Embracing the future of revenue generation

The direct sales funnel is dying. The core premise that buyers are open to cold outreach is turning sour but until we have a better alliterative many of us are flailing like toddlers who need a nap.

We believe the future is ecosystems. However, while that may sound sexy in a board room or with investors - to sellers living on the ground it's not helpful.

Therefore, this article is focused on answering two questions:

(1) What does ecosystem led growth actually mean?

(2) What actions should we take as sellers?

Marriage > Dates

Ecosystem led growth is not about pipeline generation.

It's about deal conversion.

In a metaphor, direct sales is about generating enough dates that eventually you find a partner who wants to marry you.

Ecosystem sales is about connecting with one date that met your selection criteria so that you both want to get married.

We don't need a funnel if we have qualified leads that convert.

Ecosystem led growth is a shift in mindset from generating interest to enabling conversion. We can't be scared that there isn't enough cover. Instead, we need to work with our partners to understand our mutual pipelines - both from a land & expand perspective - so we can backtrack to our desired targets based on conversation rates - not pipeline generation.

The Traditional Revenue Process: An Outdated Funnel

The conventional revenue process has relied on a linear sales funnel where potential buyers are converted from leads to prospects through aggressive outbound strategies.

However, this approach is decreasingly effective in the modern landscape. Buyersphere itself has largely cut out it's cold outreach campaigns because...they just weren't converting.

Our sales teams are facing the spreadsheet fallout of requiring higher pipeline coverage and more intensified outreach.

We as buyers have noticed and we're just not interested in that medium of outreach. We want a more personalized and informed approach in our purchasing decisions. We want to be met where we are. So how do we do that?

The Rise of Buyer-Led Growth

Buyer-led growth is centered around enabling buyers to make informed decisions at their own pace.

Our buyers conduct extensive research before engaging with sales teams, self-assessing on value, risk, and ROI. This shift necessitates a new focus on putting the buyer at the center of the sales cycle and providing them with the right information at the right time.

So where do we find these mythical buyers?

The Role of Connected Revenue and Collaborative Intelligence

In the era of buyer-led growth, there are two essential elements to our new flywheel pipeline — connected revenue and collaborative intelligence.

Connected revenue is about bringing all revenue-generating teams and tools together into one cohesive space. That is, our buyers use a handful of tools & solutions alongside our product. If our product plays nicely with the agencies, technologies, or strategic providers - we can meet our targets simply by being included on many of the deals our partners sell into.

Collaborative intelligence takes the concept of buyer enablement to a new level. By leveraging people and predictive data, companies can make better decisions and truly understand their buyers' pain points and preferences. Just as social media platforms use collaborative intelligence to engage users, businesses can harness this power to create more meaningful interactions with buyers.

Imagine a world where all of our databases are connected and we can tell a buyer "companies like you use a tech stack like this" - and auto generate spaces where the tech stack and buyer can all collaborate on finding a solution.

The era of cold calling is about to look as dated as the show Mad Men.

Evolving from Competitors to Ecosystems

The traditional notion of competitors is slightly outdated in the context of buyer-led growth.

Instead, we should focus on revenue ecosystems with partnership-led moats. Our ecosystems involve multiple players working together to provide the best mix of products and services to customers. The focus shifts from direct competition to defensive collaboration.

Many of our organizations are not designed to work across 30,000 users. We're designed for enterprise teams not multinational infrastructure. That means that our old way of account-based tracking where we ignore the sub-legal & functional entities no longer makes sense.

If two similar tools both have product-market fit, they're both likely to benefit more from collaboration than competition at the team level.

Adapting to Buyer-Led Growth: A New Way Forward

What do revenue organizations need to do to excel in the era of buyer-led growth:

1. Emphasize Buyer Enablement: Sellers need to empower buyers to make informed decisions at their own pace. This requires providing buyers with the right information and risk mitigation strategies that align with their unique needs. You need to invest in buyer enablement tools.
2. Foster Connected Revenue: Revenue teams must integrate their tools and workflows to create a seamless experience for both sellers and buyers. Collaboration among various revenue functions ensures a unified approach to engaging customers. We need simple & actionable data across the full customer lifecycle - not just pre-sales and not just for sales leadership.
3. Cultivate Collaborative Intelligence: Companies should harness the power of data and insights from across their ecosystem to gain a deeper understanding of their buyers. This approach enables companies to meet buyer needs more effectively and adapt to changing market dynamics.
4. Shift from Competitors to Ecosystems: We should seek collaboration across adjacent solutions to create comprehensive and customer-centric solutions. By partnering with complementary tools and services, we can provide greater & stickier value to our customers.

Conclusion: Embracing the Future of Revenue Generation

Buyer enablement, connected revenue, and collaborative intelligence are the keys to success in this new era.

We must put buyers at the center of the sales process by focusing on converstion over pipeline. That means investing and collaborating across our ecosystem.

If we truly believe that profits are more important than growth, then focusing on how to drive the most comprehensive solution for our buyers should be our top priority. We've become so enamored with growing via new logos we've missed the opportunities for profitable collaboration.

Just like we get married because we feel complete by another person, buyers purchase products because we help them to professionally feel complete.