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86% of B2Bs rely on Outbound, 53% say it isn't working
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This week’s research note includes:
GTM Research: Making Outbound-Led Growth Work
GTM Poll of the Week: Do you have a unified GTM tech stack?
GTM is Better Together: Announcing our MCs and open registration
GTM Events: Events you should know about
GTM Research:
A weekly deep-dive into new GTM research and insights
At least twice a week, we get an email with the subject line: OUTBOUND IS DEAD!!!
And yet, according to our latest research on Outbound-Led Growth:
86% of B2B companies rely on outbound to achieve goals.
59% plan to invest more in Outbound next year, and another 25% plan to keep investment the same. Only 12% plan to decrease spending on outbound.
53% of B2B companies say Outbound isn’t working as well as it once did, but 47% say it’s working as well or better than ever.
Today’s research note is for the 53% of you that are struggling.
Outbound is not dead.
It just needs to evolve like every other play GTM teams are running.
We shouldn’t abandon it, we should make it better.
What broke outbound?
Fewer people answer the phone and new work-from-home norms make people harder to reach.
Improved inbox filters prevent messages from reaching targets.
Noisier inboxes mean when your message is delivered, it’s harder to get noticed.
Larger buying committees mean sales teams must engage with multiple stakeholders, making the sales cycle longer and more intricate.
Expanded tech stacks enabled bad habits by encouraging a “scorched earth” approach, where volume is prioritized over quality and relevance.
Big tech stacks can also make it harder to sell: Sellers often need to stitch together a half dozen tools to be targeted, relevant, and effective.
Increased buyer scrutiny makes it harder to make a compelling case
The way sellers sell didn’t keep up with the changing ways buyers buy. While buyers have evolved to become more self-sufficient and informed, many sales teams continue to rely on outdated outbound tactics that no longer resonate.
But the real thing that broke it is the way GTM teams have been absolutely flooding the market with irrelevant, untargeted, non-personalized calls, emails, and LinkedIn connections.
GOOD Outbound still works
Look what we found in our research:
Smartling booked 2x more meetings using Regie.ai
Twilio booked 60% more meetings with 11% fewer sales people using Lavender
Ingram Micro increased pipeline velocity 83% using Demandbase
Lucid increased qualified pipeline opportunities 66% using MadKudu
Unity increased its average sales price 209% using Clari
AK Ops closed 150% more deals using ZoomInfo
Demand Inc saw a $7B increase in pipeline using Salesloft
Reputation saved 100 hours a month using Regie.ai
So what is GOOD Outbound?
Outbound is worth saving. Keeping it alive will require a fundamental paradigm shift. We need to transform.
From Tactical to Strategic: Shift from short-term, ad-hoc outbound tactics to long-term, well-planned strategies that align with overall business goals.
From Sales-Led Effort to GTM-Led Effort: Move Outbound efforts from being solely driven by the sales team to a collaborative GTM strategy that includes marketing, RevOps, customer success, and product teams.
From TAM to TRM: Direct efforts towards best-fit accounts by transitioning from targeting the total addressable market (TAM) to focusing on the total relevant market (TRM).
From Product-Focused to Problem-Focused: Instead of emphasizing product features, center outbound messages around solving specific problems faced by the prospects.
From Cadence to Context: Prioritize the timing and relevance of communications over the frequency of outreach.
From Volume to Value: Reduce the emphasis on the number of outbound messages sent and focus instead on the quality and relevance of each interaction.
From Random Outreach to Triggered Follow-Up: Replace unsystematic outreach with follow-ups triggered by specific actions or behaviors of prospects.
From Single-Threaded to Multi-Threaded: Engage with multiple stakeholders within the target organization, creating a more comprehensive and robust outreach strategy.
From Activity Driven to Results Driven: Measure success based on outcomes like lead conversion rates and revenue impact, rather than merely tracking outbound activities.
Can AI Save Outbound?
According to Salesforce research, 82% of sales professionals use generative AI for basic content creation, 74% apply it to analyze market data, and 71% use it to automate personalized sales communications.
Outbound prospecting is one of the most promising applications for generative AI because it makes it better for buyers and sellers.
Buyers get more personalized and relevant communication tailored to their needs and preferences.
Sellers can potentially leverage AI to reduce the amount of tech, people, and time traditionally required to run a successful outbound motion.
The trick is knowing how to use AI to empower teams to do their best work, so we don’t end up back where we started - with hundreds of millions of unwanted messages clogging inboxes.
Here’s our framework for knowing how to decide what role AI should play, depending on how repetitive the task is and how risky or high stakes the task is.
There’s a lot more in the full report which, like all our research, is available on our hub whether you are a customer or not.
GTM Poll of the Week
GTM is Better Together: News and Updates
“GTM is Better Together” is a revolutionary new vision that the future of GTM is better together with unified teams, tech, and trust. This is a weekly feature where we will share the latest announcements related to this important initiative.
Registration is open and the Atlanta Leadership Summit is 2 months away!
Karthi had the idea that to encourage breaking down silos, we offer tickets two-for-one.
That means a marketing leader can sign up, and his sales counterpart can attend in any city! A VP of customer success can sign up and bring her RevOps leader. We want GTM teams to attend together so you’re all on the same page about bringing the best practices back into your business!
We have four executive summits that are just one part of the Better Together initiative.
August 28, 2024: Atlanta, GA
September 10, 2024: Boston, MA
October 22, 2024: New York City, NY
November 20, 2024: San Francisco, CA
Comped pairs of tickets are available if you meet all three of these criteria:
You’re a senior GTM Leader (marketing, sales, customer success, product, RevOps, or the leadership team)
You work for an enterprise company
You are a customer of one or more of our partners for this event (Demandbase, Clari, On24, Vidyard, Totango, Catalyst, MadKudu, G2, Technology Advice, or ZoomInfo
If you meet the first two criteria but are not a customer of any of those companies, you can apply for a ticket here:
Hope to see you there!
GTM Events
A list of upcoming events of interest to GTM professionals
July 9-11, London: GTM EMEA from Pavilion- our analyst Lindsay will be speaking on unifying GTM across different geographies and cultures.
August 28, Atlanta: GTM is Better Together
September 10, Boston: GTM is Better Together
September 18-20, Boston: INBOUND 2024
October 16, Austin: GTM Made Simple Roadshow
October 22, NYC: GTM is Better Together
November 20, San Francisco: GTM is Better Together
Are you a B2B company between $10-100M in revenue who needs help with your GTM strategy and execution? We’d love to chat.
We’d love to hear any feedback you have on the outbound research or additions based on your own experience.
Have a great last week of June!
Love,
The GTM Partners Team
