Hey ,

Did you know that although demand generation creates awareness for your brand, it is not always predictable? Simply because you cannot control the outcome of your content and demand activities. 

And even though the prospects generated by demand gen activities do fit your ICP, those prospects are generally not ready to buy. They’re just curious and want to know more about your offer. 

On the other hand, account-based marketing (ABM) is predictable but cannot work effectively without demand generation. Especially when you’re scaling.

So, if you sell a B2B product or service with a 5+ figure ACV, you need both ABM and demand gen. And on top of that, you need to create dedicated programs to activate your prospects who are not ready to buy.

Here is a practical example of how we did that with one of our clients at FullFunnel.  

1. We planned a partner webinar with a SalesTech software and promote it to our audience.

2. An SDR of our future client signed up and sent the link to their marketing team.

3. One of the marketers checked Andrei's LinkedIn profile and started following him.

4. The same marketer searched our website and read some of our case studies. Then, he sent the link to the COO, asking him to sign up for the webinar.

5. After the webinar, we sent our case studies with the benefits of implementing account-based demand generation for marketing, sales, and COO.

6. We noticed that the team spent more than 40 minutes in our content hub consuming the content.

7. Andrei then reached out to the marketer & COO asking for feedback about the webinar and the content hub.

8. After hearing back from them, he asked if they would be interested in a quick chat where he could explain to them how to implement the same strategies.

9. After a few calls, contracts were signed.

First question: Could we have signed the contract without any manual activation (ABM)?

Probably, yes. But there is always a risk of "let us try doing it ourselves first" and losing momentum.

Second question: Could we have signed the contract with that account without creating awareness and demand first?

Probably, yes. But it'd take us way longer to build a relationship and gain trust with that company.

Dear , as you can tell, this case study has nothing to do with the typical linear sales funnel that most B2B companies create.

It is of paramount importance to understand how your customers are buying, identify buying triggers, and then implement solid marketing strategies to activate your prospects.

Andrei sat down with Katelyn Bourgoin and asked her how to identify buying triggers. Here’s her answer.

My goal in the last several years has been: how do I make research sexy? In fact, research is something that most people feel like they have to do. But they don’t necessarily want to. 

This is due to the fact that it takes a lot of time to dig through the data and decide how you are going to present it and what story you’re going to tell to make it more interesting.

So, the process to get there is like what we feel when we have to go to the dentist. The truth is, nobody really wants to go to the dentist but we all want our teeth clean.😂

Basically, the trigger technique is a step-by-step process to turn the customer story into actual marketing campaigns. 

The goal is to have interviews with your ideal customers. Ask them to give you the details of their buying journey. What triggered them to begin to realize they might need a new solution? 

Ask them questions that will help you recreate the timeline from where they first realized they might have a problem through to buying from you. Of course, you also want to learn a little bit about their experience with your product but you don’t need to spend much time there (from a marketing perspective).

Why? Simply because they often will come into the interview thinking that's what you want to talk about and be surprised when you actually talk much about what led up to the purchase. 

While we’re at it, one of the challenges marketers have is deciding what's useful/important and what’s not. How do they know what they should take note of because they’re getting so much information? 

Here’s a quick solution: the concept of the trigger technique framework focuses on listening to 04 main things:

1. What was the trigger event: what led them to begin the buying journey in the first place? 
2. What job were they actually trying to get done: this is a theory for understanding why customers choose your product and what they use it for.
3. What pains did they have with the solutions they were previously using: your prospects are comparing you to alternate solutions. If there is nothing to compare you to, it’s nearly impossible to make a decision. And here’s the kicker: they might not even be comparing you to who you think they would compare you to. 
4. What is the team’s selfish desire: in a B2B purchase, oftentimes that means having multiple interviews where you can pull those information out. Because different team members might have different needs and wants. 

Once you pull those four things out of the conversation, you have the building blocks of creating something beautiful. 

The interview of Andrei and Katelyn has been condensed and edited for clarity. You can watch the full interview here. 

Upcoming community events

B2B Marketing Strategy Live Bootcamp 

Want to start selling the way your best customers buy? Join us for our B2B Marketing Strategy Live Bootcamp.

Oct 10 – Nov 3

08 practical workshops to:

• Develop a full-funnel marketing plan to create awareness, generate & capture demand, and generate sales opportunities with target accounts
• Define marketing activities & content that can attract the attention of target buyers, educate them, and generate demand for your product
• Get marketing & sales alignment on goals, ICP, campaigns, and leads hand-off process
• Build a unified marketing & sales report to connect all marketing activities to revenue even if your sales cycle is long

Learn more about the Bootcamp here. 

Best Shares From Trenches Community

• The Demand Generation & Thought Leadership Pyramid
• Examples of content for the different stages of the buyer journey
• LinkedIn ads suck for many B2B companies because of 2 reasons
• Here is how to analyze your revenue streams to generate more marketing-sourced revenue in 2023

Questions from fellow Trenchers

Your help is needed. If you can contribute or answer any of the questions below, please click on the link and share your ideas.

1. Anybody has a recommendation for an alternative for super metrics?
2. Hey, would anyone be down for sharing how they’ve structured their Notion/workspace? Mine got a little messy and in need of a refresh, so would be great to get some suggestions.

NOTE: If you found this content interesting and useful, chances are you have 1 or 2 colleagues (well, maybe 03) who'd enjoy it as much as you do. Help them by sharing this and earn some exclusive perks.

See you in Trenches 😉

Adechina ODJO