‘Lead generation’ no longer works, especially in a B2B environment, because there you are dealing with a group of buyers or buying commitees. Only after 70% of the buying process is complete does the customer come knocking on your door, if he knocks on your door at all. ‘There will be buying, not selling’. And that requires a different approach. So says Koen De Witte, founder and ceo of LeadFabric.
From his office landscape on the 4th floor near the railway station, we have a nice view of Mechelen with its St Rombouts cathedral. The 57-year-old inspired Koen De Witte founded LeadFabric some 14 years ago after various marketing positions at Computer2000, TechData, Keyware, Pervasive Software and Bulldog Solutions. He spent years in the United States where marketing and sales are digitally driven. He does not want to call himself a visionary ‘because I get my mustard elsewhere too’, but there is still a lot of evangelism involved. Half of LeadFabric’s revenue (€71 million by 2023) comes from the United States. These are, may it be surprising, mostly tech companies. The other half comes mainly from European offices with a global reach.
Lead generation no longer works
Leads in lead generation are traditionally obtained by offering content, e.g. a white paper. The data collected is forwarded (or sold). The problem is that so many opportunities are missed because the forms are simply not filled in and the content not read. Research shows that potential customers consciously want to go through most of their buying journey anonymously and only want to make themselves known when they have completed 65-70% of their journey. And the moment they do, they will only contact a handful (less than 5) of companies. The first one they approach has an 80% chance of winning the deal.
By the way, a ‘lead’ only represents one person. Forwarding that one person to a receiving function like sales does not add much value for sales professionals. Why? Because purchases are often made in groups, usually by 10 to 20 people. All stakeholders influence the decision and need to be on board before the buying decision is made. ‘Marketing departments that claim success because they have found a lead often add less value than is thought.’ says Koen De Witte With that, it becomes clear that demand generation plays a crucial role. ‘People are buying, much less selling.
No sant in your own country?
In Belgium, an SME country par excellence, LeadFabric is therefore not very well known. And that is a pity because mapping sales processes and steering them digitally is a particularly powerful tool. We are talking about Account-Based Marketing (ABM) platforms. To this end, Koen De Witte works together with US company 6Sense, which has been lonely at the top of Gartner’s leadership quadrant for years. ‘Such platforms will be the next big gamechanger for B2B sales and marketing departments, similar to the impact CRM and Marketing Automation systems had, one to two decades ago. The tagline is therefore: ‘AI that builds pipe, not hype.’ In essence, revenue platforms provide data that maps the buying intentions of corporate accounts long before these accounts emerge from anonymity. They allow both marketing and sales teams to optimise the chances of being shortlisted when the account decides to contact them. ‘This requires significant changes for the B2B marketing and sales organisation,’ said Koen De Witte.
6sense recently conducted a study on buying processes in complex sales environments, analysing 2,500 companies. LeadFabric, along with an Australian partner for the APAC market, collaborated in further analysing the EMEA data. A follow-up study will be published in early 2025, specifically comparing buying behaviours in the Netherlands with those in Belgium. The study is freely available from LeadFabric and 6sense.
LeadFabric’s references include Federal Insurance, Allianz, Securitas, Athlon, Barco, Telenet Business, Exclusive Networks, Trend Micro, Dun & Bradstreet or Rockwell Automation.
