Prioritize these accounts.

4. PRODUCT-NEED EVIDENCE / BUYING SINGNALS.

Are there any facts that might tell us that the account might have a challenge our product solves?

Examples:

- Actively hiring for a specific role
- Announced losses, key initiatives, or roadmap
- Legacy technology, etc.

5. LEVEL OF VENDOR AWARENESS.

Are the accounts that we want to target already aware of our product? 

Are there any engagements and touchpoints we had with them?

The last question is essential because it helps you to separate "cold accounts" (no touchpoints) from the accounts that are already aware of your brand.

Cold accounts should be put into a future pipeline list and added to your cluster-based demand gen program.

To identify "aware" and "engaged accounts" look at your marketing automation and intent data:

- Recent sign-ups to your cluster-based webinars
- High-intent website page visits (demo, pricing, case studies, vertical/role solutions, comparison reports)
- Engagement with your thought leadership content and demand gen ads, etc.

The ultimate step is scoring all the accounts and making an "active focus" list according to your team's capacity.
---

Most marketing and sales teams either build a "wish list" of accounts or play the MQL game.

They always get the same results: miserable pipeline and missed revenue targets.

Their challenge can be easily solved by:

- sitting together
- defining account qualification and prioritization criteria
- and identifying target accounts they SHOULD focus on.

In the last 3 years I read 61 books. Here are the top 10 that helped us to refine our full-funnel ABM framework:

1-2: Reset: How to Change What's Not Working and Switch by Dan Heath.

ABM implementation comes along with an extensive change management. You can't just blow up everything and ignite the revolution. These books helped us: 

- to audit and identify the things that are already working in the company ('the bright spots")

- find change agents who are willing to challenge the status quo. 

- launch small pilots by building on the top of what already works 

It's the essence of our pilot program.

3. Selling with by Nate Nasralla.

Historically we generated a lot of demand and engaged champions. But instead of closing the deal we lost them due to internal blockage. For years we optimized our deck around the methodology, numbers, etc. without realizing that there should be two factors to win the deal:

- Compelling internal events that we can use for change management
- Clear business case that articulates: What, Why, How, When, and What to expect

Not our long and impressive deck 😃 

This book taught us the necessary framework and helped us to close every 4 of 5 qualified deals.

4. Scrum by Jeff Sutherland.

We always had weekly pipeline and review meetings with the ABM teams, but they were more ad-hoc. Scrum gave us structured methodology:

-to refine the planning
-identify bottlenecks early
-make sure that the weekly backlog we plan altogether is actually done.

5. The Culture Map by Erin Meyer.

We work globally, and cultural differences hit hard in year one. European teams wanted detailed methodology walkthroughs and thorough planning.

Our first American client? Different story. First question: "Show me the results."

Once sold on the idea: "How fast can we start the pilot? We trust you—let's move."

Then came the real differences: communication and feedback style, commitment, timelines.

This book taught us to adapt our consulting to different cultural contexts.

6-8. Goal (1, 2 and 3) by Eliyahu M. Goldratt.

This is my favorite business non-fiction. This book taught me how to identify and remove constraints that exist in every business process. Then, optimize the delivery according to bottlenecks.

Not to say it reminded me of my corporate days: night office hours, working weekends, endless business trips and meetings 😃 .

9-10. 80/20 by Richard Koch and 80/20 in sales and marketing by Perry M.

These two books helped us to find a framework to answer one of the most important ABM planning questions: Where should we focus?

Account prioritization framework, segment and use case selection, ICP for ABM came from the core book concepts.
---
I have a collection of 278 book notes I made since 2012. 

Let me know in the comments if detailed posts with book notes and how we implemented them are appealing to you.

Our industry problem - engaging enterprise accounts the same way we sell $49 products. The mindset behind: if they are in the market, they will buy. We just need to write a good script.

But this is fundamentally wrong when it comes to selling high ACV products. The low-ticket playbook simply doesn't work.

The enterprise sales cycle is long not because we send bad emails. It's long because corporates and mid-size companies operate in a completely different reality:

- strategic initiatives
-long-term planning
- low velocity

Your solution should be a part of their current strategy. If it doesn't fit, nobody engages. But even if it does fit, enterprise buyers usually have their preferred vendors shortlist.

Apparently, you can break through, but it's more luck than a predictable motion.

TLDR;

To create future pipeline, you need to have continuos nurturing playbooks alinged with the length of enterprise buyer journey.

The SMB pipeline generation playbook cracks in a week when going upmarket. Here is the reality of enterprise sales cycle:

Our sales cycle is 9-12 months with 80-100 touchpoints across the buying committee (way beyond 12 emails over two weeks) :)

Our buyer's journey typically starts when they see our LinkedIn thought leadership content. 

Other touchpoints are happening later through:

- Weekly newsletter diving into ABM and GTM strategy
- Live weekly podcast where buyers can ask questions
- Quarterly webinars
- Content hubs tailored to specific challenges and solutions (launching pilot ABM, initiating change management, etc)
- 1-1 conversations on LinkedIn
- Content co-creation

Before we generate a sales opportunity, we help our buyers to:

- Identify the root reasons for their challenges and the solutions in strategy sessions
- Build a business case to get stakeholder buy-in
- Design pilot programs with clear metrics, resources and timeline

It's not ad-hoc and not optional. This is how the enterprise buyer journey is happening.

The trap I see most B2B companies fall down is focusing on the volume and scalability instead of focusing on future pipeline creation and thorough account development to land enterprise deals.

They try to replicate what works for SMB / low-size deals:

- Developing target lists from ZoomInfo / Apollo / Clay
- Set up personalized outreach sequences Outreach / lemlist
- Run air cover to the same set of accounts

The SMB playbook is optimized for fast pipeline creation with minimal human involvement.

While enterprise playbook requires:

- In-depth account research and thorough account mapping
- Constant engagement with 5+ buying committee members across the entire sales cycle (9-12 months): power users, champions, stakeholders
- Personalized activities and content per account

You can't fix it with technology.

You can fix it only with setting up cross-functional teams that are focused on continuous account development and quarter milestone metrics for 12-month sales cycle:

Q1: X engaged buyers, initial conversations, account penetration
Q2: Discovery calls
Q3: Business case creation
Q4: Sales opportunities

Your SDR just marked 47 accounts as "touched" this week.
Your VP Sales asks: "How many conversations did you start?"


The answer: 2, and both ghosted after one reply.

I’ve witnessed this a couple of times with our clients during weekly review meetings. SDRs report on activity metrics: touched accounts, calls, emails sent. 

But when leadership asks about pipeline, nobody has a good answer.

Here's why.

Most B2B sales teams run 3-week personalized cadences with 8-10 touchpoints. Marketing supports them with LinkedIn ads for "air cover" and call it ABM. SDRs follow up with everybody who likes, clicks or downloads any asset. 

But in reality, most emails get ignored. Some people accept connection requests but never reply. SDRs mark them as "touched" and move on. 

This operational model is completely misaligned with long 9-12 months sales cycles that require 100+ touchpoints to close a deal (check this report: https://lnkd.in/dFhrbBN6)

According to Pavilion's 2024 B2B Sales Benchmarks, year-over-year performance of “traditional sales model” dropped across every revenue metric:

- Win rates down 18%
- Deal values down 21%
- Sales cycles up 16%
- 69% of reps missed quota

Another Focus Digital research shows that (in Complex B2B SaaS) the average account-to-pipeline ratio is 0.03% (stats: https://lnkd.in/dupPez5q) 

That means for every 3,000 accounts you touch with outbound sequences, you might generate one sales opportunity. Maybe.

B2B tech market already reacted to the problem by mass SDR layoffs. 

According to Emergence Capital's Beyond Benchmarks report, 36% of 560 tech companies decreased their SDR/BDR headcount last year—the highest percentage among all sales roles (stats: https://lnkd.in/dupPez5q)

The truth is simple:

You can't fix this fundamental problem with better technology and AI.

You can only fix it by accepting how enterprise buyers actually buy and co-creating with sales a new operating model.

We've documented with Vlad how we develop a new account-based operational model for marketing and sales, including:

- How to implement it without a revolution
- How to get sales buy-in: the step-by-step framework
- What could go wrong: the failure scenarios nobody talks about

Subscribe on Substack to receive it tomorrow in your inbox: https://lnkd.in/dSje9cKc

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