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Chris Walker Chris Walker is an Influencer

Founder @ ENCODED | Your Frequency is Your Future ⚡️

Getting someone to download your e-book so you can cold call them is Outbound Sales, not “inbound marketing”.    Here are the 4 fundamental flaws of current GTM strategies and how to address them:   1. The MQL Lead Funnel is totally broken.   Marketing teams set out to collect a high volume of MQLs or “leads” with no accountability to downstream Sales performance. Sales wastes a majority of their time calling and emailing people that don’t want to talk to them and don’t want to buy right now. This model is totally outdated, results in poor ROI, and is an obvious cause of sales/marketing misalignment.    Solution: Stop optimizing for MQLs. Measure the success of Marketing on HIRO Pipeline (> 25% win rates), closed won revenue, sales velocity, and Marketing ROI.   2. No Demand Creation Strategy.    B2B companies are stuck running all go-to-market motions that revolve around low-intent outbound Sales. There is no demand creation strategy because of the flaws in Marketing Attribution combined with the operating models like the "Demand Waterfall" and the "Double Funnel" that optimize for MQLs / SQLs.   Everything is geared toward unsolicited outbound Sales. None of it involves educating buyers at scale to create demand so they come to you because they want to buy.    Solution: Adopt a hybrid attribution model that pairs quantitative and qualitative data to effectively measure what programs are *creating* demand to support investment & scale.   3. Suboptimal Buying Experience.    All buyers are forced through a singular “funnel” beginning at SDR Qualification that doesn’t take into account varying levels of buying intent leading to a suboptimal buying experience and lower Sales team performance.   Solution: Implement distinct buying experiences (see also: sales processes) that match the level of intent the buyer has. A qualified buyer that asks for a consultation on your website should get a dramatically different experience than someone you bribed for a meeting with a $100 gift card.   4. Not all Sales Qualified Opportunities (SQOs) are Created Equal.   Each pipeline source has very different performance profiles, but all existing GTM frameworks consolidate all SQOs into 1 “funnel” which makes it difficult to plan, forecast, drive accountability & optimize.    Solution: Adopt “Pipeline Sources” to effectively model the dynamics of the major sources of pipeline (e.g. Website High Intent, Enterprise Outbound / “ABM”, Partner, Low Intent Lead Gen, etc.). This makes it crystal clear how to plan, forecast, optimize, and drive accountability across the GTM teams.    ___   Sales & Marketing leaders know the current system is broken, but don’t have an alternative to change to. But that changes soon.   We’ll soon be publishing our GTM Operating Model that addresses all these clear flaws and gives revenue teams a better path to success. Stay tuned for more details ✌️ #gotomarket #b2b #saas #marketing

Chris Walker

Founder @ ENCODED | Your Frequency is Your Future ⚡️

1y

A few important notes: 1. Perhaps this model made sense in 2017-ish when it was originally published, but it definitely doesn't anymore. 2. With TOPO being bought by Gartner and SiriusDecisions being bought by Forrester, there is no company pushing any of this forward anymore in practical way. There haven’t been any meaningful updates to GTM frameworks since 2018 🤮 3. Utmost respect to Craig Rosenberg & the folks at TOPO who created this. My analysis & areas for opportunity are to move the profession forward, not tear people down. 4. Kerry Cunningham dropped some commentary on the "Double Funnel Nonsense" which I totally agree with. This framework seemingly makes it "easier" to manage organizational change while simultaneously making it impossible to actually change lol

Looks like your advice is finally catching on. Jon Miller who created / evangelized the marketo lead gen hamster wheel model has recently declared it doesn’t work, advocating for long term demand gen instead: https://openviewpartners.com/blog/new-b2b-marketing-playbook/

There are lots of very interesting strategies you can use with Google Ads to drive High Quality Leads with the right alignment of Objectives (Revenue) - 1P Data Alignment - and ultimately, Google Ads strategy based on two inputs of objective & data above. If you partner AI with the right goals & objectives - amazing things can happen. #AI #marketing

Divya Singh

Performance & Personal Growth Coach | Helped 3000+ Individuals Gain Clarity, Confidence & Career Direction | Life & Career Transformation | Communication & Personality Development Expert

1y

The demand creation strategy is indeed crucial. Educating buyers and drawing them in is the future of effective marketing.

Paul McAnallen FCIM

Owner @ Shift Control | Sales Strategy, Sales Training, Mentoring, and Coaching | Business Development strategy | Marketing Strategy | Leadership coaching & Mentoring

1y

Great article Chris - look forward to hearing more about the operating model

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Shawn Cook

Founder & Chief Systems Orchestrator | Turning Tactics into Trust & Predictable Revenue | Choose Your Own Adventure™ | Compelevant™ Selling

1y

Chris Walker, Chris, you're spot-on. The traditional GTM model is outdated, and it's not serving anyone—sales, marketing, or operations. It's time for a paradigm shift, not just tweaks. Imagine a unified, allbound revenue team working off the same actionable insights, not just metrics on a spreadsheet. The technology and methodologies for this integrated approach exist; it's about time we embrace them. Thanks for sparking this crucial conversation.

Christophe Brunet

Head of ABM program France

1y

Well said!

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Tas Bober

Paid ads landing pages for B2B SaaS | 400+ websites, 3x B2B Digital Marketing leader | Co-host of Notorious B2B 🎙️

1y

That first line is all you need to know about how broken the system is today.

Arslan Ihsan

From pilot to production, I help startups to build faster, smarter and future-proof with AI + Data. | Keynote Speaker | Forbes Tech Council

1y

well said Chris Walker

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