Why Your Business Needs Demand Gen
1. The buying process has changed
a) Buyer behavior has shifted
- Buyers have access to an abundance of information which empowers them to navigate most of the buying process on their own.
- Buyers want to execute most or all their buying processes independently without engaging vendors.
- We're in the dark social era where B2B buyers discover and evaluate products through the internet and their network (communities, social, word of mouth, content platforms, etc.), not a Sales rep
b) Buyers are doing their research in different places
B2B buyers research, discover, evaluate, products before they decide to book a demo. They do their research are in places like:
- Social networks (e.g. LinkedIn, Instagram, FB)
- Podcasts
- YouTube
- Communities and Groups (Slack, FB)
- Word of Mouth
- 3rd party events
c) Buyer preferences have changed
- B2B buyers don’t want chatbots, gated content, spam calls, cold emails, cold Linkedin outreach, and SDR qualification calls.
- They want to get in touch on their terms. They want to learn where they hang out. They are looking for people who are going to help them be successful. They want instant help when they connect.
- 75% of buyers are spending more time doing research vial digital channels - CEB Research
- 51% of buying group influencers don't interact directly with a sales rep - TrustRadius Research
- 70% of buyers who engage with sales have already fully defined their needs - Miller Heiman Group
- 71% will switch vendors for a better overall digital experience - Accenture
2) The results demand gen delivers
An effective demand gen strategy:
- Helps us build long-term sustainable competitive advantage that’s difficult to replicate
- Fuels customer insights, which shapes marketing, product and sales
- Increases pipeline, with buyers coming to us instead of us always going to them
- Decreases the sales cycle
- Improves pipeline velocity
- Increases revenue
3) The alignment between marketing and sales
a) Removing overlap and ineffeciencies
- Outbound marketing and outbound sales are doing the same job
- Trying to generate MQLs (contact info of target audience) when we have software to do that
- Marketing is trying to do ‘digital sales’ instead of creating demand and awareness
- Sales now has databases, intent data, contact info, etc
b) Getting clarity on roles, responsibilities, and primary focus
- Sales – Focused on conversion and outbound
- Marketing – Focused on educating, building trust, and brand awarenss
- Revenue Operations should be responsible for triggering outbound Sales using contact databases, intent data, and other signals - not Marketing.
c) What marketing should focus on
- Understanding customer
- Optimizing for how buyers want to buy
- Drive qualified high intent buyers that explicitly ask to talk to Sales about buying the product
- Improve the effectiveness of our outbound efforts because buyers like us, have an affinity to our category, and understand the business problems we solve.
- Communicate our narrative to the market, so when we’re in Sales meetings, buyers are already super educated so our Sales team can focus on helping the customer, not convincing them on why to buy.
- Win rates go up, sales cycles go down, our sales velocity goes up, and our business gets better.
- Focus on the right customer-centric outcomes. For example: “We want all our Top 100 strategic accounts to know about other enterprise customers that are having success with our platform”, or “We want our entire ICP to know that we just released this highly differentiated solution.”
