The Buying Group Revolution: Supercharge Your B2B Sales Today

The landscape of B2B buying decisions is undergoing a seismic shift. No longer are decisions confined to the jurisdiction of individuals or accounts, they now rest with buying groups –– influential conglomerates that are growing in both size and importance. This evolution, from individual leads to accounts, and now to these essential buying groups, marks a pivotal moment in B2B marketing. But why does this matter, and how can it be leveraged to optimize your marketing and sales strategies?

The rise of buying groups

Marketing to leads often resembles attempting to hit a constantly moving target — it’s too narrow a focus. On the other end of the spectrum, zeroing in on accounts can be an overly broad approach; not everyone in a large corporation plays a role in every purchasing decision. Herein lies the significance of buying groups: they are the ‘Goldilocks Solution‘ to the B2B marketing conundrum.

However, one hurdle remains: identifying and engaging these groups is a substantial challenge for marketing and sales teams. It is here that Demandbase’s Buying Group AI makes its grand entrance.

Unlocking the power of Buying Group AI

Demandbase’s Buying Group AI transforms the arduous task of identifying and tracking all buying group members into a streamlined, seamless process. By harnessing the power of vast amounts of go-to-market data like intent signals, website behavioral data, marketing activity data, sales emails, meeting records, and CRM records and analyzing it with AI models, we can infer the composition of these critical buying committees.

Our USP is transparency regarding the data and signals used in identifying these groups, along with the empowerment it provides to users to modify these signals, thus creating a ‘human-in-the-loop’ system.

A real-world application: Engaging buying groups

Let’s delve into a practical scenario: a paid media manager, for instance, could shift their target from accounts to the specific buying groups within those accounts. By tailoring the content of their campaigns to the specific personas within these buying groups, a demand professional can guide buying groups through the sales funnel, from awareness to engagement, and finally, to conversion.

A crucial factor in this process is synergy, which brings us to the powerful alliance between a demand marketer and a sales development representative (SDR).

The demand marketer and SDR synergy: A case study

Consider a case study featuring a hypothetical company called “Wellness Tech,” where a single buying committee in the engaged stage comprises seven individuals. With a high level of web traffic, specific pages consumed, and identified visitors, it’s clear that the sales team should engage this group.

In a seamless partnership, the demand marketer and SDR collaborate, initiating engagement with the buying group. If they’re running their CRM on Salesforce, a task is created, neatly placing the group owner into the queue. The SDR now has all they need to reach out in a meaningful and effective way.

Empowering SDRs with buying group insights

With the familiar tools of CRM and sales engagement platforms, the SDR can observe a prescriptive sales dashboard, presenting the best buying groups to connect with. Leveraging proprietary algorithms and AI, these groups are highlighted for their potential to convert into a pipeline and their relevance to the SDR’s time and efforts.

For example, within Wellness Tech, multiple buying groups are identified, but the primary focus remains on the DEV GPT product. A deeper dive into the DEV GPT buying group reveals valuable insights, showcasing the power of this transformative approach.

Transforming B2B marketing: The Demandbase advantage

The overarching goal is to revolutionize how B2B go-to-market professionals operate. 

By focusing on buying groups and the individuals within them, this approach drives efficiency, leading to more closed deals and increased revenue. 

It makes every persona within B2B marketing — from the revenue ops team to digital marketers, demand professionals, and sellers — more effective. The cherry on top? All this information and data is available via API and cloud delivery, allowing you to consume the information, build your models, and craft your unique activation strategies.

Streamlining your work with Demandbase Sales Intelligence

Demandbase Sales Intelligence enables buying groups’ data to flow through their web applications and CRM applications, providing valuable insights wherever needed. Sales teams can focus more on result-oriented strategies as this system identifies individuals you may not know, uncovers hidden blockers, and provides a comprehensive picture of the buying group. This level of insight allows sales teams to move deals along faster and close more revenue, making them more effective and efficient.

Wrapping up

In essence, the evolution from accounts to buying groups marks a revolutionary change in the world of B2B marketing. The shift promises a more focused and efficient approach, paving the way for increased revenue and optimized operations. It’s high time to adopt this innovative approach and harness the power of buying groups to drive your B2B marketing efforts forward.