Demand Generation: Exceed Buyer’s Expectations & Drive More Revenue
No one likes to be "nurtured" or in a "sales process"
Buyers have way more control of their buying experience now and according to Forester 85% of the buyers journey happens before a buyer ever talks to sales person. 🤯
This is why demand generation is so important.
It focuses on the entire buyers journey and how you can optimize it to drive better experiences for your buyers and more revenue for your company. Let's agree that generating crummy leads for sales isn't working the greatest.
In this conversation with Graceanne & Liam from Storybook, we unpack what is demand generation, how is it different from lead generation, and so much more.
Key take aways:
1️⃣ What is demand generation: it's a go-to-market strategy to move people towards considering you as a solution. It's about reaching your audience where they are, delivering a strategic message through your content, and then providing a really low friction way for them to enter into a sales conversation with you when they're ready.
2️⃣ Brand awareness is not a destination, there is a “Demand Curve’ to it - What does good brand awareness look like? A lot of organic inbound requests.
3️⃣ Breaking down your marketing: On-ramps and off-ramps. On-ramps: how do you reach your audience (where are they spending their time) and off-ramps: how they actually entering a sales conversation.
4️⃣ We’ve made lead generation & demand generation way more complicated than it has to be because of misaligned incentives (marketing is focused on generating leads and not qualified pipeline) and we’ve built these crazy tech stacks that aren't always helpful.
--- Until next week,
Taylor
P.s. Know of anyone that might find this show helpful? Pass it along!
Introduction:
Demand generation has evolved beyond simply generating leads for the sales team. It encompasses a comprehensive go-to-market strategy aimed at moving potential buyers towards considering a company as a solution. In this blog post, we will delve into the concept of demand generation, exploring its various components and highlighting the importance of exceeding buyers' expectations to drive more revenue.
Section 1: Understanding Demand Generation:
Demand generation is often misunderstood as solely generating leads, but it encompasses much more than that. It involves reaching the target audience, delivering a strategic message through content, and providing an easy way for them to enter into a sales conversation. This process can be simplified by thinking in terms of on-ramps and off-ramps, where on-ramps represent reaching the audience, and off-ramps denote how they enter into a sales conversation.
The Importance of Brand Awareness:
Brand awareness plays a crucial role in demand generation. It is not a static destination but rather an ongoing spectrum that includes stages like brand recognition, understanding, recall, and preference. Building strong brand awareness leads to increased inbound interest and demand for a company's products or services. The success of demand generation should be measured based on brand awareness and the level of interest generated, rather than just the number of inbound leads.
The Two Approaches to Lead Generation:
Lead generation has become complex, primarily due to attempts to broaden the scope of what qualifies as a lead. This often leads to diluted lead quality and a mismatch between marketing and sales expectations. Instead of focusing on generating a high volume of leads, marketers should aim for qualified pipeline and revenue. By aligning marketing incentives with the buyer's journey and focusing on lead quality, companies can optimize their lead generation efforts.
The Goal of Nurturing Prospects:
Nurturing prospects is about educating them on the value and benefits of a product or service. It is not about forcing a purchase decision but rather providing valuable information that helps prospects make informed choices. Nurturing content should focus on building awareness, understanding, and recall of the brand's offerings. It should enable prospects to recognize when they have a need that the product or service can fulfill.
Incentives and the Buyer's Journey:
Marketing incentives often do not align with the buyer's journey. Many companies prioritize capturing lead data before educating prospects, which contradicts the reality that most of the buyer journey happens outside a company's walls. Effective demand generation involves reaching and educating prospects where they are, rather than trying to control the entire process within a company's ecosystem. It requires a shift towards providing value and building awareness before asking for personal information.
The Correlation between Brand Awareness and Demand:
Demand generation is directly linked to the level of brand awareness a company has. Startups and companies with low brand awareness often struggle to generate demand because potential buyers have not heard of them. In such cases, outbound strategies and partnerships become vital for generating initial pipeline. Outbound efforts involve proactive outreach to potential customers, while partnerships leverage the credibility and brand awareness of established companies. Long-term marketing goals should focus on building brand awareness and complementing outbound and partnership efforts.
Conclusion:
Demand generation is a multifaceted strategy that goes beyond lead generation. By understanding the importance of brand awareness, focusing on lead quality, nurturing prospects effectively, aligning incentives with the buyer's journey, and leveraging outbound and partnership opportunities, companies can exceed buyers' expectations and drive more revenue. To succeed in demand generation, it is crucial to build strong brand awareness, educate prospects, and provide value throughout the buyer's journey.
Taylor Wells
Founder & Host @ GTM.news
Taylor has lived and breathed B2B marketing & go-to-market strategies for over 10 years at boot-scrapped & growth stage businesses. He thrives on building amazing customers experiences through what he calls the Selfless Advantage. This approach is an unconditional approach to marketing that helps people & positions your business as the obvious choice. He is the Founder & CEO of Potential Opportunity.
Liam Moroney
Co-founder
Liam may be in the marketing minority, in that he actually went to school for marketing. He has grown his career as a demand generation leader in the startup space, and developed unique perspectives coming up through marketing ops and content marketing.
Graceanne MacDonald
Co-founder
Graceanne began her startup career in the sales world, first leading SDR/BDR teams, followed by a side-step into rev ops before formally landing in demand gen. And she brings that dual sales/marketing perspective into all of the programs she builds.