A focus on individual marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) was failing Palo Alto Networks. As in many other B2B organizations, higher volumes of these leads weren’t translating to more won business. Jeremy Schwartz, senior manager of global lead management and strategy, knew there had to be a better way. After learning about buying groups at Forrester’s B2B Summit, he took the first steps along a path that would revolutionize Palo Alto Network’s marketing approach.
A buying groups pilot showed compelling early results. When a sales opportunity had multiple people attached, it was eight times more likely to advance in the pipeline compared to opportunities with one person attached. The results grew even stronger over the following months: Focusing on buying groups led to bigger deals and a 17% higher closed-won rate.
Moving from MQLs to buying groups is a significant process change, and Forrester supported Schwartz’s team every step of the way. “Any question we had, [Forrester analysts] were super responsive and super enlightened on how they answered us,” Schwartz says. “They took into account the uniqueness of our organization and the struggles in our organization.”
