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 This model is totally outdated, results in poor ROI, and is an obvious cause of sales/marketing misalignment.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
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/
I guess, the thin line between Inbound and Outbound will soon lead us to Allbound. And it's not about attribution, it's all about efficiency. But I totally agree - buyers' experiences need to be greatly differentiated depending on their funnel stage. Thanks for bringing this to our feeds, Chris Walker!
Great stuff, Chris. Really appreciate the insights — and wholeheartedly agree. Beyond the point you make of this strategy not working is the question of whether prospects want to be tracked, prodded, and funneled into submission or whether they'd be more open to a buying experience that was focused more on their needs than those of the seller? Any research on that?
Agree. The 1. can be easily spotted just by putting together conversion rates for these lead sources. And uncover how inefficient it is
Couldn't agree more. The key is to educate and create genuine demand. Tailoring the buying experience based on intent can significantly improve sales outcomes.
100%
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.
Founder @ ENCODED | Your Frequency is Your Future ⚡️
1yA 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