The world of B2B sales is rapidly evolving, and revenue organizations are finding that traditional go-to-market models are no longer as effective as they once were. Today’s buyers are informed, digitally savvy, and increasingly focused on personalization and tailored experiences. Add to this the rate of new technologies transforming the business landscape by introducing new disruptive business models, and it becomes clear that revenue organizations need a new go-to-market (GTM) model. A model that delivers for customers and can help teams adapt as buyer expectations and market dynamics evolve.
In this article, I will talk about the need to change to a customer-value-centric GTM model, and I’ll set out five steps to help you deliver this change in your revenue organization.
The traditional B2B GTM model is broken.
Customers are overwhelmed – bombarded with content, messages and seller interactions that offer little value. The buyer experience is poor as revenue teams operate in silos, with little collective focus on the customer journey. Trust and credibility are at an all-time low. Most customers prefer to self-serve online, only engaging with sales late in the buying process. Not a great position for any sales team hoping to influence a sale.
The current GTM model of hyper-outreach and velocity is delivering ever-diminishing returns. It’s a model that delivers little value to customers and fails to create compelling reasons for them to engage with sales. As new vendors enter the marketplace, executing the same playbook, the effectiveness of this approach decreases. The current GTM model is creating a dust bowl of opportunity where nobody is winning.
Siloed teams, misaligned goals and poor buyer experiences.
With typical mass outreach activities used to maximize top-of-funnel lead volume, the rate of return is abysmal. For every 100k prospects, only 1-2% convert to a lead. At best, 22% of those engagements become Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and 13% of these become sales-qualified leads (SQLs). From here, approximately 50% of opportunities stall and go nowhere due to either buyer indecision or disengagement due to poor buyer experience and ultimately only 6% of SQLs convert to closed deals.
On top of this, many organizations focus on net-new growth and new customer acquisition. Yet, acquiring a completely new customer is over four times more expensive that upselling an existing customer. Just 10% of revenue comes from expansion opportunities, yet the ideal target is 30%. The largest and fastest growing Saas companies generate 37% of their average contract value from upsells and 21% through channel partners; however, most marketing and sales leaders view partner relationships as transactional, limiting the scope for strategic co-selling and sustainable revenue growth.
Let’s take a closer look at the inner workings of this model with the following example using the above metrics:
Despite this poor return on investment, many revenue organizations persist with this outdated model. They invest heavily in large-scale outreach initiatives to maximize top-of-funnel lead creation with little emphasis on lead quality and future revenue potential. It’s a mantra of maximum leads versus strategic fit, quality and lifetime value (LTV) – an increasingly expensive and inefficient way to grow revenues. Studies show that when organizations take a more experience-led, value-centric approach, teams can deliver > 2X growth.
With 60% of sellers missing quota, record high levels of seller burnout and attrition rates running at 3x compared to other professions, it’s clear there is an urgent need for change.
A new Customer-Value-Centric GTM model.
As the pressure on leaders to improve performance mounts, there is growing momentum for change. Leaders know they must enable their teams to engage with customers on their terms – to deliver the tailored experiences and insights that customers expect.
To achieve this, leaders must create a culture of collective performance and deep customer engagement. Revenue team goals, workflows and KPIs must be fully aligned with the customer buying journey. Teams must have sufficient time and space to collaborate and create the high-quality interactions and value* that customers expect. Teams should be orchestrated for maximum customer-value-centricity across the full customer lifecycle. The customer experience should be seamless – with revenue teams fully focused on customer needs. Only then can the buyer experience turn into a key differentiator for your company.
*Value = insights, expertise, analysis, sensemaking, innovation
Revenue team collaboration to deliver continuous value across the customer lifecycle
Achieve 2X the revenue outcomes
By adjusting the priority towards prospecting for high-quality leads and deep customer engagement early in the buying journey, you can prime the revenue lifecycle for maximum downstream revenue outcomes. By enabling teams to target a smaller number of well-defined ideal customer profiles (ICPs), you give teams the opportunity to create the tailored experiences and personalized insights that are critical to compelling customers to engage early in the buying journey. High-quality buyer experiences put the revenue team back in control of the buying process. Customers learn something new about their businesses and want to know more. They see the value of engaging with sales, and they want access to more expertise and insights. They suddenly see new possibilities and a different view of the future. Their status quo has been disrupted. They can see how your products and services could give help them a competitive edge. There is a compelling reason to engage. Value is the attractor.
Put simply, high-quality leads close faster, at a higher rate, at a large average deal size and have significantly more potential for future revenue growth. That much is obvious.
With higher-quality opportunities entering top-of-funnel and teams continuing to work together to deliver value at each stage of the customer journey, you will achieve better MQL/SQL conversion rates. We estimate that with just one-third of the leads, you can achieve a 2X increase in team revenues and a 3X increase in future expansion and partner revenue, as customers experience higher value and partnership across the customer lifecycle.
Five Steps to CVC Transition Success.
Building a customer-value-centricity revenue organization does not have to be an overly complicated process. You can start your transformation journey with one team, a clear purpose, and a willingness to learn and evolve together.
- Source high-quality prospects with compelling reasons for prospects to engage with sales
- Develop and win quality opportunities with potential for future growth.
- Demonstrate impact and value – build promoters to drive future revenue expansion.
- Integrate real-time feedback from the edge of customer engagement to drive continuous product innovation.
- Build a RevOps organization that can enable revenue teams to adapt and respond to rapidly evolving customer needs.
Technology enablement for a Customer-Value-Centric Model
The proliferation of technology has had a profound impact on virtually every aspect of B2B sales. With the advent of new software tools and platforms, companies have been able to automate and streamline many of the sales processes, reach more customers and improve seller efficiency. However, the proliferation of technology has also brought with it a number of problems, particularly when it comes to managing the tech stack and the seller experience.
One of the most significant problems associated with the proliferation of technology is the complexity it creates. As more and more tools are added to the company’s sales stack, it can become increasingly difficult to manage and maintain. This can lead to a number of issues, such as fragmented buying journeys, data inconsistencies and a lack of team alignment and cohesion across the sales process. It can also lead to a lack of personalization and a human touch in the sales process. With so much automation, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that sales are ultimately about building relationships and connecting with customers on a personal level.
So what can you do to solve these problems? One solution is to take a more strategic approach to manage the tech stack. This may involve consolidating tools where possible, prioritizing those with the most value, and ensuring all tools are integrated and work seamlessly together.
Ultimately, it is about helping teams to work better together to develop high-quality opportunities and win more deals. To achieve this, teams need to have a single view of the customer journey, alignment around a single workflow and real-time performance intelligence so they can do a better job of building buyer consensus for their products and services. Get this right in your organization, and you can unlock a whole other level of performance.
Introducing Animis
Animis is the first advanced sales collaboration platform for revenue and partner co-selling teams. It’s a game-changing platform that brings together the collective expertise of your extended organization to elevate the customer buying experience and accelerate revenue growth.
With guided collaboration, unified workflows and powerful behavioral insights that enable teams to take control and win – Animis is revolutionizing how teams and their partners sell together.
If you’d like to know more about how Animis can help transform sales performance at your company, reach out to us for a chat – we’re here to help.
