Fullfunnel.io

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've been selling and marketing B2B tech and services since 2006. 

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.

Co-founder

Trenches - B2B marketing community

Trenches — a community created by B2B marketers for B2B marketers who are in the trenches every day getting their hands dirty in growing B2B companies with high ACV and long sales cycles.

We talk about ABM (account-based marketing), marketing-sourced pipeline, demand generation, lead nurturing, GTM strategy, buyer’s journey, and all other hot topics that are ignored in the sales communities.

Community is FOREVER FREE.

Co-Founder

6-Week ABM Playbook

An actionable account-based marketing playbook and training to consistently land sales opportunities with your dream clients in 6 weeks or faster. 

Cut through the noise and get busy decision makers to respond to your campaigns without spammy outreach, wasting money on enterprise tech stack or expensive ip-based advertising, and significant shifts in the company’s organization.

The account-based marketing strategy and campaigns we are sharing in this playbook can be executed by a team of 2 people (1 marketer + 1 sales) on a Ramen budget.

Author

Scale XL

Helping B2B entrepreneurs install a reliable process to predictably fill their pipeline with high-value clients. 

Scale XL process addresses the 4 critical challenges of client relationship building:

1. TARGETING: identify, target and engage with more of YOUR business’ ideal potential clients, not someone else’s. 
2. ATTRACTING: define, create and communicate compelling messages that cut through the noise and clearly establish your business as a natural answer to your ideal potential client’s problems.
3. QUALIFYING: qualifying which prospects are ideal for YOUR business and which of them are ready, and then applying different processes to sales-ready leads and those that need nurturing.
4. ROI: fix low return and underwhelming results of B2B marketing 

Scale XL relies on a process to build relationships with more key decision makers in your market by targeting, attracting and nurturing your ideal clients, not someone else’s.

And if your business is anything like 100+ niche B2B software and service companies I’ve helped before, it’s likely that my methodology could help you do just that.

To find out if this process can work for your business, feel free to get in touch here, or visit our website at scalexl.com.

Founder

Lean Startup Circle Brussels

We're a group of entrepreneurs taking lean startup and customer development techniques to practice in our startups. We're ready to talk implementation and share data from our experiments.

http://www.meetup.com/lean-brussels/

Every meetup addresses a different (lean) startup topic (minimum viable products, go to market, sales for startups, customer interviews...)

Most startups fail not because they fail to execute and build their product, but because they fail to build a viable business around it. Lean startup helps us validate our business model as fast as possible. Lean startup is a collection of techniques built around maximizing validated customer learning thought fast Build/Measure/Learn iteration loops.

*The Lean Startup is a trademark and service mark owned by Eric Ries.*

Co-Founder and Organizer

Growth Hacking Belgium

Your new business went online yesterday and you've got a marketing budget of zero. How are you supposed to create a movement around your product? How can you get to your first thousand - or million - customers? Starting from zero, it feels impossible. Enter the growth hacker. You may not have heard of growth hacking yet, but you've certainly used the billion dollar brands built by it: Hotmail, AirBnB, Facebook, Dropbox, amongst many others. This group is for people who want to adopt the growth hacker mindset. It is all about sharing hands-on tactics that bring you results.

Grant Snap

Grant Snap is an online service that helps you get your innovation funded by providing guidance in preparing winning R&D grant proposals.

€375 billion gets granted annually in the EU. Get your share.

Sirris

I help software companies in different phases of product development and innovation:
•	For entrepreneurs: to turn their ideas into viable product concepts by applying customer development and lean startup™ methodologies
•	For companies building product for early adopters: introduce flexibility needed to quickly respond to new opportunities and changing customer requests 
•	For companies shifting their focus from customer to market: to master product management
•	For companies established in a market: to deal with increasing product complexity and how to differentiate through innovation

Account Manager Software Industry

Development activities (middleware components of a distributed data storage system, test management system, framework and tools used for automation of system tests) 

Participating in introduction of agile methodologies in two R&amp;D teams and setting up test automation infrastructure

Senior Software Engineer

Sony

Participating in the transition of an R&amp;D team into a product development organization 

Development activities (several packages of DVB MHP standard for digital television, an integrated environment used for development, execution and automatic reporting of functional tests for digital television)

Setting up a test department (conceiving a test strategy and infrastructure, test specifications/reviews, recruiting, supervising and training of testing personnel)

Full-funnel ABM for B2B brands with 5+ figure deals | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

You need more pipeline that turns into revenue. But:
- Most marketing leads never convert to deals
- ⁠Outbound is in continuous decline 
- All the investments in trendy programs, agencies or tech didn’t move the needle. 

It’s time to try implementing full-funnel sales and marketing programs. 

Why? 

So you can:
- Accelerate this quarter’s revenue while building the future pipeline
- ⁠Convert 5-15% accounts to pipeline
- ⁠Bring marketing and sales teams together to drive the KPI that matters the most: sales velocity. 

We helped dozens of B2B tech companies implement full-funnel marketing and sales programs with 10%+ account-to-pipeline ratio. 

We will take your team by the hand and together, implement a scoped pilot program with clear milestones to prove the key KPIs, before investing in operationalization and scaling. 

To learn more or ask me anything, connect with me here or visit our website at fullfunnel.io



Demand generation from the buyer's perspective: 

"𝑊𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝐴 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛"

- The problem you help them solve is a threat to a high priority business objective
- The cost of doing nothing is big enough to care
- We cannot ignore or postpone it
- This is not something that we cannot solve internally

"𝑊𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑎 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐿𝐼𝐾𝐸 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠"

- We have done sufficient research to understand different options 
- We believe that option <your category> is the best option for our problem
- We believe that we have what it takes to implement it, and get desired outcomes 

"𝑊𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑌𝑂𝑈𝑅 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛"

- We have identified, evaluated and vetted the right vendors
- We believe you are the best option 
- We have have the consensus of key stakeholders

"𝑊𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝐵𝑈𝑌 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑦𝑜𝑢"

- We understand the total cost (not only the product price), and we believe this investment would yield a significant return. 
- We expect impact Y within Z time 
- We have a clear plan, right people and infrastructure to implement the solution
- We understand the change management required and feel confident we will be able to do it
- We understand the main risks, and have a plan for a proof of concept to de-risk our decision. 
- You have been vetted by our procurement department 

--- 

We also know that: 

1. This is NOT a linear process
2. "We" stands for a buying center that can be 10+ people 
3. There are ALWAYS competing priorities
4. Priorities can shift at any moment, and decision postponed 

That's why, if you want to grow in 2024, you need to align your marketing and sales with the way buyers buy. 

P.S. thanks Sam Kuehnle for the inspiration

Vladimir Blagojević

Accelerate this quarter’s revenue & build future pipeline with Full-Funnel B2B programs | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

ABM Strategy 2.0: How to build and scale a Full-Funnel ABM motion in 2024. 
👇

ABM Strategy 2.0

You don't sell B2B products. Your buyers do.

Once you understand that, the way you look at marketing and sales changes. 

You can look at it as a series of buy-ins: 

1. Champion buy-in 

Our job is not to convince decision makers. 

Our job is to create champions and help them get the buy-in from the decision makers (and the rest of the buying committee).

2. Problem buy-in 

You won't get the  problem buy-in, if you present it in a generic way. 

We need to help the champion get the other buyers to believe that: 
- This problem a threat to a high priority business objective
- The cost of doing nothing is big enough to care
- We cannot ignore or postpone it
- This is not something that we can solve internally

3. Root-cause buy in 

Would you trust a doctor that prescribes you a drug without doing a proper diagnosis? 

No buy-in into the root-cause = no solution buy-in.

4. Approach buy in 

- We have done sufficient research to understand different options 
- We believe that option X solves the identified root-causes
- We expect impact Y within Z time 

5. Vendor buy-in 

- We have identified, evaluated and vetted the right vendors
- We have recommendations from key people and teams that will be impacted by this

6. ROI buy in 

We understand the total cost (not only the product price), and we believe this investment would yield a significant return. 

7. Implementation buy-in 

- We have a clear plan, right people and infrastructure to implement the solution
- We understand the change management required and feel confident we will be able to do it

8. Risk buy-in 

We understand the main risks, and have a plan for a proof of concept to de-risk our decision. 

---

Here are a few practical things you can do to align your marketing and sales with the way buyers buy: 
- Collect the questions your buyers have at each buy-in stage, and ask yourself if you have content or a process in place to provide a clear answer 
- Audit your case studies: what's missing to turn this case study into a journey through the buy-in stages 

Caveat: in most cases, a generic collateral won't do. The better you understand the actual priorities of your target accounts and buyers, the more effective your marketing will be. 

That's why we recommend cluster-based programs: 
1. Group best deals into clusters based on the common buying triggers and use-cases
2. Create cluster-based content and messaging 
3. Run 1:Few demand generation for the target cluster 
4. Personalize your content and messaging 1:1 for the most engaged accounts that show buying signals and product need evidence 

How to measure ABM
(download and zoom in to see all dashboards).

1/ 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 4 𝗱𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗕𝗠 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

- Net new revenue
- Pipeline acceleration (named accounts) - could be combined with the 1st dashboard depending on your preferences
- Renewal revenue with the key accounts
- Expansion revenue

These motions have different playbooks, hence the metrics vary.

2/ 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝘂𝗽 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 (𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱) 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀

You can capture them by looking at:

* Increased website visits from target accounts
* Pricing/demo visits by target accounts
* Total time spent and repetitive visits by target accounts
* Sign-ups to webinars/field events by target + repetitive visits
* Newsletter sign-ups by target accounts

We call them engaged accounts that should be transferred to the new revenue programs, including:

* Account qualification
* Account research
* Accounts in warm-up play

3/ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲

Include:

* Account penetration
* Sales opportunities (SQLs)
* Win rate
* Net new revenue
* Sales cycle length
* ACV
* Self-reported attribution

4/ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻

Include:

* # of case studies created
* # of new licenses sold
* LTV growth
* ACV growth
* Total expanded revenue

5/ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗹𝘀

Include:

* # of presentations booked
* # of renewed accounts
* Renewed revenue

6. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱

Include:

* Total revenue
* Revenue breakdown by tiers including pipeline velocity metrics (ACV, sales cycle, win rate)

---

The biggest problem with measuring ABM is that you need to create and fill in manually excel spreadsheets as almost no platform provides you the necessary insights.

Andrei Zinkevich shared our reports and dashboards with the HockeyStack's team, and they developed a universal dashboard that is very close to what we measure: 

https://lnkd.in/dzNxxgUp

#abm #b2bmarketing 


Sales often blame marketing for not creating awareness among the target accounts. Instead, sales MUST create awareness themselves:


1. Find the right buyers in the buying committee (champions, economic buyers, technical buyers and power users). 

In some cases, it makes sense to connect to insiders and connectors, too. 

2. Start value-added commenting in the places where these buyers hang out (this could be LinkedIn or for more technical audiences, niche Discord or Slack communities). 

3. Use engagement as a reason to connect, and start a relevant conversation. 

4. Ask profiling questions to understand where the buyers are in the buying process, and to validate their challenges and product need. 

5. Keep buyers engaged by tagging or sharing with them relevant news or content. 

Account "love letters" and content curation are an easy way to create engagement when you lack subject-matter expertise. 

6. Invite to the virtual or field events to strengthen relationships and use it as an opportunity for more in-depth account research. 

Connect to attendees pre and post event. 

7. Connect them with their peers (your SMEs, solution architects, or your reference customers) to help with change management and specific problem-solving.

8. Invite them for content collaborations with your marketing team: interviews, quotes for the blog, etc. 

It can be as easy as sourcing a LinkedIn post from several chats. 

9. Together with marketing, plan nurturing and activation steps for highly engaged accounts with product-need evidence. 

---

Account awareness ≠ In-mail -> Email -> Phone cadence. 

In the age of AI, personalization doesn't cut it any more. 

To get your message or email read, you must get KNOWN.

Sales must work on account awareness in parallel with marketing, to create  future pipeline. 

The biggest opportunity opens when sales and marketing work together to create multiple touch points across the buying committee (and their buying journey). 

Join Andrei Zinkevich and me as we break down the role of sales in ABM, on another FullFunnel Live this Thursday: 
https://lnkd.in/d7D69CM4

"No senior buyer will listen to an SDR with 0 experience in their space." Here is how to create a content creation and distribution machine with SDRs, SMEs, and marketing.

1. 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩 𝐚 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦

Define a target cluster or vertical and create a dedicated team, including:

- SME (subject-matter expert)
- SDR / AE or CSM (for current accounts)
- Marketing

2. 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲

- Their challenges, and why do they occur
- How they try to solve them
- How to solve them the right way
- How to make them problem-aware, in case they are not looking for a solution
- What is the change management required

3. 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫

There is a lot on the plate of the people who are involved.

Define 3-4 key demand activities and the time required to maintain them. Define repurposing and distribution flows to amplify the reach and the ROI of the investments. 

4. 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐌𝐄's' 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬

- Creating expert content for change manegement, problem awareness and nurturing
- Sharing insights with the content marketer
- Running webinars and podcast interviews
- Building relationships with industry thought leaders

5. 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬

- Creating content based on the SME input 
- Running a repurposing and distribution flow (including paid distribution)
- Setting up content collaborations with partner brands and communities
- Creating vertical/cluster case studies
- Developing buyer enablement content for the engaged accounts, that SDRs/AEs can use in conversations

6. 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐃𝐑'𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬

- Value-added commenting
- Personalized connection requests
- Manual content distribution
- Inviting target buyers for micro-content collaboration 
- Progressive profiling (using touch points to collect insights about target accounts)

--- 

Indeed, no senior buyer will listen to an SDR with 0 domain expertise. 

But this only means you need to redefine the marketing and sales roles, and ensure account awareness and nurturing from multiple angles.

P.S. This week, we're diving deeper into the role of SDRs in ABM. If you want to get all of that content neatly laid out for your Friday/weekend read, sign up for our Substack: 

https://lnkd.in/dTjWKYSg


#b2bmarketing #abm

CEO: We need more revenue NOW. Our pipeline is drying up. I have investors breathing down MY neck. 

Reality: 

- Outbound pipeline keeps declining, sales cycles are long, and win rates low
- Inbound leads are unpredictable, and many have low revenue potential
- Other marketing leads are not ready to buy, and we waste time trying to turn them into pipeline and win
- All the investment in different tactics, trendy programs, agencies and technology, didn’t move the needle.

But this is not the case with all B2B teams. 

After working with dozens of B2B tech companies on programs that generated millions in revenue, we see a different pattern. 

- They run cross-functional sales and marketing programs that accelerate this quarter’s revenue, while building the future pipeline
- They focus on pipeline and sales velocity and convert 5-15% accounts to pipeline

Here is the overview of these full-funnel programs, that we’ll break down for you during our talk: 

1. Identify accounts that are more likely to have the need, and that you can reasonably win and retain over the long time 
2. Break down accounts into three groups

#1. DECLARED INTENT: hand raisers asking to learn more about the solution. 

Here the goal is to quickly qualify and connect them with the the right AE to develop the deal. KPI: sales velocity. 

#2: HIGH-ODDS ACCOUNTS: accounts with high likelihood of becoming an opportunity this quarter.

The goal is to book a discovery call with an AE (declared need). Successful companies implement 1:1 Account Development, including: 

- Expanding relationships with the buying center
- Account research
- Creating personalised offers
- Planning and running specific multi-channel follow-up activities

KPIs: account-to-pipeline ratio, pipeline velocity

#3: FUTURE PIPELINE**: engaged Tier 1 and Tier 2 accounts with an indication of product need or a good relationship. 

The goal is to nurture and develop relationships with multiple buyers, and qualify the need. Here, you should:

- Connect and engage with the buying center
- Involve them in 1:Few cluster-based programs to create multiple meaningful touchpoints
- Leverage these touchpoints to collect sales insights and remove the blind spots

KPIs: account-to-convo ratio, account penetration

-—

To accelerate revenue, you need cross-functional programs that help you 

- Focus on sweet-spot accounts
- Identify and research high-odds accounts to create discovery calls—
- while nurturing accounts that are not yet ready to buy on places where they hang out and learn.

P.S. For all our Benelux friends, join Andrei Zinkevich and me as we break this framework down during our talk at We Are Sales in Antwerp, on May 16. Use Fullfunnel20 at checkout for 20% off. 

P.P.S. We'll also run a half a day workshop on May 17, if you want to dive deeper, to get a real solid and nuanced understanding with tons of examples, all your questions answered, and exchange opinions and cases with others.

Hit me up for more info. 


Sales and marketing collaboration, the old way: 
1. Get input for targeting in paid campaigns 
2. Handover leads
3. Create collateral

The new way: 

1. Shared goals

What do we want to achieve?

Generate net-new pipeline? Renew contracts? Accelerate pipeline? Go upmarket and win enterprise clients?

Make sure 
- Both sales and marketing are working on the same goals
- Goals are aligned with the main business objectives and priorities

For example: 
- Investor is conditioning the next round on a lower CAC for new business
- Enterprise sales cycle is 12 months

==> Goal: win 50 mid-market ICPs, imporove account-to-pipeline ratio. 

2. Aligned metrics

Are KPIs aligned with your shared goal?

Usual issues: 
- Leads / meetings booked KPI
- No leading indicators for new programs

3. Shared account qualification 

Firmographics, technographics, and custom qualification criteria (e.g. PE-backed company, sales team > 100) to use for targeting and list building.

4. Shared account scorecard 

Agree on:

a) Prioritization criteria (related to revenue potential, relationship, product need evidence and vendor awareness)

b) Account insights. What info do we need to collect or validate to be able to sell into that account? 

5. Buying committee structure 

Align on the typical roles (of champions, decision makers, influencers and blockers), and their goals, needs, and pain points.

6. Joint account prioritization and planning process

Agree on: 

a) Key sources of account insights, intent and engagement data, source owners and frequency of reviewing them 
b) Regular pipeline review meetings, to review and prioritize newly identified accounts, and review the insights and next steps of the accounts currently in active focus or pipeline 

7. Buying triggers and jobs-to-be-done 

B2B buyers don't buy because they saw an ad, an SDR email or received the fifth nurture email. They buy because their business priorities shift to a specific high priority challenge they cannot to afford anymore. 

Analyze and agree on 
- The buying triggers and the jobs-to-be-done of your best customers, especially those where you have a competitive advantage
- Signals that can help you map clusters of accounts with the same triggers and JTBDs
- Content, messaging and activities to market to these clusters

8. Joint programs 

Define joint programs by defining specific sales and marketing activities to: 
- Generate awareness in target accounts 
- Nurture and move forward accounts that are early in the buying journey
- Collect key insights about target accounts 
- Accelerate opportunity creation with highly engaged accounts? 

--- 

I call it the "old way", but it's still a reality in many B2B companies.

Fixing marketing and sales collaboration is one of the biggest opportunities for 2024. 

P.S. The best place to start is account prioritization, that Andrei & me will dive into @ FullFunnel Live: https://lnkd.in/d8wjByM4

SDR KPIs in the ABM program. Most companies create misalignment with wrong KPIs and doom great programs from the start.

Here are the most common mistakes - and the KPIs to use to drive the right behaviours.

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬

- Activity-based KPIs (dials, emails..). 'nough said.
- Meetings booked. It's easy to book meetings. It's hard to book meetings that create high ACV opportunities that convert and stay with you for a long time.
- SQLs - or AE-accepted leads. It doesn't account for the win-rate or ACV. This is especially problematic with opportunity-hungry AEs that will accept any potential deal.
- Total sales revenue (as in, shared revenue targets for the whole sales team). Good performers get penalised.

Another common mistake is not having any leading indicators. I've seen orgs that go all in to close as many deals in Q4, only to go hungry in Q1 next year.

Here is how to create KPIs and leading indicators in ABM programs.

𝟏. 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲

This is about:
- How many ICP accounts (that pass qualification criteria and a define engagement and intent threshold) are you able to source, properly engage and connect to (without skipping the key steps) each week?
- How many high-odds accounts (high product-need evidence, vendor awareness, and good relationship) are you able to properly research, reach out to and book discovery calls?
- What is the total opportunity value of those accounts per month (velocity)?

These are the actions that you can control. What this doesn't measure is, how effective are these activities.

𝟐. 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞

Today's pipeline is the result of previous quarters' efforts. That's why you always need to work on future pipeline.

This means:
- Identifying vendor aware, engaged accounts - where the product need unknown, and we have limited relationship with
- Working to validate the account challenges and product need, and to connect to and warm-up the buying committee

The KPIs here are account-to-convo ratio, and account penetration (how many buying center members did we engage and started a conversation with).

𝟑. 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬

This is about
- Identifying accounts with high odds of becoming an opportunity this quarter. They are vendor aware, and product need evidence is strong, and you have built a relationship with some of the key stakeholders.
- The goal here is to generate demos/discovery calls and sales opportunities.

The KPIs are account-to-pipeline ratio and sales velocity (total amount of revenue generated from these accounts per quarter and per year).

---

The biggest mistakes in SDR land are
- Proposing a marriage on the first date (=not matching the action to the level of buying intent)
- Ignoring the future pipeline
- No collaboration with marketing

And the most common root-case is lack of alignment and proper KPIs.

Wrong KPIs always lead to the wrong outcomes.


Pipeline Survival Guide: How to accelerate this quarter’s revenue while building future pipeline with cluster-based programs.
👇

Pipeline Survival Guide

How to market to the new B2B buyer in 2024.

(Four lessons from the first day of the Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Summit).

1. Enter the mind of the executive buyer

From Jen Allen-Knuth, we learned how to think like executives.

They don't get paid the big bucks to take sales calls.

They're tasked with root causing big, complex threats to the company's objectives. They're asking themselves:

1. What hurdles prevent us from achieving our objectives?
2. How big are those problems?
3. Can I get away with ignoring them for now?
4. If not, what are my options?

And what do most marketers and salespeople talk about?

"Here's who we are, what we do, and why it's great."

Jen showed us how to:

2. Use COI to pre-empt status quo

We have been taught to convince buyers to change.

But that's basically telling a C-level buyer that you can do their job better than them. 

What to do instead? 

Introduce new info that contradicts the underlying *beliefs and assumptions*, not their behaviors.

E.g. imagine selling a $100 raincoat to people who already have an umbrella (cost=$0).

Enter COI, cost of inaction:

"Noticed you live in Chicago. Looks like y'all get about 119 days of rain a year. Not sure if you knew this, but only 5% of Americans remember to bring their umbrella.

What do we do when that happens? We Uber.

But what does Uber do on those days? Surge pricing, leaving you with a $40+ charge each time.

119 rainy days a year = 5+ rainy days each month (costing you $200+)"

Instead of touting the product benefits, compare the investment ($100) with the COI ($200+ a month).

3. Get the attention of the right buyers

What is the number one criterion buyers use to filter their inbox?

Do I know the sender?

Here is how:
- Recruit the army of SMEs to create expert content that attracts the attention of 6-figure buyers (Morgan J Ingram)
- Use data to help sales avoid wild goose chases, know which accounts to focus on, and what they care about (Leanne Chescoe & Paul Gibson)
- Create focused, cluster-based programs to increase relevance, create multiple meaningful touch points, and accelerate this quarter's revenue, while building future pipeline (Andrei Zinkevich and me)

4. Sell WITH your champion

From Nate Nasralla, we learned that sellers don't close deals. 

Buyers do.

And they spend more time having convos about you, without you.

That's why the biggest unlock in enterprise sales is helping your champion make a compelling business case:
- Linked to a specific high value, high priority problem (see 1 above)
- Getting a buy in for the approch first, then product
- Showing a payoff that matters

***

The first day was amazing, with 700+ people joining live, and asking our B2B experts 96 questions. 

To get all the recordings, and don't miss out on todays and tomorrow's sessions, register here:
https://lnkd.in/e9tNM78R

See you in an hour.

It's beyond time to rethink marketing automation. 

I don't know a single B2B company that's not using this technology that's almost as old as internet. And things have CHANGED since then. 

My biggest issues with marketing automation platforms of today:

1. Contact based instead of account based 

We're in B2B. We're selling into accounts that have buying committees. 

Some platforms have duct-taped account-based marketing features, but in most cases, it feels like too little, too late.

2. The focus on email and the website. Marketing needs to happen where the buyers are. 

3. Limited data and personalization capabilities. 

We have so much data about our target accounts and buyers (mostly siloed in other systems), but you cannot action it to provide more personalized marketing journeys and buying experiences. 

4. Focus on marketing only, without support for sales or business development roles (beyond CRM integration). 

For example, why am I not able to: 

- Connect to ICP buyers who liked my LinkedIn post and start a conversation about the post topic? 
- Connect to someone who has registered for a webinar to thank them and ask them what they are hoping to learn? 

And so on. 

This kind of collaboration between marketing and sales is one of the biggest missed opportunities. 

5. Limited scoring. 

I would prefer to score accounts based on: 
- Buying intent
- Product need evidence
- Relationship
- Engagement (on the level of account, using ALL the touchpoints—not just web page visits or email interactions)

Oh and BTW - many of these insights are gleamed from actual conversations with buyers, or manual research. 

--- 

In the original post that inspired this one, Jon Miller (co-founder of Marketo) shared the attached research, and a brilliant conclusion: 

"It feels like Stockholm Syndrome or post-traumatic stress disorder. People have built their careers on these platforms, and the thought of leaving is terrifying.

But here's the hard truth: the marketing automation industry has been stagnant for almost a decade. Aside from a few UI tweaks and acquisitions, the core capabilities have barely evolved since 2015. Meanwhile, our buyers and markets have changed dramatically.

The 1st-gen MAPs were built for a world of linear lead funnels, not account-based revenue teams. They're great at optimizing email, but don’t handle multi-channel journeys well. They rely on static lists, not dynamic audiences. And they require experts who know exactly how to configure campaigns, removing the program manager from the nuances of program execution." 

Why are not more people talking about marketing automation? 

P.S. Jon's original post: https://lnkd.in/evBw_EXT - do yourself a favor, 

Taplio

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