From MQLs to Buying Groups: Why B2B Revenue Teams Must Evolve Beyond Lead-Based Models

The era of chasing individual leads is ending. Smart B2B revenue teams are discovering what forward-thinking organizations already know: real deals don’t come from single Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)—they come from engaging entire buying groups.

This shift isn’t just another marketing trend. It’s a fundamental rethinking of how revenue teams drive pipeline in an environment where the average B2B purchase involves multiple decision-makers, spans various departments, and requires consensus among stakeholders who each have different priorities and pain points.

Revenue teams that continue relying on outdated MQL-focused models are leaving money on the table. The organizations winning right now have moved beyond individual lead scoring to identify and engage the groups of people actually making purchasing decisions.

The Evolution from MQLs to Buying Groups

B2B go-to-market strategies have evolved through distinct phases, each addressing limitations of the previous approach.

The MQL Era dominated for decades because it was simple to understand and measure. Marketing generated leads, sales followed up, and everyone counted conversions. But this individual-focused approach ignored a critical reality: B2B purchases are team decisions.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) emerged as the answer, shifting focus from individuals to entire organizations. ABM brought valuable account-level insights and helped teams think strategically about high-value targets. But treating entire organizations as singular buying entities created its own problems—especially for companies selling multiple solutions to different groups within the same account.

Buying Groups represent the next evolution, providing the precision ABM lacks while maintaining its strategic account focus. Instead of marketing to entire companies or hoping individual leads will navigate internal consensus-building alone, buying groups allow revenue teams to identify and engage the specific clusters of people evaluating solutions together.

Why Buying Groups Are Critical for High-Value B2B Deals

The results speak for themselves. Organizations adopting buying group strategies are achieving far greater success than those relying on traditional lead-based approaches.

Building Consensus Drives Win Rates

When revenue teams engage an entire buying group instead of focusing on single leads, they build consensus more effectively and create stronger momentum in the sales process, resulting in improved win rates.

Multiple Stakeholders Accelerate Velocity

Deals tend to move faster because the right stakeholders are involved from the beginning, eliminating wasted time identifying decision-makers or trying to align them late in the cycle.

Strategic Engagement Increases Deal Size

Early engagement with the full buying group also leads to more strategic conversations centered on business impact rather than one-off features. This leads to increased deal sizes when moving from individual lead handoffs to buying group engagement.

The reason is straightforward: When you’re talking to the CFO, IT director, and department head simultaneously, you’re positioned for enterprise-level conversations about business transformation rather than point-solution discussions with individual contributors.

Finding Your Position on the GTM Strategy Continuum

Not every organization needs the same approach. Your optimal strategy depends on your business model, deal complexity, and customer size.

Individual Lead Focus works when selling to small businesses where one person makes purchasing decisions. If your average deal involves fewer than three stakeholders, traditional lead-based approaches may still be effective.

Account-Based Marketing serves companies selling single solutions to large organizations. When you have one primary product and clear organizational buyers, account-level strategies provide the right level of focus without unnecessary complexity.

Buying Groups become essential for complex enterprise sales involving multiple solutions, long sales cycles, and numerous stakeholders. Organizations with multiple products, large deal sizes, or extended evaluation periods need the precision that buying group strategies provide.

Most successful companies use different approaches for different segments. Your small business prospects might convert through traditional lead nurturing, while enterprise opportunities require sophisticated buying group engagement.

Debunking Common Buying Group Misconceptions

Misconception: “People aren’t important anymore”

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Buying groups are entirely about people—but they recognize that individuals don’t make B2B purchasing decisions in isolation. You still need to understand individual motivations, pain points, and communication preferences. The difference is contextualizing individual engagement within group dynamics.

Misconception: “It’s too complex to implement”

Early buying group implementations required significant technology investments and process overhauls. Today’s platforms make identifying and engaging buying groups as straightforward as traditional lead management—often using your existing tech stack.

Misconception: “Sales won’t adopt it”

Sales teams are actually the biggest advocates for buying group approaches. When you ask salespeople whether they’d prefer one interested individual or three engaged stakeholders from the same account, the answer is obvious. Buying groups provide sales with the multi-threaded relationships they need to close complex deals.

Misconception: “We’ll lose lead volume”

Organizations implementing buying groups typically see both quality and quantity improvements. Better signal recognition means identifying opportunities earlier, while group-based scoring reveals high-intent prospects that individual-focused systems miss entirely.

Overcoming the Biggest Adoption Blockers

Cultural Resistance

The biggest barrier isn’t technical—it’s cultural. Leadership teams comfortable with MQL metrics and “marketing-sourced pipeline” percentages struggle with new success measures. The solution is demonstrating business impact through pilots that prove buying groups deliver superior results without requiring organization-wide changes.

Process Complexity

Many teams assume buying group implementation requires extensive process redesign. The most successful adoptions start simple: when an MQL comes through, representatives check for additional engaged stakeholders from the same account before qualification. This “MQL plus insight” approach proves value using existing systems.

Technology Concerns

Modern platforms eliminate the technical complexity that historically limited buying group adoption. Signal identification, pattern recognition, and opportunity packaging happen automatically, requiring minimal changes to existing workflows.

Measurement Challenges

Traditional metrics don’t capture buying group impact effectively. Organizations need new success measures focused on buying group coverage, multi-stakeholder engagement, and opportunity progression rather than individual lead volume.
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For a deeper dive into how AI is making this shift easier than ever, check out our Buying Group AI Guide.

How to Operationalize Buying Groups

Signal Recognition

Instead of only tracking when individuals hit lead scoring thresholds, monitor engagement signals across four categories:

• Named engagement: Known individuals downloading content, attending webinars, or requesting demos
• Anonymous engagement: Multiple unique visitors from the same account researching similar topics
• Qualified leads: Traditional MQLs who meet scoring criteria
• Third-party intent: External research signals indicating account-level interest

The power comes from combining signals. Five people doing one thing each represents higher purchase intent than one person doing five things.

Pattern Identification

Look for clusters of activity from the same account focused on similar solutions. When three people from the same company engage with talent management content, that’s a buying group worth prioritizing—even if none individually reached MQL status.

Opportunity Creation

Instead of passing individual leads to sales, create opportunities that encompass entire buying groups. Associate multiple stakeholders with each opportunity, providing sales with comprehensive account context from day one.

Stakeholder Engagement

Sales approaches change when working with identified buying groups. Rather than trying to sell to one person and hoping they’ll champion internally, sales can engage directly with key stakeholders, building consensus through parallel conversations.

The Transformational Business Impact

The results speak for themselves. Palo Alto Networks successfully adopted a buying group-first approach, driving higher win rates and larger deal sizes by engaging the right stakeholders earlier in the cycle.

17x improvement in opportunity conversion rates when engaging buying group

2.3x increase in average deal sizes when buying group is present

17% increase in closed won rate

These aren’t marginal improvements—they’re transformational changes that fundamentally alter revenue trajectory. See their full story here.

Starting Your Buying Group Pilot

Don’t overthink the initial implementation. The most successful buying group adoptions start with simple pilots that prove value quickly.

Pilot Structure

Begin with your existing MQL process, but add a crucial step: when an MQL enters your system, representatives research whether additional stakeholders from the same account have shown engagement. If they find two or more additional people, treat this as a potential buying group and qualify accordingly.

Manual Research Phase

Start with manual research rather than automated systems. This helps teams understand what signals matter most and how buying groups behave in your specific market. The learning from manual processes informs better automation decisions later.

Low Risk Implementation

Pilots require no technology changes, no budget increases, and no process overhauls. You’re simply using existing systems more intelligently while proving that engaging buying groups delivers superior results.

The Revenue Teams Winning Right Now

The organizations dominating their markets aren’t chasing more MQLs—they’re identifying and engaging the buying groups that actually make purchasing decisions. They understand that individual lead scoring misses most available engagement signals and that consensus-building happens whether they facilitate it or not.

Smart revenue teams choose to be part of that consensus-building process rather than hoping one internal champion will handle it effectively.

The shift to buying groups isn’t just about better marketing tactics—it’s about aligning your entire revenue process with how B2B purchasing actually works. When you engage the people who make decisions together, rather than hoping individual leads will navigate internal politics alone, you create competitive advantages that traditional lead-based approaches simply cannot match.

Your competitors are still chasing MQLs while you’re building relationships with entire buying groups. That’s not just a tactical advantage—it’s a strategic moat that compounds over time.

Ready to see how buying groups can transform your pipeline? Watch our on-demand webinar featuring insights from Forrester research and real-world implementation strategies from Workday.