Terry Flaherty

VP, Principal Analyst

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Blog

Saying Goodbye To MQLs: When Should We Create The Opportunity Entity?

Terry Flaherty 6 days ago
In this week’s Saying Goodbye to MQLs blog, we identify three common points in the revenue process where organizations can create the opportunity entity.
Blog

Saying Goodbye To MQLs: How Does The Buyer’s Journey Change In A Buying Group World?

Terry Flaherty September 14, 2023
Learn what changes and what stays the same when you're shifting away from MQLs and toward opportunities and buying groups.
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Saying Goodbye To MQLs: What’s The Role Of The Opportunity Entity In The Revenue Process?

Amy Hawthorne September 7, 2023
This Saying Goodbye to MQLs blog identifies the role of the opportunity entity and why your team should use it in the revenue process today.
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Saying Goodbye To MQLs: Accounts, Buying Groups, Opportunities, Oh My! How Is It All Connected?

Amy Hawthorne August 31, 2023
In this week’s Saying Goodbye to MQLs blog, we discuss the relationship between accounts, buying groups, and opportunities.
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Saying Goodbye To MQLs: What’s The Business Impact Of Leaving MQLs?

Terry Flaherty August 24, 2023
This week’s Saying Goodbye to MQLs blog post looks at how leveraging signals to identify buying groups can drive value for your organization.
Blog

Saying Goodbye To MQLs: So We’re On Board With Buying Groups, But What About The Individual?

Amy Hawthorne August 17, 2023
Welcome back to this multipart blog series answering why leads-centric marketing approaches don’t work. In this post, we look at what happens to the individuals if we focus on buying groups.
Blog

Saying Goodbye To MQLs: What’s The Big Deal About Getting Rid Of MQLs?

Terry Flaherty August 10, 2023
We received many great questions in our webinar on why leads-centric marketing approaches don’t work. In the first post of a multipart blog series, we focus on the shift from leads to opportunities.
Blog

Saying Goodbye To MQLs: Read All The Posts In Our Series

Terry Flaherty August 8, 2023
The “Saying Goodbye to MQLs” blog series is dedicated to answering your questions when making the shift from leads to buying groups and opportunities. You can find all blogs published in this series below.   Making the shift from MQLs (marketing-qualified leads) to buying groups and opportunities continues to be a hot topic that boils […]
Blog

Up Your Game: Drive Better Results Through Revenue Process Improvement

Terry Flaherty April 27, 2023
Switching from marketing-qualified leads to buying groups and opportunities can drive tremendous improvement, but success is also heavily dependent on your process. Learn more at this year’s B2B Summit North America.
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The “Goodbye MQL” Transformation Accelerates — Moving From Wild Idea To Reality

Terry Flaherty April 5, 2023
What was once considered heretical by some has now moved to the forefront of marketers' priorities. At this year's B2B Summit North America, get advice for successfully transitioning from a marketing-qualified lead (MQL) focus to an opportunities-based approach.
Blog

The Revenue Process Alignment Series, Part 4: An Opportunity-Centric Revenue Process Is All About Context

Terry Flaherty April 14, 2022
The key to an optimized revenue process is context. As discussed earlier in this blog series, both the marketing qualified lead (MQL) and the marketing qualified account (MQA) suffer from context issues. But if you use the opportunity-centric approach, you can leverage this context and optimize the revenue process between marketing and sales throughout the entire revenue process.
Blog

The Revenue Process Alignment Series, Part 3: Why Marketing Qualified Accounts Are Not The Answer

Terry Flaherty April 14, 2022
In part 1 and 2 of this blog series, we explored why the focus on MQLs is a restrictive approach. Just as B2B buying decisions are not made by an individual person or lead, the buying decision is also not made by an account. In this blog, we explore why shifting the focus to the MQA (marketing qualified account) is equally problematic.
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The Revenue Process Alignment Series, Part 2: More Reasons To End Your Addiction To MQLs

Terry Flaherty April 14, 2022
In part 1 of this blog series, we looked at reasons why organizations need to end their focus on individual MQLs (marketing qualified leads) as the focus of their revenue process. In part 2, we look at more reasons why the transformation away from MQLs is necessary.
Blog

The Revenue Process Alignment Series, Part 1: The End Of MQLs

Terry Flaherty April 14, 2022
For more than 20 years, the MQL (marketing qualified lead) has been the focus of most B2B revenue processes. But it fails in providing actionable insight and drives misalignment across various functions in the process. In part 1 of a four-part blog series, we explore why the MQL era is antiquated and needs to end immediately.
Blog

On The Ninth Day Of Christmas My Analyst Gave To Me: Handy Tips To Make My Demand Management Process’s Performance Dance

Terry Flaherty December 17, 2020
This is the ninth in a series of blog posts that provide demand and account-based marketing best practices in honor of the 12 days of Christmas.
Blog

The Demand Waterfall: A Modular System to End Chaos

Terry Flaherty May 1, 2018
  • The demand management process often lacks consistency and alignment on key factors
  • The SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall® is a modular framework designed to bring alignment and consistency to the demand management process
  • The Demand Waterfall family includes three versions designed to address a variety of go-to-market strategies
Blog

Understanding the Role of Benchmarks in Planning

Terry Flaherty September 15, 2016
  • One major trend that continues to grow is for marketing organizations to own a quota for marketing sourced revenue
  • With volumes defined, marketers can align their programs and budgets to support their goals
  • Base your lead conversion goals on the current state, external reference benchmarks and identified process improvement impact
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Measuring the Impact of Successful Sales Handoffs

Terry Flaherty June 21, 2016
  • Just like a relay race, the B2B lead management process requires smooth and efficient handoffs across team members
  • The sales accepted lead (SAL) stage provides the signal of successful change in control of a lead from marketing to sales
  • Companies who incorporate an SAL stage in their lead management process experience dramatic increases in Demand Waterfall throughput
Blog

The Myth of the Best-in-Class Waterfall Benchmark

Terry Flaherty April 28, 2016
  • Demand Waterfall® conversion benchmarks are used to set performance targets, determine demand creation budgets and align programs to revenue goals
  • There is not a best-in- class benchmark that can be used for all Demand Waterfalls; waterfall benchmarks should be aligned to context
  • Using the incorrect Demand Waterfall benchmark can lead to missed targets, misaligned budgets and restricted waterfall performance
Blog

Lead Nurturing Competencies

Terry Flaherty April 8, 2015
  • Here are some core skills, behaviors and knowledge necessary for functions responsible for lead nurture flows
  • Skills include data evaluation, business logic skills and the ability to forge strong relationships with other key functions
  • Lead nurture teams must be able to work with internal peers and agency partners
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