Accelerating Win Rates - Does Marketing have a role?

Over the past two weeks, I’ve had conversations with #CMOs and #CROs about one thing - elongated sales cycles and declining win rates.? What can be done? And does marketing have a role? Short answer - YES.

We’re all experiencing it - elongated sales cycles and declining win rates.? In fact, according to Gartner, the average B2B sales cycle has increased by 22% over the past five years, and the number of decision-makers involved in the buying process has increased.? Buyers are becoming more risk-averse, and require more information and validation before making a purchase decision. Finally, the pandemic, the fear of a recession and the recent SVB banking crisis have caused many buyers to delay purchasing decisions due to economic uncertainty.

During a recent roundtable with revenue leaders hosted by Winning by Design , discussions were centered on what can be done to accelerate win rates.??

• Should BDRs do more upfront qualifications to improve funnel velocity and conversion rates?? IMO and experience - absolutely.? One of the best ways to improve funnel velocity is to improve the quality of what comes into the funnel.? We can’t just rely on our lead score engine to flesh out the good from the bad - or whether our marketing targeted the right persona in our ICP (ideal customer profile).? BDRs still need to do some upfront discovery and light qualification - is there a need and is there influence - when securing that first meeting.? And they should be incentivized to book quality meetings - those that progress with ‘next steps’ as determined by the AE (account executive).? Meeting-to- opportunity throughput increases when the focus is on quality, not quantity.?
• Should there be more focus and investment in sales enablement? ?Yes - and that investment should be made early.? It’s important, however, to be thoughtful and intentional about the kind of enablement needed.? Is it sales methodology and process?? Is it messaging and storytelling?? Is it competitive insights? Is it tools, content and social proof points?? And who will deliver the material and training needed.? Marketing has a big role to play here.? We provide sellers the messaging, the tools, materials, case studies and references they need to have informed, effective conversations with buyers to help close deals faster.?
• What is the right handoff from marketing? ?There is NO longer a clear handoff from marketing to sales.? We are all on ONE team.? As I see it, marketing has to partner with sales throughout the whole sales cycle -? the whole buyer’s journey.? It’s no longer just TOFU (top-of-the-funnel) that we care about.? It’s also MOFU (middle-of-the-funnel) and BOFU (bottom-of-the-funnel).? It’s full funnel revenue marketing and multi-threading.? As marketers, we have to align our messaging, create content, and deliver engaging touch points along every step of the buyer journey, and we have to find and engage multiple contacts involved in the buying decision.? It’s within our scope to keep our brand in front of the buyer even while they’re talking to our sellers.? Marketing can help with the validation that buyers need to take the risk and make the purchase - with social proof points, high-value content, references and advocacy.? ?

Here’s the thing.? B2B buying has evolved dramatically.? More B2B buyers (94% according to recent studies) are spending more time on-line doing their own research before making a purchase, and more than 50% of B2B buyers say they rely on content to make informed decisions.??

With that change in buyer behavior, marketing can absolutely play a crucial role in accelerating B2B sales cycles and improving win rates.? It’s in our hands to help both sellers and buyers with:

• Content Marketing: ?By creating valuable, contextual content mapped to the buyer’s journey that addresses their pain points and challenges and delivering that content in the appropriate channels where the buyers are, marketing can help educate the buyer and move them further along the buying journey.
• Data and Intent Signals:? As marketers, we need to listen to the market and respond accordingly.? We have the data and technology to identify high-value prospects that are in-market and personalize messaging to improve engagement.
• Personalized Messaging and ABM (account-based marketing):? Tailoring messages and content to a smaller number of high-value accounts, either 1-to-1 or ABM at-scale, with targeted campaigns are more likely to resonate and land with the influencers and decision makers involved in the buying process.
• Multi-threading: By using data, content and personalized messaging, we can target and engage multiple contacts in the account to create a groundswell and mindshare.

There’s so much opportunity for sales and marketing to collaborate and partner and WIN together.? In this economic environment when buyers are taking less risk, delaying purchases, and adding more complexity by adding more people to the buying committee - marketing has to take the lead in enabling buyers to make the right choice to help sellers close the deal faster.

#b2bmarketing #b2bsales #winning #revenue #closingdeals #b2b #b2btech #oneteam #bdr #marketing #revenuemarketing #contentmarketing #abm