B2B go-to-market (GTM) strategies are undergoing a significant transformation and it’s about time. Traditional approaches focused on marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and account-based marketing (ABM) are proving less and less effective in the face of complex buying processes involving multiple stakeholders.
This shift mirrors the age-old Goldilocks fable: Leads are too small a target and Accounts are too broad, but Buying Groups are just right. The new model gaining momentum is an Opportunity-centric GTM approach centered around Buying Groups. This approach not only reflects how sellers think but also matches how B2B buyers buy.
This article explores the problems with traditional models, describes Buying Groups, and demonstrates how a Buying Group motion plays out in processes and technology.
A Breakdown of Old Models
It’s a common sales and marketing conundrum: Marketing teams celebrate the huge influx of Leads, while Sales teams struggle with low-quality Leads and longer sales cycles.
Traditional MQL models, which focus on individual Leads, are increasingly ineffective because they don’t account for the reality that B2B buying decisions are made by groups, not individuals.
Fundamental Problems With MQLs
Six fundamental problems are causing lead-focused motions to break down when dealing with a buying committee.
- Lack of Insight: Focusing on individual Leads overlooks the full buying committee, missing essential context and buying signals.
- Poor Buying Experience: Disjointed messaging and misaligned nurturing tracks lead to a fragmented and frustrating buying journey.
- Wasted Marketing Investment: Efforts are spread too thin, targeting the wrong individuals and missing key Opportunities.
- Leaky Sales Funnel: Leads handed off at the wrong time can go stale or be lost to competitors.
- Longer Sales Cycle: Relying on a few Leads extends the sales process as Sales must identify and engage the entire Buying Group.
- Low Conversion Rates: Opportunities with only one Contact convert at lower rates, causing inefficiency and wasted efforts.
ABM is Too Broad
While ABM is still a popular GTM strategy, it also has some inherent problems. An Account is often too broad of a target. For example, once you sell a product to an Account, you now consider that Account a “customer.”
However, within that Account, there may be many sets of prospective buyers on separate buying committees who are interested in other products you offer. When these prospective buyers manifest buying signals, they’re often ignored.
Account-based marketing is not designed to support multiple Opportunities within the same Account. Therefore, it’s not a good play for expansion revenue.
Other common failures of ABM include a constantly shifting list of target Accounts, outdated lists, and misalignment between Sales and Marketing activities. Like the Lead-centric model, ABM is yet another misaligned, high-spend, low-conversion strategy.
Missed Buying Signals
Another factor negatively impacting traditional GTM models is the new self-guided buying journey.
Modern B2B buyers prefer to remain anonymous and gather information independently before engaging with sellers. In fact, according to 6sense, buyers spend 70% of their buying journey doing their own research before talking to vendors. This anonymity, coupled with the involvement of multiple stakeholders in buying decisions, complicates the tracking of buying signals.
Traditional Lead and Account scoring models fail to capture the collective engagement of a buying group, leading to missed signals and lost Opportunities.
The Opportunity-Centric Motion Gets it Right
A Buying Group motion based in Opportunities doesn’t completely replace the Lead-centric or ABM models. Rather, it extends those motions, like a logical next step. This Opportunity-centric motion recognizes the collective decision-making process in B2B sales.
In this motion, Marketing teams focus on identifying members of the buying committee and engaging with all of them. Then, as Marketing (often with the help of SDRs) creates and qualifies a Buying Group, the group is placed into an Opportunity and sent to the Sales team.
The Opportunity object is like a container tied to a solution that can hold multiple contacts from a Buying Group.
Thus, an Opportunity-centric motion, also known as a Buying Group motion or Opportunity motion, is a natural evolution of Lead-centric and ABM models.
The New Buying Group Motion
In a Buying Group motion, the basic buying journey doesn’t change. However, the tasks are tackled by a range of buying committee members, not a single individual.
The Buyer:
- Identifies a problem (Awareness).
- Investigates solutions to solve the problem (Consideration).
- Decides on the final resolution (Decision).
Defining the Buying Group
Buying Groups consist of multiple stakeholders involved in a purchase decision. These groups vary in size and composition, often including subject-matter experts, departmental contributors, and decision-makers from finance and IT.
Understanding the roles within a Buying Group is crucial for effective engagement. Here’s a breakdown of the different roles you may find on a typical B2B buying committee:
- Initiator: Identifies the need or opportunity.
- User: Directly interacts with the product or service.
- Influencer: Provides expertise and advice.
- Decision Maker: Has the authority to approve the purchase.
- Gatekeeper: Controls access to information and decision-makers.
- Buyer: Manages procurement and compliance.
- Champion: Advocates for the purchase internally.
- Financial Approver: Approves the budget.
- Sniper: Can veto the purchase.
To effectively engage with members of the buying committee, Marketing teams still must market to individuals. This involves taking into account their individual needs, priorities, concerns, and objectives. The message and approach of each committee member should be distinct.
In addition, different members of the Buying Group will enter the buying journey at different times. However, Sellers should not assume members joining at later stages are starting at “ground zero.” They most likely have been kept up to speed by other buying committee members.
Internal Teams Impacted by a Buying Group Motion
Transitioning to a Buying Group motion affects the processes, workflow, and metrics of several internal teams.
Sales
SDR/BDR teams will shift their focus from individual Leads to identifying and engaging with multiple buying committee members. Often working collaboratively with Marketing, SDRs are now responsible for building the Buying Group and not simply tossing a single Lead over the fence to Sales.
Also within sales, Account Executives will change their mindset from quantity to quality, engaging with more personas to move deals forward.
Marketing
Regarding the Marketing team, it’s often the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who leads the charge for a Buying Group motion. Marketing must now capture signals from Accounts, engage with the Buying Group, and move them to a qualified Opportunity stage to pass to Sales.
Ironically, it’s often the ABM team that notices a need for a Buying Group motion. They have extensive experience targeting specific Accounts, engaging with the right Account members, and sending them targeted content. This same model will now be applied to a Buying Group.
Executive Team
A Buying Group motion will impact the ways an Executive team assesses the value of individual organizations like Marketing and Sales. Plus, this new motion removes the focus from a lead-based funnel and puts little to no reliance on MQLs.
Some early adopters of a Buying Group motion use a “Qualified Buying Group” metric. Other potential metrics include the engagement of Buying Group members and the pipeline created by Buying Groups.
Because this new model fundamentally changes how Marketing and Sales work together, it requires executive buy-in.
Anatomy of an Opportunity-Centric Revenue Motion
The Opportunity-centric, Buying Group motion involves three basic stages:
- Detecting Buying Group Members: Capturing and matching buying signals from multiple sources.
- Building the Buying Group: Centralizing buyer data and qualifying Opportunities.
- Assigning and Actioning Qualified Opportunities: Delivering qualified Opportunities to the right sellers with full context.
Technology Considerations
Successful implementation of a Buying Group motion requires aligning technology systems around the Opportunity object, capturing interactions from all buying group members, and automating processes to reduce manual efforts.
This often involves rearchitecting existing systems, like Salesforce, and integrating new technologies for marketing automation, data management, and sales engagement.
Operationalizing Buying Groups with LeanData
LeanData offers solutions to streamline the Buying Group motion across all three stages:
- Stage 1: Automated workflows to capture and match buying signals.
- Stage 2: Centralizing buyer data around an Opportunity and creating tasks.
- Stage 3: Routing qualified Opportunities to the right sellers with full context.
Benefits of a Buying Group Motion
Organizations that have transitioned from a Lead-centric or ABM motion to a Buying Group motion report several common benefits.
- Higher Conversion Rates: Increased pipeline quality and reduced sales cycles.
- Internal Efficiency: Elimination of manual processes and wasted efforts.
- Identification of Multiple Selling Opportunities: Greater visibility into potential deals within an Account.
- Better Alignment: Enhanced collaboration between Sales, Marketing, and Operations.
In a Forrester webinar, LeanData customer Reltio shared the following benefits that resulted from their shift to Buying Groups:
- 20% increase in the actionable sales pipeline.
- Opportunities advanced 24% faster than the prior year.
- Closed Lost Opportunities were reduced by 50%.
- 20% YoY increase in pipeline.
Admittedly, a Buying Group motion is not without challenges, the biggest being company culture. It may be difficult to gain employee buy-in, align departments, and change metrics and attribution models. Success requires a cultural shift and strong executive support.
Improve Efficiency and Drive Revenue Growth
Embracing a Buying Group motion is essential for modern B2B GTM success. Organizations can improve efficiency, enhance the buyer experience, and drive revenue growth by aligning Sales and Marketing efforts around Buying Groups.
LeanData provides the tools and expertise to support this transition, helping organizations navigate the complexities of implementing a buying group motion.
For more information and a buying group readiness assessment, visit the Buying Groups Resource Center today.