Nothing dictates the success of a marketing team like their ability to acquire new customers.
In fact, benchmarks for marketing success in the B2B SaaS space tend to focus on “lead generation” — the number of leads, quality of leads, and how many leads turn into paying customers.
When it came to lead gen at my old B2B SaaS company, we crushed it.
We constantly funneled more budget into marketing to drive more and more inbound leads to keep up with our sales quota.
But eventually, we reached a point of diminishing returns. Inbound volume plateaued.
Then Sales started to complain... “These marketing leads suck”.
So we did what most marketing teams do…
We became obsessed with tactics. We needed better ads. New graphics. New landing pages. More A/B tests.
Even the CEO had an opinion on marketing. Everything was under constant scrutiny for little adjustments.
Sales didn’t budge. So, what was the deal?
The Shift from “Tactics” to Buyer-Led Growth
Everyone — sales, marketing, CEO — was convinced we had an ad or content problem.
“It’s our headlines”, we thought. “We just need to run case study ads or better product ads. We need sales and marketing alignment”. The conversations went on and on.
Finally, I had enough. I was burnt out and felt trapped. So I went back to the drawing board.
I pressed pause on everything we were doing. I re-thought our entire approach to B2B marketing.
I finally realized we didn’t have a tactic problem. Our plateau wasn’t due to a lack of understanding buyers' pain points. We had to revamp our entire go-to-market strategy.
That’s when it dawned on me:
Growth occurs when you focus on building a go-to-market centered around your buyer. It’s all about creating real, genuine demand.
And that’s why we built Buyer Led Growth.
Marketing Needs to Change to Buyer Led Growth. Here’s Why:
The current state of B2B marketing is heavily tactic-focused.
Lead-based marketing, account-based, revenue marketing, and brand marketing all assume that growth occurs by pushing content and ads to your target market.
When they're not working, companies just assume they have an ad or content problem.
They put their G2 quadrant front and center on their website. They compile a list of reasons and stats to prove why you should use their solution. They then create ads around these claims.
Problem is, buyers don’t buy into the claims because they can sense that you’re a biased source with an agenda to sell.
So what do most companies do?
They switch to focusing on pain points.
“We just need to show we can help them with their pain”.
But the truth is that focusing on pain points will never outpace market demand. Most buyers do not recognize their pain, or they do not have a deep enough understanding of their pain to care.
Marketing is no longer about getting awareness and acquiring customers.
In fact, it’s not even very effective anymore because everyone is spouting the same claims.
Effective B2B marketing is about shifting the beliefs of your buyers so they actually care about you solving their problem.
Imagine:
Running marketing campaigns that give rise to your buyers’ needs instead of assuming they have a need to begin with.
THIS is how you beat your competition and 5X your inbound volume. It’s why 100% of our customers to date have seen positive ROI results.
If you’re ready for a change and believe in Buyer-Led Growth, we’re here to help. Book a discovery call with Elevate Demand today.
Three Pillars of Buyer Led Growth
Our Buyer-Led Growth formula consists of three core pillars that inform your entire marketing strategy.
Remember, we are shift the focus away from tactics and towards building demand by centering your ideal customer.
The only way to build demand is to help buyers recognize their pain and then nurture product consideration.
Pillar 1: Brand Narrative.
Wet transform your marketing from focusing on benefits, features, and pain points to the brand narrative that gives rise to your buyers’ needs. The focus here is to target your messaging, content, and ads where your customer is in their head today before they even recognize their pain. Then we shift their beliefs to make them realize their pain and begin creating product consideration of your brand.
Pillar 2: Value First.
Once the buyer understands your brand narrative, they must realize the value of your product. You accomplish this by removing friction across the buyer's journey. Friction does not just come from forms. It’s understanding that marketing by its very nature creates friction by giving rise to fear and anxieties within your buyer. You need to tackle these anxieties from the get-go.
Pillar 3: Adjusting Metrics.
When you switch to Buyer-Led Growth, you can’t measure the typical marketing vanity metrics like “clicks” or even “leads”. You need to transition your marketing to measure marketing revenue and pipeline, sales efficiency metrics, and natural growth that gives you a better understanding of overall brand performance and health.
Get Started with Buyer-Led Growth
We’re challenging our customers to rethink their entire approach to marketing. If your marketing has hit a plateau, your lead quality sucks, or you’re just stuck in the same feast or famine cycle - it’s not your tactics... it’s your entire approach that needs updating!
We’re your Buyer Led Growth team with a specific playbook focused on giving rise to your buyers needs and creating real, tangible demand. We’ll have customers itching to buy from you in no time.
Book a discovery call to discuss your Buyer-Led Growth strategy today.