What’s keeping you from hitting your revenue goals?

We’ve heard from many B2B clients that they’ve been qualifying opportunities for sales but that these deals aren’t progressing through to closed-won. This isn’t a sales problem — it’s a business problem, one that all revenue-responsible teams must help tackle.

B2B buyers interact with all manner of channels when they are in an active buying cycle. But demand teams are often in the back seat once sales has accepted an opportunity — sometimes going completely hands-off unless a seller or account manager asks for support. Instead, as in any opportunity stage, marketing and sales need to work together to help buyers buy.

But it’s not as simple as just continuing to treat buyers the same as before. Demand programs for pipeline acceleration don’t exist in isolation and can’t be expected to succeed without active involvement from sales. To support pipeline deals, B2B marketers need to change their approach in fundamental ways:

  • Don’t launch programs unless sales data is in order. Adaptive programs depend on signals, and insights from sales are of utmost importance in active opportunities. Even before the point of sharing and acting upon the insights that come from sales conversations, cross-functional coordination is impossible without sellers following an entrenched data management process to update stages, buying group members, deal values, and expected close dates. Make sure that pipeline management is solid before scaling or automating active deal support.
  • Let the buyer be your guide. Revenue-responsible teams must seek to understand pipeline progression through the buyer’s eyes. Without this common understanding of what buyers are going through and what causes them to progress or stall in the pipeline, frontline marketers won’t be able to effectively support and influence the purchase decision — they’ll either be flying blind or following orders from sales (who often don’t realize everything that frontline marketers can offer). Instead, examine pipeline trends and historical data to prioritize areas of focus, and work with sellers and account managers to understand the buyer’s process, concerns, and preferences.
  • Recognize that progression is impacted before opportunities enter the pipeline. Purchase decisions don’t begin once sales is involved — buyers have been researching and considering the potential value well before requesting a proof of concept or demo. Activation and validation programs are just as crucial as pipeline acceleration programs to build and support pipeline strength over the long haul. Set expectations, goals, and timelines appropriately so that you invest focus and resources where it will pay off the most in customer lifetime value.

Forrester clients can access our latest guidelines and recommendations for adaptive programs to support pipeline progression in our new report and work with us to get personal recommendations and hands-on support by booking a guidance session.