Webinar • Nov 14, 2022

Forrester & Influ2: New Approach to Sales and Marketing for B2B

What will you learn?

What B2B organizations need to focus on and evolve to prepare for the economic downturn
How businesses can structure their approach to B2B marketing, sales and customer success to drive revenue
How marketing can support sales through the funnel and beyond
Why businesses need to move away from MQLs and what metrics will matter in a customer-focused organization

Speakers

Malachi Threadgill

Principal Analyst (ABM) at Forrester

Dmitri Lisitski

Co-Founder and CEO of Influ2

Key Points

[02:52]	On changes in buyer behavior and B2B landscape over the past three years
[04:17]	A single view of a customer as the biggest challenge marketers encounter these days
[05:24]	Aligning marketing and sales and freely exchanging information, tools, signals and insights
[05:52]	What stands in the way of said alignment?
[06:39]	On buying processes getting much more complex and involving more people
[07:07]	Shift to buying group (aka everyone involved in buying)
[08:09]	The three ages of B2B marketing: account era, lead era, and opportunity era
[10:23]	How to shift your business towards a buying group processes: on shared vision and changing the focus, the work, and the culture.
[11:44]	Focus on engaging buying groups, responding to digital signals, and optimizing the path toward a buying decision
[15:10]	The new program focusing on buying group context and their shared experience, the B2B Revenue Waterwall and the new sales-oriented look at the Buyer’s Journey Map
[19:45]	On creating a culture of buying group obsession
[21:21]	A real-life example of a buying group shift from Siemens
[22:24]	Traditional view of collaboration between marketing and sales vs true alignment
[24:23]	Why there’s no such thing as a marketing qualified account and why marketing and sales must be happening simultaneously
[26:05]	A new better buyer’s journey: on connecting with every person from a buying group individually
[27:50]	Sales development cycle: sales conversation + marketing aircover
[29:22]	On monitoring relevant signals at every stage of the journey
[31:30]	What metrics should marketing use for the unified funnel?
[36:23]	Q&A: What are the precise definitions of marketing generated vs marketing influenced?
[38:29]	Q&A: What is the difference between big and small companies in terms of their buying groups?
[39:48]	Q&A: Person-based ads vs Google ads
[41:21]	Q&A: How would a sales team use this approach?

Key takeaways

B2B organizations need to focus on adapting and evolving their approach to prepare for an economic downturn. This includes aligning marketing, sales, and customer success to drive revenue and shifting focus towards engaging buying groups rather than traditional MQLs.

The importance of shifting towards a buying group approach in B2B marketing will help companies optimize the path towards a buying decision by engaging buying groups individually.

It’s time to move away from traditional metrics like MQLs and focus on metrics that matter in a customer-focused organization.

Monitoring relevant signals at every stage of the journey and using metrics for the unified funnel are crucial for measuring success.

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