Over the past decade the traditional sales funnel has undergone a significant evolution. Potential buyers are increasingly conducting extensive online research well before reaching out to salespeople pushing Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) ever deeper into the traditional sales funnel. This shift has profound implications for businesses across all industries. To succeed in this new landscape, organizations must adapt their marketing, sales, product, and customer success strategies.
Today, B2B buyers dedicate just 17% of their purchase process to talking with vendor sales representatives [1]. As buyers become more knowledgeable, they are less likely to engage with salespeople early in the purchasing process. The amount of product and service information available to B2B customers has grown exponentially – Analyst reports, review sites, corporate blogs, display advertising, email marketing, infographics, podcasts, white papers, word-of-mouth recommendations – all competing for the opportunity to influence buyers. This trove of online information is easily accessible and has significantly complicated the purchase process.
This shift toward more upfront research and less time spent with salespeople puts more pressure on many other departments within your organization. Marketing needs to do more to inform and engage prospects deeper into the buying journey; Sales is getting fewer at bats so need to make the most of each opportunity; Product teams need to deliver on the promises being made in the market; and Customer Success has become more critical than ever to assure customers who have purchased your product or service stay with your company and, hopefully, are so pleased that they become advocates for your product and brand.
Marketing: Taking on an expanded role
With the proliferation of so much product and service information, your marketing department needs to work ever harder to ensure prospects can find what they are looking for and accurately compare their needs with your offering.
Buyer research primarily starts with your website and then quickly moves to search, social and third-party reviews. MQLs are no longer the bar. It’s not good enough to create awareness, build engagement and deliver MQL’s, the Marketing team needs to assure that MQLs turn into quality SQLs and that the Sales team has everything they need to succeed. By working hand-in-glove with the Sales team to develop a good feedback loop on what marketing activities are and are not working, Marketing can hone their message and channel vehicles, providing the right information at the right time through the right channels. Having an Omnichannel marketing approach and testing, testing, testing is the key.
Sales: Fewer, more high quality, more consultive opportunities
In this new world, salespeople will most likely be getting fewer but higher quality leads. The days of cherry-picking the best leads and providing informative but generic information to prospects is in the rearview mirror. Salespeople need to be doing as much if not more research than their prospects and be ready when their opportunities arise. Prospects already have the information they need, what they need from your salespeople is to help them make sense of what they have researched
Product: Know your audience, build superior product experiences
To quote the famous ad man Jerry Della Femina, “nothing kills a bad product faster than good marketing.” In other words, if your marketing and sales are doing their job and bringing in customers and these customers have a bad experience with your product…you’re done. You can’t un-ring that bell. And, in today’s environment of supercharged word-of-mouth through easily accessible review sites, blogs and forums your product or service reputation (good or bad) will spread far and wide quickly. Before ever releasing a new product or product feature, your product team needs to do their homework. Have we identified our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)? Are we addressing a pain point? Is there a good market fit? Have we thoroughly tested the new product or feature with customers?
Customer Success: an advocate engine
I would argue that building your brand is more highly influenced by Customer Success than by any other function in your company including Marketing. There is nothing more powerful than a happy customer who is willing to tell a colleague or write a positive review. With sites like G2, TrustRadius, Captera and many others providing a public outlet for your customers to tell the world about their experience, your customer success team is on the hook to assure that customers are really happy. Your customers are talking, great Customer Success efforts can make sure they will advocate on your behalf.
How Altus Alliance can help
In an ever-evolving business landscape where the art of marketing and sales is no longer enough, Altus deploys the science that will give you a necessary edge. We will help you identify the right prospects, develop your marketing and sales structure, and assure high quality revenue strategies, processes, KPIs and technologies are in place so that your business succeeds.
Whether you want to identify new market opportunities, break into new verticals, revise your marketing GTM, set up an inside sales organization, optimize your current sales processes or contract interim sales or marketing leadership, Altus is ready to help. Take the next step to assure your organization is as effective and efficient as possible, Altus has the experience, revenue leaders and methodologies to take you there.
[1] 2022 The Sense Making Seller report
[2] Source: Spotio research
[3] Source: “Buyers Continue on the Path Toward Independence,” May 2017, Forrester Research Inc.
