From Attribution to Trust: Relationships as the Real Pipeline Driver

When the data gets blurry, relationships become the clearest metric. These leaders prove that human connection — through client outreach, community building, or simple in-person trust — still drives more pipeline than any attribution model ever could.

“One of the most effective things I’ve done is focus on building strong, authentic relationships with our clients and partners. Rather than relying solely on trackable campaigns, we’ve invested time in being a trusted resource—sharing insights, providing value beyond the immediate project, and showing up consistently. Over time, that trust has led to a steady stream of referrals and introductions that fuel our sales pipeline, even if they don’t tie back neatly to a single campaign or touchpoint.”
— Eryn Veronesi, NDC, Inc.

“[What we’ve done in 2025 and it worked really well in driving sales pipeline is] Reaching out to previous clients. I think we did quality work and the clients don’t remember PR/marketing until it is mentioned.”

— Catharine Montgomery, Better Together Agency

“One of the best things I have ever done was, in 2025, building a private LinkedIn group for decision-makers in our target markets. We did monthly live Q&A sessions with guest experts and never sold our product. Instead, we had problem-solving discussions that established us as a trusted partner.”
— Robert Grunnah, Austin House Buyer

“[What has worked best for us to build trust and drive business is] In-person events, because we do construction and the in-person trust is so important.”

— Naomi Stringfield, Paradigm Energy Services

The Rise of Community-Led Growth

Dark social isn’t a black box — it’s where the real conversations happen. Slack groups, founder communities, and peer networks are now the beating heart of GTM success, where credibility is earned through contribution, not conversion tracking.

“I think partnerships and networking have far exceeded any other channel apart from referrals. We’ve seen how going to certain events and joining some communities for founders specifically has worked really well and driven pipeline well above the rest.”
— Kelsey Donn, UNTAMED

“In 2025, the biggest pipeline driver from community/social marketing has been participating in niche Slack groups and private founder communities. Not pushing services—just giving valuable input. That visibility and trust lead to DMs, referrals, and warm intros.”
— Victor André Enselmann, Modeva

“Invite-only Slack groups centered on engagement have provided the best-quality leads of the year. By being heavily engaged with high-value feedback and contributing original research, I’ve gained credibility that has led to direct inbound messages from decision-makers.”
— Moattar Ali, HARO Link Builder

Founder-Led and Humanized Content Wins the Feed

People trust people, not brands. GTM teams are shifting visibility to founders, subject-matter experts, and customers — using narrative-driven posts, authentic storytelling, and thought leadership to replace click tracking with real engagement.

“In 2025, we’ve leaned heavily into founder-led content on LinkedIn, and it has become one of our most effective pipeline drivers, even though we can’t track every interaction with perfect attribution.”
— Martin Hadzhiev, Lumina Studio Marketing

“[How we’ve adapted our strategy to stay effective despite declining SEO traffic is] A shift to founder-led content, more storytelling and increasing investments in video, email marketing and distribution through a network of partner sites is where we are placing our bets.”

— Jordie van Rijn, emailmonday

“[What’s been driving our best engagement and pipeline results is] Team and customer organic thought leadership content on LinkedIn. People listen to people more than companies.”

— Allie Smith, Sequel.io 

“I think our increased presence on preferred social platforms has directly contributed to increased pipeline, but with the rise of no-click content it’s nearly impossible to directly source what’s happening.”
— Megann Coleman, Root3 Labs

The Return of Quality, Not Quantity

Marketers are trading high-volume activity for high-intent precision. Whether through ABM, strategic partnerships, or meticulous ICP alignment, the focus has shifted from chasing leads to designing scalable, measurable impact.

“After baselining the ICP, Positioning, and Messaging, I focused on enabling the right inbound and outbound through eight strategic tracks — from website redesign to strategic partnerships — ensuring sequencing and execution were perfectly timed.”
— Dinesh Gurupur, Yeedu

“As paid PPC costs rise we have found success in generating high quality search traffic which has led to an offset in costs. It has taken time but we are now seeing good results.”
— Manav Mehra, Wagman Digital

“One of the most effective things we’ve done recently has been doubling down on Account-Based Marketing (ABM), events, and strategic gifting. Rather than relying on broad outreach, we’ve focused on being hyper-personalized and creating meaningful, one-to-one connections with decision-makers.”
— Karie Barrett, QAT Global

“Marketing is shifting to hyper-personalization. What we at DesignRush do is test every process manually before finding an automation tool to scale it. For cold sales pipeline, it’s important to follow the basics, but fact-check every part of the process and pay attention to utmost detail: Define ICP, create contact lists that MAKE SENSE and templates that are short & simple, but provide enough value to create a hook.”
— Gianluca Ferruggia, DesignRush

Dark Social and Untrackable Influence

Marketers are embracing what they can’t measure. Whether it’s webinars, conferences, or AI-driven visibility, these leaders show that trust built in unseen channels is increasingly the source of the strongest, most qualified pipeline.

“Way back in 2025, doubling down on thought-leadership webinars to niche buyer communities has been one of the most effective things I’ve done to drive sales pipeline.”
— Ryan Whitcher, Harmony Home Buyers

“Attending conferences has been a huge win for us, but I cannot prove the exact numbers. Quite a lot of people tell us they saw us at a conference half a year ago or heard one of our C-level speakers during an event.”
— Austin Heaton, Riseworks

“This year we implemented AI-driven optimization of our website, and it turned out to be one of the most impactful steps for driving pipeline. We focused on adapting content and metadata for AI search engines (like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity), not just traditional Google SEO. Even though attribution is not always perfect — many leads come in saying they “found us through AI tools” without specifying the exact query — we could still trace a noticeable increase in inbound requests and higher-quality opportunities after rolling out these changes.”
— Daria Holoskokova, Whimsy Games Group LTD

“I leaned in most heavily this year into interacting with niche online communities where my target audience was already congregated. Instead of pushing hard-sell messages aggressively, I responded to questions, provided relevant case studies, and introduced individuals to valuable resources.”
— Adam Watson, Hollywood Mirrors

The Power of Alignment and Consistency

The most effective GTM teams aren’t chasing one-off wins — they’re building unified systems where marketing, sales, and content reinforce each other. Alignment is now the new growth engine.

“[What’s worked well to align our GTM motion is] Aligning sales efforts with the content efforts. The content speaks to our ICP, LinkedIn outbound/social selling to nurture and drive ICP to realm of influence, and then do multi-touchpoints with a cold call.”

— Manny Jassal, Extra Sauce Agency

“In our marketing, we’ve been laser-focused on getting our GTM messaging tightly focused on problem-solution awareness for B2B company marketing campaigns.”
— Paul Clinton, The Write Way, Inc.

“Over the past 8 years, we primarily relied on inbound marketing to generate leads and drive revenue. However, starting in 2024, we made a strategic investment in outbound efforts—targeted outreach, ABM campaigns, and personalized messaging.”
— Jonathan Aufray, Growth Hackers

“Tracking engagement volume between conversion stages has helped us prioritize leads and deals. We’ve analyzed historical averages for Won and Lost deals, so we can compare and focus on prospects that are engaging above historical averages.”
— Alex Lee, Intellect

Authenticity Still Converts

Even as attribution fades, authenticity cuts through. From raw customer videos to unfiltered honesty, the most credible marketing right now comes from being real — and audiences reward it.

“One thing I’ve done that’s really moved the needle for our sales pipeline at my company is leaning hard into short, raw video testimonials from happy customers. I can’t track every click or conversion perfectly, but man, it’s worked like a charm. I think people trust real people nowadays.”
— Rich Kingly, Driveway King

“[When asked what worked to drive pipeline in 2025, the honest answer is:] Honestly, not much. This year and last year realllly sucked.”

— Tommy Walker, WalkerBots Content Studios LLC

Conclusion

If there’s one throughline in 2025, it’s this: when attribution gets fuzzy, trust, relevance, and presence do the heavy lifting.

Founder-led storytelling. Precision over volume. Communities over cold clicks.
And orchestration that respects how people actually buy.

The post Beyond Attribution: 25 Experts on How Go-To-Market Teams Are Tracking Metrics in a Zero-Click Buyer Journey appeared first on Databox.

When I first started in sales, it wasn’t unusual for a first conversation with a customer to be a product walk-through. We’d talk about features, answer a few questions, and hope that was enough to spark interest. Those days are gone.

Today’s buyers are more prepared than ever. In fact, recent research shows that B2B buyers now spend about 70% of their buying journey doing their own research before ever talking to a vendor. They’ve read the reviews, compared competitors, and often know exactly what our product can do before they’ve even met me. The easy wins from “showing and telling” are rare now.

What buyers don’t have–and what they still value–is clarity. Clarity about their own challenges, clarity about the outcomes they want, and clarity about which solution will get them there fastest. That’s where my guiding principle comes in: understand before you recommend.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this article:

1. Why rushing into solutions can backfire in today’s sales landscape
2. How to uncover the real problem your buyer is trying to solve
3. What strong discovery looks like (without sounding scripted)
4. How to use data to validate and iterate on your approach
5. Why listening is still your most underrated sales tool

1: Why ‘understand before you recommend’ really matters

It’s tempting to think that the faster we propose a solution, the more efficient we are. In reality, rushing into recommendations can mean we’re solving the wrong problem–or at least, not solving the most important one.

Understanding before recommending means slowing down enough to truly see the situation from the other side of the table. It’s about perspective, context, and alignment. Without those, even the best product pitch is a shot in the dark.

In my experience, when you apply this mindset, conversations shift. They stop feeling transactional and start feeling collaborative. Buyers become partners in solving a problem–and that makes decisions happen faster, not slower.

2: What ‘understanding’ really looks like

When I say “understand” I’m not talking about following a rigid set of discovery questions. I mean developing a clear, shared picture of what matters most to the person in front of you.

That can include:

• Success vision: What does a win look like for them this quarter, this year, or even longer term?
• Constraints: What’s limiting progress right now–resources, time, or something less obvious?
• Opportunities: Where are they missing potential gains they haven’t yet spotted?

It’s less about a script and more about curiosity. That curiosity is what allows you to connect your solution in a way that feels relevant, not generic.

3: When the real challenge is deeper than it seems

Over the years, I’ve seen countless situations where the first challenge a client brings up isn’t actually the one that matters most. For example, a business might initially say they want to improve the speed of a process. But when you explore further, you find that the real issue is the knock-on effect on revenue, customer retention, or team capacity.

Once that bigger picture comes into focus, the conversation shifts. The problem becomes more urgent, and the solution far more compelling. It’s a reminder I carry into every conversation: the presenting challenge is often just the tip of the iceberg.

4: Measuring what matters

One of the things that keeps me committed to this approach is that I can see it works. I track the outcomes–conversion rates, deal size, sales cycle length–and look for trends over time.

That’s where having a central view of your metrics makes a real difference. Tools like Databox make it easy to bring data from multiple sources into one place, so you can spot patterns you might otherwise miss. I use dashboards like the Sales Overview and Pipeline Performance to stay on top of what’s working and what needs adjustment.

Pipeline performance dashboard template by Databox 

And if your business uses multiple systems, our Signable API can integrate eSignatures with your CRM and other platforms. That kind of connected tech stack supports the “understand first” mindset–because when your tools talk to each other, you get the full picture, and your recommendations are based on facts, not assumptions.

5: Listening is your competitive edge

If there’s one thing I’d encourage you to take from this, it’s that listening is a competitive advantage. In markets where products and pricing can be matched, how you engage is often what makes the difference.

So instead of focusing on being the first to offer a solution, focus on being the one who understands the situation best. That’s how you become more than a vendor–you become a trusted partner.

What is Signable?
Signable is one of the UK’s leading electronic signature providers. We help businesses simplify and secure their digital signing workflows–no matter the team size. Learn more at signable.co.uk.

Try it this week: Your consultative selling challenge

If you’ve read this far, here’s my challenge:

Pick one thing you can do this week to “understand before you recommend” in your sales conversations.

• Maybe it’s giving yourself more time to explore the client’s goals.
• Maybe it’s summarising what you’ve heard before offering a solution.
• Maybe it’s asking that one question that gets to the heart of their challenge.

Then track what happens. Use a free Databox Sales Dashboard to monitor your progress–like conversion rate, sales cycle, or deal size. It’s often the smallest shifts that drive the biggest wins.

Package, Sell, and Deliver Business Intelligence as a Strategic Service

For sales consultants ready to stop selling services,and start delivering strategic impact.

Get the blueprint

The post Consultative Selling in 2025: Why Understanding Comes First appeared first on Databox.

With these two departments teaming up at many companies, aligning them helps you get the most out of their efforts. In an aligned organization, their goals and strategies should serve the same purposes, and they should each know what the other department is doing.

In partnership with Knowmad, Growth, Resend, and other partners, we surveyed 170+ companies to find out how B2B companies align their sales and marketing teams. This survey is connected to the Google Analytics 4, HubSpot CRM, and HubSpot Marketing Benchmarks for B2B Companies Benchmark Group.

We also ran a live DBUG session in September 2024 where seven experts analyzed and discussed the survey results.

These two initiatives gave us insights into these topics:

• How Do Companies Handle Sales and Marketing Alignment?
• 4 Effective Tactics for Aligning Sales and Marketing Teams
• 6 Challenges in Sales and Marketing Alignment (And Possible Solutions)

How Do Companies Handle Sales and Marketing Alignment?

Before we can find ways to better align sales and marketing in B2B, we need to understand what B2B companies are currently doing to achieve this alignment. So, the closed-ended questions in our survey focused on current alignment strategies and results, covering three areas:

• Business Size and Operations for Respondents
• Communication Between Sales and Marketing Departments
• Sales and Marketing Alignment Strategies

Business Size and Operations for Respondents

For context behind further answers, let’s explore how the responding businesses operate.

Most of the companies in our survey are on the smaller side and have 50 or fewer employees.

The sales teams among our respondents tended to be slightly bigger than the marketing teams. While the average size of sales teams is 18, the average size of marketing teams is 15.

HubSpot is the top choice of CRM among respondents, with 48.70% of them naming it their go-to software.

About one-third of respondents report that 50% to 80% of their lead generation comes from digital marketing.

Communication Between Sales and Marketing Departments

With all of the above in mind, how do respondents’ sales and marketing departments communicate with each other?

When we asked companies about which areas their sales teams provide input for marketing activities, the top answers were:

• Target market selection (73.38%)
• Pricing strategies (62.99%)
• Product/service positioning (56.49%)
• Content creation (50.00%).

Most respondents rate the effectiveness of their sales and marketing teams’ communication as good to excellent, showing a high degree of satisfaction among them.

Sales and Marketing Alignment Strategies

Even when communication is already good, sales and marketing alignment requires ongoing work. What do respondents do to promote alignment, and how do they measure it?

The top answers companies gave when we asked about their current alignment strategies were:

• Regular sales and marketing meetings (77.27%)
• Shared goals and metrics (69.48%)
• Integrated CRM and marketing automation tools (66.88%)
• Collaborative content creation (50.65%)

Respondents then measure the success of sales and marketing alignment through these metrics:

• Better lead generation and qualification (69.48%)
• New customer acquisition (68.83%)
• Increase in sales revenue (64.29%)

4 Effective Tactics for Aligning Sales and Marketing Teams

The closed-ended questions in our survey covered common ways to align sales and marketing, and we explored those tactics further in our open-ended questions. Some of the highlights covered both time-tested and unconventional tactics such as:

1. Sharing Data Platforms
2. Performing Regular Check-Ins
3. Spending Time in Each Other’s Shoes
4. Finding Common Ground Through Analytics

1. Sharing Data Platforms

Many survey participants brought up data platform and CRM sharing as a strategy for sales and marketing alignment. Using the same data between the two departments allows for more cohesive performance tracking and goal setting.

“We’ve implemented a practice that focuses on data-sharing between our sales and marketing teams. By using a shared platform where both teams can access customer data, campaign performance, and feedback, we support real-time collaboration,” says Manoj Kumar from Orderific.

Kumar shares an example: “For instance, our sales team can provide insights into customer needs and concerns, which helps marketing create more targeted campaigns. As a result, we’ve seen a 25% increase in lead conversions over the last six months. This initiative not only aligns our teams but also enhances our understanding of our restaurant owners’ needs.”

Cache Merrill describes similar success with this strategy at Zibtek. Merrill says, “We’ve found that integrating our sales and marketing efforts through a shared CRM platform has been particularly effective in fostering collaboration. This platform allows both teams to access and analyze customer data in real-time, ensuring that marketing campaigns are aligned with sales goals and customer needs.”

Merrill continues, “The practice has led to more targeted and effective marketing efforts, resulting in higher conversion rates and better customer retention. Additionally, the shared platform has improved communication between the teams, allowing for quicker adjustments and more agile responses to market changes.”

If you already use this strategy, you can make it more effective by building a CRM KPI dashboard to share between the two departments. This dashboard will help everyone focus on the same metrics and goals.

2. Performing Regular Check-Ins

The most typical strategy for keeping sales and marketing aligned is to hold regular meetings. But, the quality of these meetings determines exactly how effective they’ll be. The following respondents ensure that sales and marketing actually help each other during meetings for better alignment.

Jarret Austin shares that Bankruptcy Canada runs cross-functional workshops rather than just meetings: “One particularly effective practice we’ve implemented to foster collaboration between our sales and marketing teams is our regular cross-functional workshops. These workshops are designed to create an open dialogue where both teams can share insights, challenges, and success stories.”

Austin adds:

“We’ve found that when sales teams share feedback from clients directly with marketing, it helps fine-tune our campaigns to better address the needs of our target audience. As a result, we’ve seen a noticeable increase in lead quality, which has directly contributed to higher conversion rates. This collaborative approach has also strengthened interdepartmental relationships, creating a more cohesive company culture.”

Jarret Austin

Owner at Bankruptcy Canada

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According to Carmen Mendoza, the Booking Agent Info team zones in on one aspect of lead generation – lead magnets – to bring marketing and sales together. Mendoza says, “Our most successful effort has been weekly ‘Lead Magnet Meetings’. Every Monday, the sales and marketing teams meet to discuss the latest marketing campaigns, analyze lead generation data, and develop creative strategies to turn leads into paying clients.”

“For instance, in one recent campaign aimed at corporate event planners, the marketing team released a targeted e-book on ‘Engaging Virtual Events with Top Talent’. The sales team used that resource as a ‘lead magnet’ during outreach calls, generating not only high-quality leads but also positioning Booking Agent Info as a thought leader in virtual entertainment. Since these meetings began, lead conversion rates have jumped by 15%,” Mendoza concludes.

If you don’t feel like your alignment meetings have the impact you’d like, look for ways to get more collaborative and follow our general tips for successful weekly meetings.

3. Spending Time in Each Other’s Shoes

Sales and marketing can have very different day-to-day tasks, which can lead to a disconnect between the two teams. Firsthand experience with these duties can help them understand what the other team is going through.

Bartosz Wrobel shares one activity Gorrion ran that helped sales and marketing understand each other better: “During one of the company meetings, we had a fun activity, which also helped enhance the partnership between sales and marketing. Each department had some ‘special tasks’, and we thought that it would be a great idea to swap teams. So the people responsible for marketing had to come up with some marketing strategies, and the marketers were supposed to prepare sales propositions.”

Wrobel adds, “It was great fun, everyone liked that approach, and even the other departments wanted to stay longer and see how the situation unfolded. However, the second goal of this fun activity was met. Both teams understood [each other’s struggles] better and saw how their decisions impact the other team.”

4. Finding Common Ground Through KPIs

One of the most difficult aspects of alignment to deal with is managing disagreements between teams. When sales and marketing have different ideas of the right path to take, it becomes challenging to please both sides. You can mitigate this issue from the start by giving both teams the same KPIs to work with.

James Hook explains how Neurogan Health’s shared KPIs between marketing and sales promote unity. Hook says, “What we have found works best when fostering collaboration between sales and marketing is metrics. Shared metrics seem to drive these departments to unnatural highs. By establishing shared KPIs and regular tracking of their performances we were able to create a cross-functioning department. Creating a truly unique collaborative environment is almost like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.”

Hook continues:

“By sharing KPIs, both teams support each other in reaching goals, focusing on areas for improvement, and then of course the joint celebration when they succeed. This approach has skyrocketed our sales and increased creativity in our marketing campaigns. Salespeople generally know what clients want, and how they want it. Marketing teams are brilliant at setting up sales pitches. These two departments should always work together.”

James Hook

Consulting Chiropractor and Vendor at Neurogan Health

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6 Challenges in Sales and Marketing Alignment (And Possible Solutions)

Another question we explored in the open-ended part of our survey is what the top challenges companies face in sales and marketing alignment are and how they plan to address them. Many of these challenges and solutions also came up in our DBUG session when marketing and sales leaders discussed the survey results.

The following challenges and solutions came up in our survey and the DBUG session:

1. Differences Between Perception and Reality
2. Inconsistent Product Knowledge
3. Lack of Alignment on Lead-Driving Tactics
4. Different Ideas of Alignment Between People and Departments
5. Top-Down Structural Issues
6. Differing Goals and Metrics Between Teams

1. Differences Between Perception and Reality

During the DBUG session, three experts noticed that companies’ perception of their alignment and their actual alignment might not match. The high satisfaction that companies shared in the survey didn’t line up with what they saw in their work.

William McKee from Knowmad Digital Marketing noticed the huge influence sales has on marketing and how it could affect alignment. Previous parts of the discussion highlighted how hard it can be to get sales to engage with marketing. “Marketing sometimes doesn’t even have a seat at the table where decisions are getting made,” he says. So, if sales calls all of the shots, is it actually aligned with marketing?

Rick Kranz of Weidert Group added that he and others in the profession don’t see as much alignment in B2B companies as the survey suggests. Even when a company might report good alignment on an intake survey, these consultants hear a different story when they get on a call.

Christopher Nault of Growth vouched for this observation, saying, “When I’ve sent the survey, I always offer up the option to take the survey without meeting with me. I wanna make a safe place for them to answer honestly, and for those that do, the result is, oh, we’re super aligned. Cool. Everybody that’s taken the time to meet with me has shared some level of lack of alignment, usually high.”

Christopher pointed out that bringing in a third party can help, based on his experience as a consultant. Employees might be reluctant to share any issues they have with others in the organization but feel safer with someone outside of the business. 

2. Inconsistent Product Knowledge

One problem that came up in the open-ended answers to the survey was inconsistent product knowledge between marketing and sales. The companies that experienced this issue put more effort into knowledge sharing among departments for better marketing and sales results.

“One of our biggest challenges is aligning the legal knowledge needed for our marketing content with the sales team’s approach to client engagement. Ensuring that our marketing materials are both legally accurate and persuasive can be a complex task,” says Jonathan Feniak of LLC Attorney.

Feniak continues, “To address this, we’ve implemented a review process where our legal team collaborates with marketing to vet content before it’s published. This ensures that our messaging is compliant while still being compelling. The result has been a more trustworthy brand image and a reduction in the number of legal inquiries during the sales process, streamlining operations.”

MIRA Safety’s Roman Zrazhevskiy faced a similar problem and solution. Zrazhevskiy says, “The biggest challenge we face in aligning our sales and marketing strategies is ensuring that both teams are equally informed about the technical aspects of our products. Given the specialized nature of our safety gear, it’s essential that both sales and marketing have a deep understanding of product features and benefits.”

Zrazhevskiy continues, “To address this, we’ve implemented joint training sessions where both teams are educated on new products and industry trends. This initiative has helped bridge the knowledge gap, leading to more informed marketing campaigns and a more confident sales force. The result has been improved customer satisfaction and increased sales.”

3. Lack of Alignment on Lead-Driving Tactics

Another issue that came up in the DBUG discussion was a lack of alignment on the tactics that drive leads due to confusion on the customer journey.

Eddie Reynolds of Union Square Consulting emphasized that shared KPIs and data don’t automatically equal alignment:

“You have shared goals and metrics, but what does that mean? Are we all driving towards a revenue number, or is it that we agree that marketing should hit this MQL number, and then we’re arguing about why sales isn’t following up? How well have we defined what [a marketing qualified lead] is, what [a sales accepted lead] is, what a qualified sales opportunity is? If we go and ask everyone on the team from marketing to sales, do they have the same understanding of what that is? Is there actually a document that shares what that means?”

Eddie Reynolds

CEO and Revenue Operations Strategy Consultant at Union Square Consulting

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As a result, Reynolds sees sales and marketing teams talking about high-level tactics rather than what each team can do to drive leads and conversions. They can’t “get into the weeds” of how to generate revenue.

Fortunately, this problem has a clear solution: Developing a customer journey map that defines what each stage looks like so sales and marketing can define leads. You can use Databox’s customer lifecycle framework as inspiration.

4. Different Ideas of Alignment Between People and Departments

The DBUG discussion also covered the issue of different ideas of alignment between the people involved. In addition to sales and marketing having different alignment goals, people within each team can have separate ideas.

Michael Maximoff from Belkins mentioned that in his personal experience, companies that focused on retention and a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) had the best alignment. But conversely, not having an alignment goal to agree on can have the opposite effect.

Maximoff agreed with earlier points in the conversation related to the importance of working out smaller disagreements. Rather than stretching out alignment meetings with individual disagreements, sales and marketing team members should have frequent informal discussions so everyone can have a broad goal to work towards in meetings. “So that there are a lot of things that both teams can argue and can align on behind closed doors, and then only go back to [their] teams with a united front rather than discussing and arguing during the open conversation,” Maximoff says.

5. Top-Down Structural Issues

Sometimes, the problem with alignment lies in the company structure itself. You may need to consider how your company structure affects your alignment to get sales and marketing working in harmony.

For example, Henry Pellerin from VantagePoint Marketing brought up that alignment can look different in various industries. He works a lot with B2B manufacturing companies, where marketing is often siloed from sales. Looking at the survey had him discussing with other experts ways to achieve alignment in this industry, such as bringing the CEO in to change priorities.

Caroline Smith from Smudged brought up that a company’s country can affect its structure, too. Just between the United Kingdom and United States alone, you’ll find different titles and structures among sales and marketing departments. With so many companies going global, where can they find proper alignment? She agreed with Henry that the solution to this kind of alignment issue is to promote alignment from the top down.

Easy Mode Media’s Ben McLaughlan discovered that alignment also requires buy-in from leadership from personal experience. “As the Founder/CEO who oversees all operations, I thought I had a good handle on the process of information from the sales process to influence the marketing strategy. I was wrong,” McLaughlan says.

So, McLaughlan turned alignment into a team effort rather than a solo job. “Our sales team now writes all questions down, word for word, they get on phone calls and document them. This allows us to see common patterns over time and develop better objection responses and content marketing. This took our ads from failing in months one and two to generating 11.5x ROI for the year. The process and communication between these two departments are incredibly powerful and the process can always be better,” McLaughlan says.

6. Differing Goals and Metrics Between Teams

One of the most common sentiments shared in the open-ended section of the survey was that sales and marketing teams had different metrics and goals, making it difficult to align them. Here are two companies that shared that problem and how they’ve handled it.

“Right now, the main problem is that marketing is focused on the sales pipeline, while sales cares about actual revenue,” says Alan Muther from Ardoz Digital. “In meetings, marketing talks about the pipeline, and sales talks about not making enough money. Marketing is too caught up in whether they’re hitting their pipeline targets. Today, marketing and sales teams face lots of challenges, but for us, the biggest issue is sometimes the lack of both internal and external transparency. Even though a lot of people know this is a problem, there’s still not enough openness about planning and changing strategies, aligning with revenue goals, and being responsible for costs. And while our marketing budgets are growing fast, even more than technology budgets.”

Muther continues, “So, it’s becoming really important for marketing to show how it’s helping to increase overall sales. We think tools that can show how marketing contributes to making more money are really important for this. In our B2B agency, we’ve made a joint ROI (Return on Investment) dashboard with the sales team. This is another way that Account-Based Marketing (ABM) helps bring marketing and sales closer together, especially when it comes to measuring success.”

Made Online’s Iva Jovanovic says, “The greatest challenge in aligning our sales and marketing strategies is the disparity in metrics and goals. The sales team typically prioritizes immediate revenue generation, whereas the marketing team wants brand awareness and long-term engagement.”

Jovanovic adds, “Because of this, we established a shared KPI framework to keep both teams focused on the same goals. This framework includes metrics that can be influenced by both teams, such as customer lifetime value and lead quality. As a result, we have seen a more cohesive strategy, resulting in a 25% increase in overall sales performance over the last six months.”

Improve Your Sales and Marketing Alignment With Databox and Benchmark Groups

You might have noticed that many of the challenges and solutions related to sales and marketing alignment have to do with metrics and goals. As you set KPIs and goals for these departments, clarity is key to progress. But, if you don’t know how your company’s marketing and sales performance compares to similar businesses, it’s hard to evaluate that performance in the first place.

That’s why we created the Google Analytics 4, HubSpot CRM, and HubSpot Marketing Benchmarks for B2B Companies Benchmark Group. When you join this group, you can compare these metrics to other companies in exchange for anonymously sharing your data:

• Conversions (Google Analytics 4)
• Engagement Rate (Google Analytics 4)
• Session Conversion Rate (Google Analytics 4)
• Contacts (Marketing)  (HubSpot CRM)
• All Deals  (HubSpot CRM)
• Deals Closed Won (HubSpot CRM)
• Emails Sent (HubSpot Marketing)
• Emails Unique Clicked (HubSpot Marketing)
• New Leads (HubSpot Marketing)

…and more!

It’s free to join as long as you have a Databox account with the metrics you want to track. Sign up for a Databox account and join the group here.

The post How to Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams in B2B in 2025 appeared first on Databox.

In this playbook, we’ll explore the “Revenue Architecture” framework, a powerful system to streamline your sales process and boost your bottom line. Learn how to set clear goals, track key metrics, and optimize your sales funnel with expert insights from Roee Hartuv, a Revenue Architect at Winning By Design.

Watch the full interview

Or listen to it on Spotify or Apple.

The “Revenue Architecture” framework

Jacco Van Der Kooij (founder of Winning By Design) wants to turn your business in an effective, efficient, “revenue factory”. For 16+ years, Winning By Design has been helping companies drive more predictable revenue using a framework they call “Revenue Architecture”. The idea is simple. Like a factory, your goal should be to deliver increasingly valuable products to customers, minimize your costs, and increase your profits.

Last week, I got to chat with Roee Hartuv (a Revenue Architect at Winning By Design) to learn more about how it works. I want to say up front, this is a pretty robust framework, so Roee and I could only get into a small part of it. So if you’re interested in learning and DIYing the framework at your company, you can read the book or take the course. Or, if you’re looking for guided help rolling this out at your company, you can reach out to Roee or the team directly to talk about the consulting they offer. To be clear, we’re not affiliated in any way, I just wanted to point you to more resources if you’re interested in learning more about Revenue Architecture.

To set the stage for our conversation, Winning By Design has multiple “models” they walk companies through. Roee and I only covered part of the “Data Model”: the metrics and formula they use to help set clear targets for lead generation, sales quotas, and expansion goals.

Use the “bowtie” to better visualize recurring revenue

Traditionally, marketing and sales performance is visualized in a funnel. You start at the top with measuring stages (like awareness) or metrics (like traffic) and work your way down until the deal is closed. And that’s where many companies measuring. The deal is won or lost, and the funnel journey is over. 

But in reality, if you want recurring revenue, you need to measure all the stages that happen after the deal is won: onboarding, upgrades or expansion, and retention. These are what contribute to customers renewing their deal or staying subscribed to you.

So the first step to building a revenue factory is visualizing your company’s performance holistically, including what happens after each deal is closed, so that you can focus on increasing recurring revenue, not just new revenue. 

Here’s an example. It might look intimidating, but once you understand their framework it’s pretty simple.

• VM = volume metric
• CR = conversion rate metric
• Δt = time metric

You can watch a full explainer of the bowtie model (slash EDM/rave) here. 

On the left side of the bowtie, you measure the stages it takes to close the deal. Then on the right, you measure the stages required to drive retention, upgrades, or expansion. 

Determine 4 kinds of metrics you’ll measure

Next, it’s time to add the metrics you’ll visualize in your bowtie. Winning By Design advocates 4 types of metrics your team should be tracking:

1. Volume metrics (e.g. 4,000 leads)
2. Conversion (e.g. 10% win rate)
3. Time (e.g. 30 days)
4. Cost = how much budget you spend at each stage

Roee says there aren’t one-size-fits-all metrics they prescribe. Instead, it’s crucial to decide on what you’re going to measure together with the rest of your team. These 4 types of metrics help ensure you’re tracking the right data points that are important for your business.

As we covered earlier, the left side of the bowtie should measure the key volume, conversion, time, and cost metrics to close a deal or acquire a paying customer. The right side of the bowtie should measure the same four types of metrics, related to dollar amounts. This could be ARR or MRR, and includes Average Contract Value, First Year Contract Value, onboarding (measuring how many accounts are “live” or activated), Gross Revenue Retention, etc.

Analyze historical data with your team

Once you decide what metrics you’ll measure and start visualizing them, Roee recommends reviewing them monthly with your team in an effort to understand your performance better. 

Why are your conversion rates what they are? What contributes to them? How do other companies like us perform in these areas? Where is there room to improve?

To do the most accurate analysis, you’ll want to between 4 quarters and 2 years’ worth of historical data.

Use this to create a growth formula, to optimize your revenue factory

At this point, you’re able to visualize 1-2 years of historical data in your bowtie visual, and you’ve begun to analyze performance with your team to understand what impacts performance at each stage: where there’s room for improvement, and what levers you might pull to move the needle on it.

Now, you want to zoom in to find how much it took to close just 1 customer. For example, if you closed 300 deals (acquired 300 new customers), you’d divide all the metrics on the left side of the bowtie by 300. You’ll see how many sessions, leads, MQLs (marketing qualified leads), SQLs (sales qualified leads) it took to close one deal. You’ll see how much time it took at each stage. And you’ll see what your current conversion rates are between stages. And on the right side, one deal created $x revenue, and will expand to x amount over the next 3-5 years.

This is the starting point to analyze how effective and efficient your current “revenue factory” is.

This gives you a formula to start accurately projecting and planning to grow. Many companies assume if this is what it took to close 1 deal, they need to multiply all stages equally to hit their goal amount. But the purpose of this is to find more efficient ways of scaling.

“There are fantastic companies out there that are still doing phenomenally well. When they’re doing this exercise [they realize], ‘I need to increase the numbers. Everything looks great. Let’s focus on pouring more money and continue to grow.’

For most of us, it’s not like that. Money is not endless anymore like we had in 2021. So we’re all now doing 2025 planning and having those discussions, ‘This is what our numbers are. This is what we need. Can we create that amount of leads? Can we serve all those opportunities? Probably the answer is no. We don’t have the headcount. We don’t have the budget.’

And this is where you start having those discussions, ‘Okay. If I slightly improve the retention rate, would that get us closer? What is the balance of improving the retention rate, improving my performance on the right side, compared to improving how many deals or the win rate I’m doing on the acquisition part?’”

The point is that once you understand what it takes to generate the full recurring revenue impact from one closed deal or paying customer, you can play with optimizing each stage to figure out the best way to hit your targets.

Like Roee said, for some companies this simply means improving the metrics on the left and right side in tandem. But for many of us, this will show us that we’re maybe maxed out on how many signups or leads we can drive, and so we’ll look to squeeze out disproportionate performance in another stage we have more control over.

Build a scalable recurring revenue business with Databox

Watch our tutorial on how to design, build, and operate a scalable and sustainable recurring revenue business with Databox. More specifically, you’ll learn:

• How to track and visualize key metrics in your bow tie
• How to use comparison periods to identify problems or opportunities for improvement
• How to facilitate monthly and quarterly discussions by automating your reporting process

The post Driving Data-Driven Revenue Growth (w/ Roee Hartuv, Winning by Design) appeared first on Databox.

However, the right combination of tools can significantly streamline these processes, driving better results and allowing sales teams to focus on what they do best—closing deals. This blog will explore how integrating HubSpot and Databox can optimize your sales processes, providing real-time insights and automating key tasks to improve overall sales performance.

Understanding the Need for Streamlined Sales Processes

The Challenges of Traditional Sales Processes

Traditional sales processes often involve multiple manual steps, from data entry and lead tracking to follow-up communications and performance reporting. Sales reps spend a significant amount of time on administrative tasks rather than engaging with prospects. Additionally, disjointed communication between teams and lack of real-time data can lead to inefficiencies, making it difficult for sales managers to identify bottlenecks and optimize workflows.

The Benefits of Streamlining Sales Processes

Streamlining sales processes reduces the manual workload, enhances data accuracy, and improves decision-making. By automating repetitive tasks, sales teams can spend more time on value-added activities like building relationships and closing deals. A streamlined process also ensures that data flows seamlessly between different systems, providing sales managers with real-time insights that are crucial for making informed decisions. Ultimately, this leads to increased efficiency, higher conversion rates, and more predictable sales outcomes.

Leveraging HubSpot for Sales Process Optimization

HubSpot’s Role in Sales Management

HubSpot is renowned for its robust CRM and sales management tools that help teams manage leads, track deals, and automate sales workflows. HubSpot’s CRM allows sales teams to keep all their contacts, deals, and communications in one centralized platform. This not only improves organization but also ensures that every team member has access to the most up-to-date information. HubSpot’s pipeline management features allow sales managers to track the progress of deals in real time, while its automation tools help streamline repetitive tasks like follow-up emails, task reminders, and lead scoring.

Automating Sales Tasks with HubSpot

Automation is a game-changer in sales management, and HubSpot’s suite of tools excels in this area. With HubSpot, sales teams can automate a wide range of tasks, from sending personalized follow-up emails to scheduling meetings with prospects. HubSpot’s workflow automation can also trigger specific actions based on lead behavior, such as moving a deal to a new stage in the pipeline or notifying a sales rep to follow up with a hot lead. This reduces the risk of human error and ensures that no opportunity slips through the cracks.

Enhancing Lead Management with HubSpot

Effective lead management is crucial for driving sales success, and HubSpot’s CRM is designed to excel in this area. With HubSpot, sales teams can easily track and manage leads as they move through the sales funnel. The CRM allows for detailed segmentation, enabling sales reps to tailor their approach based on lead behavior, demographics, and engagement history. Additionally, HubSpot’s lead scoring system helps prioritize leads that are most likely to convert, ensuring that sales teams focus their efforts where it matters most.

Introducing Databox: Real-Time Analytics for Sales Teams

While HubSpot provides powerful tools for managing and automating sales processes, Databox takes things a step further by offering real-time analytics and reporting capabilities. Databox is a business analytics platform that enables sales teams to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and visualize data in real-time. With Databox, sales managers can create custom dashboards that pull data from HubSpot and other sources, providing a comprehensive view of sales performance. This allows for quicker decision-making and more effective management of the sales pipeline.

Key Benefits of Using Databox in Sales

The ability to monitor sales performance in real-time is invaluable for sales teams. Databox provides insights into key metrics such as deal velocity, win rates, and pipeline value, enabling sales managers to identify trends and make data-driven decisions. Databox’s custom reporting features allow for the creation of tailored reports that reflect the unique needs of a sales team, whether it’s tracking individual rep performance or monitoring the effectiveness of specific sales campaigns. With Databox, sales teams can quickly spot issues, optimize processes, and ensure they are on track to meet their targets.

The Power of Integration: HubSpot and Databox Together

Seamless Data Flow Between HubSpot and Databox

One of the key advantages of integrating HubSpot with Databox is the seamless data flow between the two platforms. This integration ensures that all relevant sales data from HubSpot is automatically synced with Databox, eliminating the need for manual data entry or importing/exporting files. This real-time syncing ensures that the dashboards and reports in Databox are always up-to-date, providing sales managers with the most accurate insights available.

Real-Time Sales Performance Monitoring

With the integration of HubSpot and Databox, sales teams can monitor their performance metrics in real-time. Databox’s customizable HubSpot dashboards allow sales managers to track the progress of deals, monitor rep performance, and assess the health of the sales pipeline. This real-time monitoring helps in making quick adjustments to strategies, reallocating resources, and addressing issues before they escalate. For example, if a particular sales campaign is underperforming, the integration allows for immediate analysis and course correction.

Customizing Sales KPIs with Databox

Every sales team has unique goals and challenges, and Databox’s ability to customize KPIs and dashboards ensures that the data tracked aligns with these specific objectives. Sales managers can create custom dashboards in Databox that pull data from HubSpot, reflecting the metrics that matter most to their team. Whether it’s tracking the number of new leads, the average deal size, or the conversion rate at each stage of the pipeline, Databox provides the flexibility to focus on the KPIs that drive success.

Practical Steps to Streamline Your Sales Process with HubSpot and Databox

1. Setting Up the Integration: The first step in streamlining your sales process with HubSpot and Databox is setting up the integration. This process is straightforward and involves connecting your HubSpot account to Databox through the Databox app or platform. Once connected, you can choose which data sources and metrics you want to sync, allowing Databox to pull the necessary information from HubSpot.

Learn how to connect HubSpot CRM to Databox in this guide.

2. Configuring Custom Dashboards and KPIs: After setting up the integration, the next step is to configure custom dashboards in Databox. Start by identifying the key metrics that align with your sales goals. For example, you might want to track metrics like deal velocity, win/loss ratio, and lead response time. Databox allows you to create dashboards that display these metrics in an easily digestible format, providing your team with the insights they need to optimize their efforts.

3. Automating Reports and Alerts: To ensure that your sales team stays on top of their performance, Databox offers the ability to automate reports and set up alerts. You can schedule automated reports to be sent to your team at regular intervals, providing them with updates on key metrics. Additionally, Databox’s alert system can notify sales managers when certain thresholds are met or if performance falls below a certain level. This proactive approach ensures that issues are addressed promptly and that your sales team remains aligned with their goals.

Conclusion

Streamlining sales processes is essential for maximizing efficiency and driving better results. By integrating HubSpot and Databox, sales teams can automate key tasks, monitor performance in real-time, and make data-driven decisions that enhance their overall effectiveness.

If you’re looking to optimize your sales processes and achieve similar results, consider integrating HubSpot and Databox into your sales strategy. These tools provide the perfect combination of CRM management and real-time analytics to help your team stay ahead of the competition.

For more information on how to get started with HubSpot and Databox, check out our integration guide and explore additional resources on our blog. 

The post Streamlining Sales Processes with HubSpot and Databox appeared first on Databox.

For most companies, that still means starting with a top-line number:
“How much revenue do we want to hit by the end of next year?”

But this raises two big questions:

1. How do you know what you’re likely to achieve from a sales perspective?
2. How can you craft a plan that’s actually realistic — and achievable — with your current team and resources?

In this issue, Dougie Loan (CRO at SourceWhale) shares his simple, but powerful, formula for crafting an accurate sales plan to help you hit your annual revenue goal.

Watch the interview with Dougie Loan

Or listen to it on Spotify or Apple.

The Problem with Headcount-Driven Growth

Like many SaaS companies, SourceWhale’s sales plans used to start with an annual growth target, ARR goal, and a hiring plan.
In other words: “We’ll hit the goal if we hire enough people.”

“Don’t believe that headcount equals growth. It’s the biggest mistake that I see all the time, and it’s common. Founders [will] have one or two salespeople that are doing well and then they’ll just say, ‘Well, if we just keep doing that and we have 100 salespeople, then life’s great, right?’”

But as Dougie quickly discovered, simply adding more people doesn’t mean performance goes up and to the right.

He needed a better way to identify which metrics (or levers) actually drove growth.

The 3-Lever Formula for More Accurate Sales Planning

Instead of building sales forecasts around headcount, Dougie’s team built their plan around three core metrics:

1. Qualified Held Meetings (QHM) – The number of booked meetings that actually happen and meet the qualification criteria.
2. Close Rate – The percentage of those opportunities that become customers.
3. Average Deal Value (ADV) – The average revenue generated per deal.

These three levers became the foundation for a simpler, more accurate forecast.

Here’s a basic example:

• 100 Qualified Held Meetings
• 30% Close Rate → 30 Closed/Won Deals
• $10,000 Average Deal Value
  
  → $300,000 in revenue

From there, the SourceWhale team could adjust one lever at a time to project how their results might change.

Want to model your own formula? Check out Databox’s Sales Forecast Dashboards.

Turning the Formula into a Forecast

In the past, Dougie’s team would set an ambitious revenue goal and then work backward. Now, they start with the data.

They analyze:

• The average number of Qualified Held Meetings per month (by region and source)
• The average Close Rate and Deal Value
• Their year-over-year change in each metric
  

From there, they model different growth scenarios — increasing one, two, or all three levers — to forecast revenue potential.

“It’s super easy to look at the data on a spreadsheet and say, yeah, sure, just get qualified held meetings up by 40%. Let’s just do that,” Dougie said.

“Where’s the plan to actually come and do that?”

Today, you can run this exact model directly in Databox Forecasts.

No spreadsheets. No guesswork. Just pick your metrics, model what-if scenarios, and visualize how small improvements translate into big growth.

Model your next sales plan with Forecast Modeling in Databox and see which levers will move your number before you lock in next year’s target.

From Forecasting to Execution: Aligning Teams with OKRs

Even the best forecast is useless without execution.
That’s where Databox OKR Software comes in.

Once your model is set, you can turn those three levers into measurable Objectives and Key Results (OKRs):

• Objective: Drive predictable sales growth in 2025
  
  • KR1: Increase Qualified Held Meetings by 15%
  • KR2: Improve Close Rate from 28% → 32%
  • KR3: Raise Average Deal Value by 10%
    

OKRs connect your strategy to day-to-day performance.

In Databox, you can link each KR to live data from your CRM, automatically track progress, and visualize how your team is pacing toward the goal.

This is how you turn planning into predictable scale — the same system we teach in our Predictable Scale course.

How SourceWhale Operationalizes It

At SourceWhale, this model became more than a planning tool — it became their operating system.

• They review these three levers weekly.
• Reps receive both a revenue leaderboard and a close-rate leaderboard.
• Marketing and Sales share credit (and comp) for Qualified Held Meetings booked through joint campaigns.
• Leaders adjust coaching, resource allocation, and R&D investments based on which lever needs attention.
  

Dougie’s team uses a 20-metric dashboard each Monday to check assumptions, monitor progress, and adjust as needed — exactly the kind of view you can create in Databox using Scorecards and Team Performance Dashboards.

Build Your Own 3-Lever Model in Databox

If you want to plan and execute like Dougie’s team, here’s how to start:

1. Build your 3-lever model in Databox using Qualified Held Meetings, Close Rate, and Average Deal Value metrics.
2. Forecast scenarios with Databox’s Forecast Modeling to see what’s realistic.
3. Set OKRs for each lever and monitor weekly performance.
4. Align your GTM team around shared visibility using Databoards and Scorecards.

When you stop guessing and start modeling, you can scale more predictably. No headcount spreadsheets required.

Use Databox to build and track custom metrics for your sales formula

With Databox, you can build custom metrics like Qualified Held Meetings, Average Deal Volume, and Close Rate to create your sales formula. See how.

Want more insights like this?

Follow the Move the Needle podcast for conversations with top GTM leaders who are redefining how teams plan, forecast, and scale.
Or explore more dashboards that make these levers visible in real time:

• Sales Forecast Dashboard Templates
• Pipeline Performance Dashboards
• Revenue Growth Dashboards

The post Why Headcount ≠ Growth: The Simple 3-Lever Sales Planning Formula Every CRO Needs (w/ Dougie Loan, SourceWhale) appeared first on Databox.

The right mix of inbound and outbound methods for your audience will keep a steady stream of leads and repeat customers flowing. But it can be difficult to find that balance in business-to-business (B2B) industries, where sales cycles last much longer than in the business-to-consumer (B2C) business world.

So, we teamed up with Growth Operations Firm to discover successful inbound and outbound B2B growth strategies. Together, we ran a survey and Benchmark Group to see what works in 2024. You can still join the partnered Benchmark Group to anonymously compare your HubSpot leads data as a manufacturing and professional service company with $10M to $250M in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

This blog post will examine the results from the survey and Benchmark Group, broken down into these categories:

• Growth Benchmarks for High-Achieving Manufacturing and Professional Service Companies
• Who Did We Survey?
• The State of Inbound and Outbound Growth in B2B
• What Growth Tactics Are Working for B2B Businesses?
• Where Will B2B Companies Invest in Their Future Inbound and Outbound Efforts?

Growth Benchmarks for High-Achieving Manufacturing and Professional Service Companies

The Growth Metrics Benchmark Group for High-Achieving Manufacturing and Professional Service Companies lets manufacturing and professional service companies with an ARR of $10M to $250M compare their HubSpot performance. Growth Operations Firm hosts this group to give these companies benchmarks to compare their HubSpot Marketing and HubSpot CRM metrics to.

The group currently has enough data for companies to compare their new leads in HubSpot Marketing. According to July 2024 data from 278 contributors, participants had a median number of 141.5 new leads for the month. But top performers in that group had a median of 647 new leads that month, showing plenty of room for growth.

Who Did We Survey?

120 companies from a variety of backgrounds took our survey on B2B growth methods. Let’s dig more into these backgrounds to see what part of the B2B industry they represent.

Just over half – 56.67% – of respondents work in their company’s marketing department, meaning a lot of the perspectives in this survey come from the marketing side of things.

The companies involved in this survey tend to be smaller, with more than half having 50 or fewer employees.

Many of the companies we surveyed have experience in their industries. Most of them have more than four years of operation, and an impressive 37.50% have more than ten years of operation.

The State of Inbound and Outbound Growth in B2B

What inbound and outbound strategies do B2B businesses use in 2024, and how well does each method work? We explored these questions in the closed-ended section of our survey.

Covering both inbound and outbound growth in this survey begs the question of which method is more effective. It seems that our respondents notice the most leads and conversions from inbound marketing, with 40.2% stating they get the best performance from inbound methods. You’ll also see that 31% got results from an equal mix of inbound and outbound tactics.

You can also see the impact of inbound marketing on B2B when we go into individual channels. Search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, and email marketing – three of the most popular inbound methods – were the top three channels for return on investment (ROI).

Inbound efforts also improved respondents’ sales processes. When we asked about the impact of marketing strategies on sales metrics like deals closed, content marketing, SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing were often the top contenders.

• Inbound Strategies
• Outbound Strategies
• Challenges

Inbound Strategies

Now that we know that inbound tactics tend to bring more growth for the companies in this survey, what strategies go into those tactics?

When we asked respondents about their primary goal for inbound marketing, more than 65% stated they want to generate quality leads.

Going a little deeper, the specific inbound tactics that contribute most to respondents’ growth are SEO and content marketing. Conversely, more than a third of respondents stated they don’t use webinars or influencer marketing at all.

According to survey respondents, the top factors contributing to their inbound success are content quality, audience targeting, and SEO performance.

Outbound Strategies

Even though inbound came out on top for B2B businesses, plenty of the companies we surveyed count on outbound efforts, too. Let’s see how they approach outbound marketing.

Respondents have the same top goal for outbound marketing as they do for inbound marketing – lead generation (43.68%). But in outbound’s case, driving sales is the second highest priority, with about a quarter considering it their primary goal.

Digging into the growth potential for specific tactics, cold email and paid advertising contribute the most to these companies’ growth.

In outbound marketing, our respondents consider target audience segmentation, message relevance, and message personalization the factors that contribute most to their growth.

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a popular outbound marketing tactic. The companies we surveyed mainly count on personalized content (65.12%), target account selection (60.47%), and marketing and sales alignment (53.49%) as best practices to follow in their ABM campaigns.

Survey respondents turn to some of the best-known tools in ABM to execute their strategies. 36% use Apollo.io, 34% use HubSpot ABM Features, 26% use Zoominfo, and 24% use Salesforce.

The ABM strategies and tools respondents prefer can take time and investment. Such dedicated strategies and advanced tools suggest that the companies we surveyed target high-value accounts through a focused and strategic approach.

Challenges

With so many tactics available, challenges with executing them can come up.

The companies we surveyed most often have challenges related to identifying and prioritizing target accounts, aligning sales and marketing, and personalizing at scale.

But while respondents have these troubles, they previously mentioned seeing positive ROI on many marketing activities. This trend suggests that while you have hurdles to face in your inbound and outbound efforts, you can still succeed with the right mix of marketing tactics.

What Growth Tactics Are Working for B2B Businesses?

While we covered what tactics work for B2B businesses on a broad level in our survey’s closed-ended questions, we can still go deeper by asking for individual stories. So, we also asked respondents to share success stories to see what tactics work best for them.

Here are three strategies that came up in those stories:

• Targeted Inbound Content
• Comprehensive SEO
• Transparent Pricing

Targeted Inbound Content

Some respondents backed up content’s effectiveness in driving growth. Specifically, developing content carefully targeted toward their audience brought in more leads, traffic, and conversions.

“One pivotal strategy that fueled the substantial growth of our B2B business involved harnessing the power of targeted inbound content,” says David Reid of VEM Group. “By creating highly relevant and valuable content tailored to the pain points and interests of our target audience, we established ourselves as thought leaders in the industry. This not only attracted organic traffic but also positioned us favorably in the minds of potential clients.”

Reid continues, “Through comprehensive SEO optimization and leveraging various content formats like blog posts, whitepapers, and webinars, we managed to establish a robust online presence. The inbound approach not only generated quality leads but also facilitated a smoother transition through the sales funnel, resulting in a notable increase in conversion rates.”

At First Aid at Work Course, Derek Bruce also found success in targeted content. Bruce says, “We initiated an all-encompassing strategy for inbound marketing; its core? Crafting and sharing stellar, insightful content across diverse platforms — including blogs, whitepapers, and webinars. Our approach positioned us not only as thought leaders in workplace safety but also noticeably boosted our online presence—thereby directing a consistent flow of leads to our business.”

The key was a focus on the audience’s needs. “Our consistent focus on clients’ pain points and challenges fostered trust and built lasting relationships; notably, our ‘First Aid Readiness’ campaign—offering a complimentary on-site assessment of first aid preparedness—achieved profound audience resonance through targeted email marketing and social media, culminating in a 45% surge in qualified leads and a 30% increase in course enrollments within half a year,” Bruce says.

Comprehensive SEO

SEO goes deeper than on-page optimization. While you can optimize a page as much as possible, your website’s code and outside links also play a role. These respondents went all-in on SEO to attract new leads and conversions.

The SEO Works practiced what they preach – good SEO – and improved their exposure and conversion. Let Alex Myers explain:

“Our search engine optimisation has helped us to effectively reach new audiences and increase our number of good quality leads. Utilising market-leading technical, content, and link-building practices, we have developed a high number of top 3 rankings in key commercial terms. By coupling this with effective brand building on other channels to help lead nurturing and effective linking of sales and marketing, we have also increased closure rate on these leads, leading to a very strong ROI and impressive business growth.”

Alex Myers

Head of Marketing at The SEO Works

Want to get highlighted in our next report? Become a contributor now

Related reading: Conduct a DIY Technical SEO Audit with These 17 Questions | Databox 

The Digital Hitmen team invested in good backlinks to get better leads and rankings. Brad Russell says, “We’ve always relied on SEO marketing strategies to facilitate our brand awareness. One of them that has been successful is the strategy of gaining backlinks for our brand. We utilized sources like HARO, Featured, and Qwoted to seize the attention of journalists and blog writers.”

Russell continues, “Many of our brand’s executives gave unique and pertinent answers to their queries. When they posted our answers on media outlets with high DR rates, we could highlight our expertise to a large base of target clients. By clicking the backlinks, they could directly reach the website of our brand. Besides raising the data traffic of our website, it helped us to attain many new clients. We could also heighten our website’s SERP rankings.”

You can learn more about getting backlinks for your brand in our Link Building 101 guide. Digital Hitmen’s strategy is just one way to build links.

Transparent Pricing

One respondent brought up a less-talked-about but still crucial tactic in inbound marketing: how they share pricing. While you’ll find all sorts of opinions about pricing transparency out there, keeping your pricing clear can build a smoother funnel for your company.

Here’s how Laura Grant and the BlueSky Solutions team approach pricing to drive growth:

“Most potential customers (even those that have received a ‘cold call’) will want to visit your website, check the credibility of the brand, and ensure the price they are being offered is competitive. For this reason, we have tried to be as transparent as we can when it comes to pricing at different wholesale volumes. Displaying the prices in an easily comprehensible format has decreased bounce rates, and increased our order volume and conversion rates.”

Laura Grant

Senior Marketing Manager at Bluesky Solutions

Want to get highlighted in our next report? Become a contributor now

Where Will B2B Companies Invest in Their Future Inbound and Outbound Efforts?

Now that we know what worked in the past, it’s time to apply that knowledge to future strategies. We also asked survey participants about their future inbound and outbound plans and their reasoning behind them to guide B2B businesses. These three tactics appeared in their answers:

• Quality Over Quantity in Inbound Marketing
• Complementary Inbound and Outbound Efforts
• AI Data Mining for Outbound and Inbound Marketing

Quality Over Quantity in Inbound Marketing

Two respondents want to focus on quality over quantity in their inbound marketing for their B2B businesses moving forward.

For Foundation Collective’s Laura Brooks, this principle extends to client relationships:

“I have found that the most important factor in identifying success is to align expectations with clients. This means I should only be saying yes to work where I truly feel I can make an impact and my output will be valued. This also means getting tight on my targeting and not being afraid to say no if it’s not a perfect fit for work style or expectations.”

Laura Brooks

Co-Founder & Principal Consultant at Foundation Collective

Want to get highlighted in our next report? Become a contributor now

Brooks wants to expand sustainably in other ways, too. “When considering expansion, I need to first ensure that we are appropriately staffed to take on the extra workload and scale. From there, my focus will be on quality, not quantity. I believe we can best do this through content marketing because it’s a way to educate and demonstrate our value. From there, we can better attract leads who understand our mission and can see how we fit their overall strategy,” Brooks says.

After trying high-scale outbound tactics, Sunny Arora and the Broadcast2World team are turning to quality-focused inbound marketing. “So outbound is getting difficult with time; Gmail has become strict with bulk emailing in [the last] year. But we have realised if you are looking for consistent growth, inbound marketing is going to be the key.”

Arora continues, “When we started with inbound, we were only focussing on building good quality content, but we analysed that without link building, it’s not giving us enough results. So now we are focussing our energies on link-building strategies as well. Especially creating linkable assets that are unique and original to our company.”

Complementary Inbound and Outbound Efforts

A few respondents plan on combining their inbound and outbound efforts to reach a variety of people in their audiences. This approach will help them diversify their channels and find leads they wouldn’t be able to by sticking to just inbound or outbound.

“Looking ahead, our company plans to continue investing in both inbound and outbound marketing strategies,” says VEM Medical’s Derrick Hathaway. “The rationale behind this decision lies in the recognition of the complementary nature of these approaches. Inbound strategies, such as content marketing and SEO, continue to be instrumental in attracting qualified leads organically. On the other hand, outbound strategies, like targeted email campaigns and personalized outreach, allow us to actively engage with potential clients.”

Here’s how VEM Medical will tackle this approach: “The allocation of resources will be influenced by the evolving dynamics of our industry and the specific needs of our target audience. We aim to strike a balance between digital channels and traditional methods, ensuring a comprehensive and adaptable marketing strategy. This balanced approach is crucial to reaching diverse segments of our market effectively.”

C Shakhawat Sultan explains how Code Rex will invest in inbound and outbound equally to maximize its reach:

“We will have an equal distribution of resources on both inbound and outbound marketing. We will work on SEO, content marketing, and video promotion, while also conducting email marketing, lead generation, and sales campaigns. At the same time, we will resort to collaborations with other companies, influencer partnerships, and affiliate promotions. They both will contribute to the overall growth and reach of our products.”

According to Diana Zheng, Stallion Express also wants to mix inbound and outbound tactics moving forward. Zheng says, “We’ll continue to invest in inbound strategies, especially SEO and content creation, as the importance of organic search continues to grow. Our goal is to improve online discoverability and offer valuable resources to prospective clients.”

Zheng continues, “We’ll also continue to refine our outbound efforts, providing personalized communication to reach and engage our target audience. The allocation of resources is driven by the need to maintain a balanced approach, combining digital and traditional channels for a holistic and effective marketing mix.”

AI Data Mining for Outbound and Inbound Marketing

One company we surveyed plans on using AI data mining to improve its inbound and outbound efforts.

Tom Vota of Gotomyerp says, “We planned to invest in AI tools for robust advanced data mining. The data mining will help us to hyper-personalize our emails. It will help us convert our leads into customers. We will also be able to retain our old customers.”

Gauge Your B2B Growth With Our Partnered Benchmark Group

While popular inbound strategies like SEO and content marketing reign supreme in B2B, outbound tactics like cold email and ABM can reach parts of your audience you could miss with inbound. Finding the best methods for your team will take careful monitoring of your data to see where you get traction.

One way to improve your B2B growth is to watch how your metrics compare to others in your industry. If you work for a manufacturing or professional service company with $10M to $250M in ARR, you can join Growth Metrics Benchmark Group for High-Achieving Manufacturing and Professional Service Companies. There, you can anonymously share your data to get group-wide HubSpot performance trends.

It’s free – you just need a Databox account with the relevant metrics linked.

The post What Are the Best Inbound and Outbound B2B Growth Strategies in 2024? appeared first on Databox.

Finding the right prospects on LinkedIn can feel like searching for a needle in a digital haystack. Well, LinkedIn Sales Navigator promises to be the magnet that attracts those needles – but only if you know how to leverage it properly.

Many sales professionals and businesses invest in this premium tool, hoping it will improve their prospecting efforts. Yet, too often, they find themselves overwhelmed by its features or underwhelmed by their results.

So, what separates the power users from the casual scrollers? What strategies and tactics are truly moving the needle when it comes to using LinkedIn Sales Navigator for prospecting?

That’s exactly what we set out to uncover in our latest research project.

In collaboration with Real Inbound and other partners, we surveyed over 100 companies across various industries to gain deep insights into how they’re leveraging LinkedIn Sales Navigator to supercharge their prospecting.

Let’s check out what they had to say:

• What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
• Organic and Paid LinkedIn Performance Benchmarks for All Companies
• How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Prospecting: Key Findings
• Most Effective Personalization Strategies on LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• Clever Ways to Integrate LinkedIn Sales Navigator with CRM and Sales Tools
• Most Underutilized LinkedIn Sales Navigator Features
• Stay on Top of Your LinkedIn Performance Using Databox

What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium tool that’s designed to help sales professionals find, connect with, and manage potential leads more effectively using advanced search filters and personalized recommendations within the LinkedIn platform.

It offers features like lead and account tracking, CRM integration, and real-time insights to streamline the prospecting process.

Organic and Paid LinkedIn Performance Benchmarks for All Companies

We collected a lot of actionable insights in our report – but we’ve also gathered some amazing data in the exclusive Organic and Paid LinkedIn Performance Benchmarks for All Companies.

This is a new Benchmark Group where companies can check out the current values of some of the most popular LinkedIn performance metrics.

Want a glimpse into some of the benchmark insights from the group?

Let’s talk about unique impressions first.

According to data provided by the Benchmark Group Organic and Paid LinkedIn Performance Benchmarks for All Companies, there were 1.61k unique impressions in July 2024 (median, 1539 contributors).

However, top performers had 5.77k unique impressions in the same period, which indicates that there’s a lot of room for improvement.

Similar results apply for Clicks, with a median of 146.5 clicks in that same period.

As for, total engagements, there were a total of 5.4k in that period, while top performers saw 15.27k during the same time span.

If you want more benchmark data like this, you can join the Benchmark Group Organic and Paid LinkedIn Performance Benchmarks for All Companies for free. All you have to do is connect your data sources to join (which is 100% anonymous for everyone involved).

How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Prospecting: Key Findings

Now that we’ve covered the benchmark data, let’s check out some of the direct stats we pulled up from our survey.

For starters – how many companies actually use LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

When asked, 67.52% of the respondents stated that they have 1-5 people from their company using LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

As for specific departments, most companies stated that Sales (82.24%) and Marketing (68.22%) use LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

We also asked companies how tightly managed their use of LinkedIn Sales Navigator is for sales prospecting.

More than half stated that they have a set of recommended strategies, but individual approaches may vary. 26.17% of the companies replied that they have a well-defined strategy and playbook that everyone follows.

When it comes to strategies companies employ in order to engage their prospects on LinkedIn, most of our respondents selected:

• Sending personalized direct messages (80.37%)
• Commenting on your prospects’ posts (54.21%)
• Liking and sharing your prospects’ posts (52.34%)
• Sending customized connection requests (51.40%)

Next up, we wanted to know how they use the tool to find their ideal prospects.

It turns out that the largest portion of the respondents primarily identify their ideal prospects by Applying advanced search filters (35.51%) and Using specific keywords (e.g., job titles, industries) (35.51%).

As for the most effective search filter in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, 38.32% of the respondents voted for ‘Function’.

When it comes to ways companies primarily manage their lead lists in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, 50.47% Use CRM integration.

Most of our respondents utilize LinkedIn Sales Navigator to convert prospects into customers with regular, personalized follow-ups (67.29%), and by demonstrating product or service expertise through educational content (52.34%).

The features or tactics most of our respondents successfully used with LinkedIn Sales Navigator are Lead recommendations (58.88%) and Saved searches (55.14%).

When it comes to effectiveness, most respondents think that LinkedIn Sales Navigator is better compared to other prospecting tools they have used.

They also stated that it increased their sales prospecting or lead generation results.

We also asked the respondents which one would they keep, if they had to choose between using LinkedIn Sales Navigator and their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system – 50.5% opted for CRM.

Based on these answers and statistics, we came to several conclusions.

First, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is predominantly used by sales and marketing departments, reflecting its strong alignment with these functions. This highlights its role as a crucial tool for prospecting and engagement in these areas.

While a significant portion of companies have a well-defined strategy and playbook for using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, more than half operate with recommended strategies but allow individual variations.

This suggests a balance between structured approaches and personalized tactics within organizations.

And despite recognizing the value and efficiency of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, companies appear to underutilize its features. Most of the respondents reported successfully using only 2 out of 9 offered tactics and 2 out of 10 methods for converting prospects into customers. This points to a potential area for improvement in maximizing the tool’s capabilities.

Most Effective Personalization Strategies on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

To truly maximize LinkedIn Sales Navigator, personalization is key.

You need to tailor your outreach and engagement strategies, so you can build stronger connections with prospects and drive sales outcomes.

Below, we’ll check out the strategies our respondents recommended:

• Personalizing Outreach Messages by Doing Research on Each Lead
• Ask Connections for Specific Introductions
• Get Involved in LinkedIn Group Conversations
• Leverage Lead Data and Insights

Personalizing Outreach Messages by Doing Research on Each Lead

Personalizing your outreach by doing a bit of research on each lead can be a game-changer.

When you tailor your messages to the prospect’s specific needs, it shows you’ve taken the time to understand what they care about, which makes them more likely to respond.

Plus, in a sea of generic messages, yours will stand out, helping you build rapport faster. In the end, it’s about connecting with them on a level that really matters.

Arum Karunianti of Voisse is one of our respondents who uses this approach:

“As a digital marketing manager, I’ve found that personalizing outreach on LinkedIn Sales Navigator is crucial for engagement and conversion. One effective strategy I use is researching each lead thoroughly before reaching out. This includes understanding their company, industry challenges, and personal interests or achievements.

For example, I recently connected with a lead who works in the fintech sector. In my message, I referenced a recent industry report they published and how our services could support their upcoming product launch based on their LinkedIn updates. This personalized approach not only shows genuine interest but also increases the likelihood of a positive response and further conversation.”

However, are personalized messages enough to seal the deal?

Chris Cozzolino of Uptown Creation believes that relevant messages might be an even better alternative to personalized ones.

“From my experience, relevant messages outperform personalized messages. If a message isn’t relevant to a well-targeted audience then the message will flop – even with the best personalization. We use tools like Clay.com to create robust waterfalls for personalization; however, this is ONLY to achieve a lift in responses once we find a relevant message that performs.”

Chris Cozzolino

CEO at Uptown Creation

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Ask Connections for Specific Introductions

With this strategy, you can leverage your existing network to get warm introductions and bypass cold outreach. It also allows you to reach decision-makers who might otherwise be difficult to connect with directly.

Moreover, a personal introduction provides more context to your outreach, potentially opening doors to meaningful conversations that might not have occurred through cold prospecting alone.

Ed Marsh of Ed Marsh Consulting shared his strategy for getting introductions with decision-makers:

“I create a saved search with a target ICP, narrowing it to 1st-degree connections of a specific 1st-degree of mine. Then I jump on a quick Zoom call with my 1st degree and ask for specific introductions to a few of them. I provide suggested text for a 3-way LinkedIn message they can send that creates the connection but doesn’t wander into them trying to sell me.”

Get Involved in LinkedIn Group Conversations

When you start actively participating in relevant discussions, you can organically expand your network on LinkedIn and connect with potential leads who share similar interests or views.

This approach positions you as a helpful resource rather than just a salesperson who’s only interested in closing deals.

Irene Graham of Spylix says that she “discovered that becoming involved in group conversations is really beneficial. It’s similar to walking into a space where possible customers congregate.”

“You begin to automatically establish relationships by exchanging ideas, responding to inquiries, and participating in their posts. I once joined a group for marketing experts, for instance, and there I shared a useful piece about content strategy.”

Leverage Lead Data and Insights

LinkedIn Sales Navigator data allows you to make informed decisions about who to target and how to approach them.

You can use this data to prioritize leads that are more likely to be interested in your offer and tailor your messaging based on their specific roles, industries, and behaviors.

Cristina Mihalache of Republic Marketing shared their process for this strategy:

“We begin by thoroughly analyzing the lead’s profile, including recent activity, professional achievements, and recent posts. Then, we tailor our messages to reflect a genuine interest and relevancy.

For instance, when reaching out to a potential client in the legal sector, we noticed that they consistently commented on posts about site speed improvements. We then tailored our outreach message to include a direct reference to that discussion and shared exclusive content instead of just sending a link to a publicly available blog.”

PRO TIP: Need an easier way to track your LinkedIn metrics? Try out our free LinkedIn Company Page Engagement Dashboard to collect all the important insights in one place. From ad performance to company pageviews, you can have all of this data in a real-time screen that you and your team can check out instantly.

Clever Ways to Integrate LinkedIn Sales Navigator with CRM and Sales Tools

Integrating LinkedIn Sales Navigator with your CRM and sales tools can streamline your workflow and drastically improve your sales process – but there are different ways to do it.

Let’s explore some clever integration strategies that top-performing companies are implementing.

• Syncing Lead and Contact Data Directly
• Build Lists in Sales Navigator and Then Move Them to CRM
• Using Zoho’s CRM Extension
• Transfer Leads to CRM Only After They Take Certain Actions in Sales Navigator

Syncing Lead and Contact Data Directly

With direct lead data syncing, you can automatically update your CRM with the latest information from Sales Navigator, ensuring your team always has access to real-time, accurate data. You also eliminate manual errors and save time for your team.

Moreover, this synchronization enables you to fill your CRM profiles with valuable insights from LinkedIn, such as job changes, company updates, and shared connections.

Jonathan Feniak of LLC Attorney shares that they “integrate LinkedIn Sales Navigator with our CRM system by syncing lead and contact data directly, which allows us to maintain updated records of all interactions.”

“This integration helps us track the status of each lead throughout the sales process. For example, after connecting with a lead on LinkedIn, all relevant information is automatically transferred to our CRM. This seamless transition ensures that no details are lost and that we can continue nurturing these relationships effectively.”

Build Lists in Sales Navigator and Then Move Them to CRM

This approach allows you to leverage Sales Navigator’s robust filters to create highly targeted prospect lists based on more specific criteria.

Once you’ve curated these lists, you can transfer them directly to your CRM to organize and prioritize your outreach efforts more effectively.

Reed Daniels of Rail Trip Strategies says that they use this approach for integration:

“We build lead lists in Sales Navigator and import them into our CRM. In our CRM we manage all of our outreach and follow-up tasks. We use both tools hand in hand.”

PRO TIP: Do you use HubSpot for your marketing CRM needs? Instead of juggling through HubSpot’s complex reporting tools, you can download our free HubSpot Marketing Performance Dashboard and get all the data you need in a single dashboard. You can track everything from website engagements and sessions to specific page conversion rates.

Using Zoho’s CRM Extension

Zoho lets sales professionals access and update Zoho CRM data directly from LinkedIn profiles, which both saves time and keeps information consistent.

You can add new leads to your CRM, update contact details, and track interactions without leaving even LinkedIn. The extension also displays your CRM data alongside LinkedIn profiles, giving you a fuller view of each prospect.

Garrett Yamasaki of We Love Doodles shared their approach to connecting the Sales Navigator to Zoho:

“The process begins by installing the LinkedIn Sales Navigator extension in Zoho CRM, which you can get from the Zoho Marketplace. Once installed, this extension provides a LinkedIn profile sidebar within Zoho CRM. This sidebar gives insights into a lead’s LinkedIn activity, mutual connections, and shared interests. With this information readily available, I can create highly personalized messages and follow-ups based on real-time LinkedIn data.”

According to David Reid of VEM Tooling, Salesforce offers similar capabilities:

“Integration with CRM systems such as Salesforce allows the capture of insight about the customer from LinkedIn and synchronizes with the contact record. Through LinkedIn profile integration, one is able to see leads from a new perspective depending on the engagement level. This also eliminates having to enter data manually, which would otherwise take time when using conventional means.”

Transfer Leads to CRM Only After They Take Certain Actions in Sales Navigator

Transferring leads to your CRM only after they take specific actions is a smart way to prioritize your prospecting efforts. This way, you can focus on leads that have shown genuine interest in your offer.

For example, you might set up your integration to transfer a lead to your CRM when they view your profile, accept your connection request, or engage with your content.

As Tony Dowling of Real Inbound puts it, “leads are only transferred to CRM when qualified by the actions taken in Sales Navigator. So the protecting and qualification is done LinkedIn side before I create a contact and maybe a deal in HubSpot.”

Most Underutilized LinkedIn Sales Navigator Features

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is packed with powerful features, but many users aren’t taking full advantage of its capabilities.

Let’s check out some of the most underutilized features that could improve your prospecting efforts and help you find hidden opportunities.

• The Persona Filter
• Notes and Tags Tool
• TeamLink Extension
• Relationship Map

The Persona Filter

The Persona Filter allows you to apply specific filters based on detailed buyer personas, helping you zero in on leads that match your ideal customer profile.

You can define personas based on things like job title, seniority, industry, and more.

 Martin Gasparian of Maison Law says that he believes that “people don’t often recognize the Persona filter as a means to connect with more people.”

“You can use this filter to find high-quality leads, all you need to do is set up different personas that match the qualities of the clients you’re looking for. Defining your target persona is simple, you just have to know what you’re looking for and integrate that into a persona. For example, you’re looking for clients who may need some help with marketing.

Through the Persona filter, you can craft one that appeals to small businesses that may not have the best marketing setup. Perhaps their profile is too challenging to find or they aren’t using keywords as much as they should be. So long as you know that’s who your target audience is, you can make a persona to appeal to them.”

Notes and Tags Tool

With this feature, you can add notes to individual profiles and save important reminders for future reference. Tags enable you to categorize leads based on specific criteria, making it easier to segment and track your prospects.

Together, these tools help you stay organized, personalize your outreach, and keep all your important information in one place.

Derrick Hathaway of VEM Medical says that “the Notes and Tags tool is one that is, in my opinion, greatly underutilized.”

“You can tag leads for simple categorization and add customized remarks about them. This option, which many people ignore, is quite helpful for recording talks and customizing subsequent interactions.”

Daniel Lewis of LegalOn Technologies also says that “many people don’t make the most of the ‘Notes’ section in LinkedIn Sales Navigator.”

“It’s like a virtual notepad where you can write down important details about the people you’re connecting with. For example, you can remember things from your past conversations or details about their company. Using this feature helps you have more personalized and meaningful interactions because you can refer back to what you’ve noted.”

Daniel Lewis

CEO at LegalOn Technologies

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TeamLink Extension

The TeamLink extension shows you how your colleagues are connected to prospects, even if you’re not directly connected to them yourself.

You can then ask for warm introductions, making it easier to start conversations with potential clients.

Andre Oentoro of Breadnbeyond noted this tool as one of the most underutilized ones and said that their team uses it to “leverage team networks for warm introductions.”

Thomas Medlin of JumpMD also says that “TeamLink can be a game-changer but is often overlooked.”

“It leverages connections across your entire team to find the best path to a lead, enhancing the chances of a warm introduction. The advanced search filters are powerful yet underused. Filters like ‘Company headcount growth’ or ‘Leads who follow your company’ can help identify high-potential leads.”

Relationship Map

The Relationship Map feature in LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a visual tool that helps you map out and understand the key connections within a target account.

You can see the hierarchy of decision-makers and get direct insights into how they interact within the organization.

It’s primarily designed to help you identify opportunities to engage with multiple stakeholders, which reduces the risk of stalled deals if key relationships change.

Mateusz Calik of Delante says that he thinks that “an underutilized feature is the relationship map, which could have a great potential, but feels like it’s not.”

“To me, it still lacks the proper UX, and the UI is not the easiest one to navigate either. It works better with bigger companies, where such map can be created, but we never got a hang of it.”

Stay on Top of Your LinkedIn Performance Using Databox

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is one of the most powerful tools modern companies can use for B2B prospecting – but like any tool, its effectiveness lies in how you use it.

The strategies we’ve explored, from engaging with prospects through personalized messages to using some of the lesser-known tools, can significantly help your prospecting efforts.

However, the question remains – how do you know if you’re truly maximizing LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s potential?

This is where data-driven insights become crucial, and it’s where Databox’s Benchmark Groups step in.

With our Organic and Paid LinkedIn Performance Benchmarks for All Companies group, you can gain real-time insights into how other companies are performing with their LinkedIn Sales Navigator strategies.

Are your connection rates on par with industry leaders? How does your engagement compare to others in your field? Now you can know for certain. You’ll be able to instantly see how your LinkedIn Sales Navigator efforts stack up against your peers.

And that’s not all. You also get access to Databox Dashboards where you can combine your insights to get a comprehensive, real-time view of your most critical metrics, all in one place.

So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for a free trial and take Databox for a spin!

The post What’s the Most Effective Way to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Prospecting [Insights from 100+ Companies] appeared first on Databox.

But what is it that sets highly successful small business owners and entrepreneurs apart in their sales approach? Are there specific habits or strategies they employ that drive their success?

the nuanced approaches that successful entrepreneurs use can provide a roadmap for others looking to improve their own sales processes.

To get a comprehensive understanding, we partnered with Unbound Growth to survey 183 successful small business owners and entrepreneurs. We wanted to uncover the habits, strategies, and tools that contribute to their impressive sales performance.

From leveraging AI technology and automation to mastering the art of personalized customer engagement, the insights we gathered offer a valuable look into what truly works when it comes to small business sales.

Check out our findings to learn the secrets of these top-performing entrepreneurs and see how you can apply their habits to your own business:

• Who Did We Survey
• Sales Benchmarks for B2B Business Owners Who Sell
• 5 Go-To Sales Habits for Closing Deals
• Key Tactics to Implement for Scaling Small Business Sales
• Stay on Top of Your Sales Strategies and KPIs with Databox  

Who Did We Survey

For this report, we partnered up with Unbound Growth and surveyed 183 small business owners and entrepreneurs since July 2023 – and the survey is still open.

The companies we surveyed shared the following employee numbers:

• 48.72% are companies with 1-10 employees
• 25% are 10-25 employees
• 26.28% are 25-50 employees

And for most of the companies we surveyed, the approximate annual revenue per employee is under $100,000. 

If you’re a B2B business owner, you can join the exclusive Sales Benchmarks for B2B Business Owners who Sell benchmark group for free. All benchmark data shared within the group is anonymized.

And if you’re interested in other benchmarks aside from just sales, you can join Benchmark Groups for free and find the groups most relevant to your company and niche. We have insights on everything from sales and marketing to finance and accounting.

Sales Benchmarks for B2B Business Owners Who Sell

During our research, we received a ton of valuable insight from our respondents – both direct feedback on certain strategies and through surveys (which we’ll go over below).

But first one question – what is sales even?

Almost 70% of the surveyed companies agree that “sales is about collaborating with a prospect to identify whether and how my solutions can address their needs.”

Now, one of the first things we wanted to know was how much time these entrepreneurs spent on sales, and we found that most of our respondents personally spend between 6 and 20 hours per week on sales activities.

For the majority of our respondents, the biggest chunk of their selling time is spent on marketing activities.

What about their goals?

Well, about ⅓ of the respondents agreed that they have personal, business, and sales goals that motivate them. On the other hand, about 22% of the respondents stated that they have defined and written down their personal, business, and sales goals. 

When it comes to parts of the sales process respondents have documented with a full description of how they execute it, most of them selected:

• Prospecting to connect with potential buyers (54.2%)
• Definition of your ideal customer profile (52.67%)
• Presentation to demonstrate how your solution addresses your prospects’ needs (51.91%)

Almost 10% haven’t documented any of the processes we listed.

We also presented several statements to our respondents and asked them to choose which one was the most accurate for their business.

Most respondents selected this sentence as the most accurate for their business: My clients/customers know they need a product or service like mine and are in the process of choosing one.

Interestingly, we found that there’s only one activity most of our respondents are very confident doing – discovering a buyer’s needs!

Lastly, we talked about lead generation activities and which ones they’re investing the most money in currently.

Most of the surveyed companies are currently investing in the following lead-generation activities:

• SEO (71.76%)
• Website (67.94%)
• Social media posting, commenting, direct messaging (61.83%)
• Email marketing (61.07%)

We also pulled up a few interesting sales insights from our benchmark groups for you to check out.

According to data provided by Benchmark Group Sales Benchmarks for B2B Business Owners who Sell (the group is for companies with 1-10 employees), there were 51 leads on April 24 (median, 279 contributors). However, top performers had 299 new leads in the same period (also median).

According to the same group, there were 19 deals created on April 24 (median value, 134 contributors). The top performers had 101 deals created in the same period (also median).

Want more sales benchmarks like these to compare your performance with? Then make sure you join our exclusive Sales Benchmarks for B2B Business Owners who Sell benchmark group for free.

Instantly and Anonymously Benchmark Your Company’s Performance Against Others Just Like You

If you ever asked yourself:

• How does our marketing stack up against our competitors?
• Are our salespeople as productive as reps from similar companies?
• Are our profit margins as high as our peers?

Databox Benchmark Groups can finally help you answer these questions and discover how your company measures up against similar companies based on your KPIs.

When you join Benchmark Groups, you will:

• Get instant, up-to-date data on how your company stacks up against similar companies based on the metrics most important to you. Explore benchmarks for dozens of metrics, built on anonymized data from thousands of companies and get a full 360° view of your company’s KPIs across sales, marketing, finance, and more.
• Understand where your business excels and where you may be falling behind so you can shift to what will make the biggest impact. Leverage industry insights to set more effective, competitive business strategies. Explore where exactly you have room for growth within your business based on objective market data.
• Keep your clients happy by using data to back up your expertise. Show your clients where you’re helping them overperform against similar companies. Use the data to show prospects where they really are… and the potential of where they could be.
• Get a valuable asset for improving yearly and quarterly planning. Get valuable insights into areas that need more work. Gain more context for strategic planning.

The best part?

• Benchmark Groups are free to access.
• The data is 100% anonymized. No other company will be able to see your performance, and you won’t be able to see the performance of individual companies either.

When it comes to showing you how your performance compares to others, here is what it might look like for the metric Average Session Duration:

And here is an example of an open group you could join:

And this is just a fraction of what you’ll get. With Databox Benchmarks, you will need only one spot to see how all of your teams stack up — marketing, sales, customer service, product development, finance, and more. 

• Choose criteria so that the Benchmark is calculated using only companies like yours
• Narrow the benchmark sample using criteria that describe your company
• Display benchmarks right on your Databox dashboards

Sounds like something you want to try out? Join a Databox Benchmark Group today!

START BENCHMARKING

5 Go-To Sales Habits for Closing Deals

OK – so we’ve covered some of the most important survey findings and sales benchmarks from our survey.

Now, it’s time we talk about the specific sales habits our respondents use to close deals successfully.

• Reaching Out to Prospects Directly on LinkedIn
• Offering Free Consultation Calls to New Prospects
• Building a Presence on LinkedIn
• Data-Driven Insights Combined with Personalized Client Engagement
• Create Niche Webinars for Your Industry

Reaching Out to Prospects Directly on LinkedIn

LinkedIn provides direct access to key decision-makers across various industries.

By reaching out directly, sales professionals can bypass the “gatekeepers” and connect with those who have the authority to make purchasing decisions.

This direct line to decision-makers significantly shortens the sales cycle and increases your chances of closing deals.

Farhan Siraj of OSHA Outreach Courses says that he’s experienced “a great degree of success by approaching prospects through LinkedIn messages”

“I reach out to fellow business owners or managers who may need our online courses. Even if I don’t secure an immediate sale, I focus on building a connection and sharing some free resources with them, such as study guides. In many instances, I receive word from them after a few months, expressing their interest in signing up for my platform.

Offering Free Consultation Calls to New Prospects

Free consultation calls provide an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and show the prospect that you really do understand their needs. This way, you’re building trust and establishing credibility which is essential in getting them to convert.

What’s more, you get a personal interaction, which is often more impactful than using email or some other form of digital communication.

Alex Williams of The HubSpot Expert shares his approach:

“I offer a free 30-minute consultation to all new prospects, during which we explore their challenges and how my services can help address them. I also use these sessions to offer any advice that might be immediately beneficial to them, even if it doesn’t result in a sale. I’ve found that even if a prospect doesn’t choose to work with me at that moment in time, they come back to me later because they know I’ll offer them value.”

Alex Williams

Founder at The HubSpot Expert

Want to get highlighted in our next report? Become a contributor now

Building a Presence on LinkedIn

A well-crafted LinkedIn profile, coupled with regular content sharing, is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an authority in your field.

You can share industry insights and thought leadership articles, and engage with relevant content you’re your connections to demonstrate your expertise. This makes prospects more likely to trust your recommendations and consider your offers.

Chris Lloyd of Chris Lloyd Marketing is one of our respondents who talked about this strategy:

“LinkedIn – generated content marketing opportunities and leads in less than 2 weeks of building my presence. I comment on others’ posts 3x a day and post 3x a week. Other people’s posts need to have been posted within the last 24 hours, had a lot of engagement and the author responds to comments.”

PRO TIP: Are you active on your LinkedIn’s company page? If so, you can download our free LinkedIn Company Page Engagement Dashboard to track all of your most relevant engagement metrics in one place. You’ll have everything from clicks and comments to impressions and followers on one simple dashboard.

Data-Driven Insights Combined with Personalized Client Engagement

Data-driven insights help you gain a deeper understanding of your clients’ behaviors, preferences, and pain points.

You can analyze this data from various sources – such as CRM systems, social media, and website analytics, to identify patterns and trends that reveal what your clients truly need.

And when you combine data-driven insights with personalized engagement, you can create highly relevant interactions that resonate with your clients. Personalization can range from addressing clients by their names to offering customized solutions based on their past interactions and preferences.

Here’s what Dominik Maka of TOP10 Agency had to say about this sales strategy:

“One part of our sales and marketing process that has proven exceptionally effective is our data-driven approach combined with personalized client engagement. Given my extensive background in SEO/SEM, I’ve always believed in the power of data to guide decisions. We utilize advanced analytics to identify potential leads and segment our audience based on their specific needs and preferences. Once we have this information, we tailor our pitches and marketing materials to resonate with each segment. This personalized approach has not only improved our conversion rates but has also fostered trust and loyalty among our clients. A testament to its effectiveness is the consistent 300% average ROI we’ve been able to deliver, especially for our client campaigns.”

For personalized engagement, another tactic you can use is personalized email outreach.

This is what helped Simon Brisk of Click Intelligence increase response rates:

“One part of my sales and marketing process that works well is personalized email outreach. By crafting highly tailored and relevant emails to potential clients, I’ve achieved a significant increase in response rates. This approach involves thorough research on each prospect’s needs and pain points.

This enables me to create compelling messages. As a result, my email campaigns have consistently outperformed industry averages. It has an average open rate of 40% and a conversion rate of 15%. This personalized outreach has boosted sales. It has also fostered stronger client relationships.”

Carole Mahoney of Unbound Growth emphasizes the importance of researching buyers to enhance personalized interactions:

“Research, research , research! Don’t assume you know everything there is to know about your buyers. Research their LinkedIn profile for their educational background to get a sense of how they think. Look at the recommendations they have given for others, what traits and characteristics do they value in those that they work with? What articles, posts, and interviews have they given, where do you have something in common, or something that intrigues you? Check the LinkedIn Insights on their company, what jobs are they posting? Which departments in the company have seen attrition or growth? What new hires have come on board?”

Carole Mahoney

Founder at Unbound Growth

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Create Niche Webinars for Your Industry

With niche webinars, you attract a highly targeted audience interested in specific topics relevant to your industry. This way, you draw in prospects who are genuinely interested and invested in the subject matter, which leads to more high-quality leads.

Niche webinars also allow you to highlight your unique value propositions in a more detailed and focused manner.

Declan Flaherty of Soone Agency says that deep-dive niche webinars tailored for the tech sector are one of their “standout sales components”:

“One standout component of our sales and marketing process at Soone Agency is our deep-dive niche webinars tailored for the tech sector. We host monthly webinars discussing real-time challenges and innovations in tech marketing. This approach not only positions us as thought leaders but also captures high-quality leads genuinely interested in our expertise. As a result, we’ve seen a 25% increase in client onboarding from these webinars alone, with clients citing our niche expertise as a major deciding factor.”

Key Tactics to Implement for Scaling Small Business Sales

OK – so we’ve covered some of the main sales habits these successful small business owners and entrepreneurs have in common.

But what’s their plan going forward?

Below, you’ll find the key tactics our respondents are using to scale their small business sales:

• Using AI Technology for Better Insights and Analytics
• Using AI Technology to Create Marketing and Sales Content
• Build a Referral Program
• Leveraging Newsletters and Email Marketing
• Creating an Online Community for Your Brand
• Investing More in PPC Advertising
• Focusing More on Existing Clients to Increase Retention
• Changing Your Team Structure and Bringing More Help

Using AI Technology for Better Insights and Analytics

AI technology is helping businesses gain a deeper understanding of their customers by analyzing vast amounts of data faster than ever before.

Through machine learning algorithms, AI can identify patterns and trends in customer behavior, preferences, and buying habits. This allows you to tailor your marketing strategies and sales pitches to better meet your customers’ needs.

Predictive analytics is especially popular since AI can forecast sales with higher accuracy through historical sales data and market trends.

Jason Tebeau of Da Vinci Medical is one of our respondents who “intends to launch an AI-driven predictive analytics tool to anticipate client needs within the next six months.”

“We will provide personalized product recommendations by analyzing historical data and client behaviors. This proactive approach is consistent with our commitment to innovation and customer focus. Upsells and cross-sells are expected to increase by 15%, resulting in stronger client relationships. This tool not only complements our Superhuman Protocol® offerings, but it also places Da Vinci Medical at the forefront of anticipatory and tailored solutions in the wellness technology sector.”

Karl Robinson of Logicata also mentioned using AI to obtain better insights and expand sales.

“Leveraging AI-driven insights is our go-to tactic. Our next six months are laser-focused on utilizing AI-driven insights to expand our sales. We’re looking to implement advanced AI tools that can assist in analyzing current and potential clients’ needs, pain points, and industry trends. This will allow us to craft highly targeted marketing campaigns, and personalized offers and more effectively anticipate the needs of our audience. We’ve chosen this approach due to the immense potential AI holds in dissecting and understanding large sets of data, which can provide invaluable insights for refining our sales and marketing strategies.”

Using AI Technology to Create Marketing and Sales Content

Even though they still might not be up to par with the “human touch”, AI-powered tools can generate quality content quicker than ever before.

You can automate the content creation process and use AI to produce a large volume of marketing materials, such as blog posts, social media updates, email campaigns, and product descriptions, in a fraction of the time it would usually take.

Jason Toy of 88stacks shared his plans for leveraging generative AI to craft personalized marketing content in the upcoming period:

“In the upcoming six months, I’m strategically harnessing advanced technologies, specifically generative AI to amplify our sales growth. By employing generative AI algorithms, we’re set to craft personalized marketing content and tailor product recommendations. This aims to elevate customer engagement and drive conversions, ultimately leading to a projected 15% increase in sales over the next six months. I’ve chosen this path due to the proven effectiveness of generative AI in enhancing customer interactions and sales performance. I’m anticipating stronger customer loyalty, solidifying our brand’s position in the market through generative AI.”

Stephen Beach of Craft Impact also talked about “using AI to help us execute our content marketing plan at a larger scale than we ever could have done before.”

LinkedIn personal content creation and engaging on other LinkedIn creators’ posts… a la Pete Caputa who does this really well! Launch a new website with revised niche messaging Use AI to help execute our content marketing plan at a larger scale than we ever could have before We’re already seeing good results with a deeper, more qualified pipeline than we’ve had in the last 10 years of doing business.

PRO TIP: Google Analytics 4 is an indispensable tool for gauging your content marketing efforts – but it’s not exactly the most intuitive. If you want all of your key Google Analytics 4 insights without the hassle of scraping them from the main interface, you can download our free Google Analytics 4 Website Traffic Dashboard.

Build a Referral Program

Are you using referrals from your existing customers to grow your base?

Referral programs can significantly reduce customer acquisition costs. Especially today, when traditional advertising is getting increasingly expensive and time-consuming.

What’s more, referred customers are more likely to convert into paying customers. Recommendations from friends, family, or colleagues carry a higher level of trust than generic marketing messages, and this trust translates into higher conversion rates.

Andre Oentoro of BreadnBeyond says that “in the next six months, we’re launching a referral program to boost sales at my explainer video company. This approach involves incentivizing existing clients to refer new business, leveraging trust and credibility. Anticipated benefits include expanded leads, higher conversions, and deeper client engagement, fostering organic growth and stronger relationships.”

Michael Chien of 101Karaoke plans to do the same:

“I am planning to implement a targeted referral program to further boost our sales. I believe that word-of-mouth recommendations from satisfied customers hold immense potential for driving new business. To execute this strategy, I will initiate a structured referral program that rewards both existing customers and their referred contacts. First, I will create an enticing incentive structure, offering exclusive discounts, free upgrades, or other valuable rewards to customers who refer friends or colleagues to our services. I will promote this program through various channels, including email campaigns, social media posts, and our website.

Additionally, I’ll provide customers with easily shareable referral links and personalized discount codes to track referrals accurately. I chose this approach because referrals often come from a place of trust, and potential clients are more likely to engage with our services when they receive a recommendation from someone they know. I anticipate a noticeable increase in leads and conversions, ultimately contributing to substantial sales growth over the next six months.”

Leveraging Newsletters and Email Marketing

Newsletters and email marketing provide you with a direct line of communication with your customers.

Unlike social media posts, PPC ads, or advertisements that might get lost in a crowded feed, emails land directly in the inbox of your audience. This makes it a highly effective way to stay connected with your customers.

Furthermore, regular newsletters help in building and nurturing relationships with your audience. By consistently providing valuable content, updates, and offers, you keep your brand top-of-mind and create a sense of loyalty among your subscribers.

Kyle Vamvouris of Vouris shared his newsletter sponsorship strategy for scaling small businesses:

“One strategy I plan to implement in the next six months is sponsoring more newsletters. We recently ran a test campaign where we sponsored a large newsletter, and the results were promising. We had a 1% click-through rate, which may not sound like much, but the newsletter has a large audience. Of those who clicked, 35% filled out the form, and 3% booked a meeting with us after watching a video we sent them. This ended up being a profitable campaign for us. So, my plan for the next six months is to identify a handful of newsletters that are a good fit for our target audience and sponsor them regularly. I expect that this will get us in front of a larger audience and drive sales.”

We also talked to Calan Breckon of Calan Breckon SEO about his plan to grow an email list:

“I’m currently focused on growing my email list. Email lists still have almost a 40% higher ROI than any other marketing options today. Through growing my email list I’ll work to push listens to the podcast as well as some affiliate products. I also have an online course for new entrepreneurs teaching them the fundamentals which I include in my weekly emails once and a while to help drive sales.”

PRO TIP: Is Klaviyo your go-to email marketing tool? If so, you might’ve noticed how complex it can be sometimes to collect and compile all your most relevant email data. That’s why we recommend checking out our free Klaviyo Email Performance Dashboard where you can monitor all of your key metrics like open rates, email CTR, received emails, and more – all in one place.

Creating an Online Community for Your Brand

An online community provides a platform for customers to interact with your brand and with each other. When customers feel connected to a community, they are more likely to engage with your content, participate in discussions, and become advocates for your brand.

Also, an online community serves as a valuable source of customer feedback. You can observe discussions within the community to get a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points.

Emily Onkey of Aplós says that building an online community is “especially important with the customer acquisition costs soaring each year.”

“The number of businesses heading online has continued to climb since the pandemic. And more entrants into the eCommerce space mean more competition for ad space, driving the cost of advertising skyward. The 60% increase in CAC over the last 5 years correlates to so many DTC brands relying heavily on Facebook’s robust databank to help them reach their target audience. People want to feel a part of something. But your brand’s ‘why’ alone won’t sustain a community. So we’ll focus on strengthening emotional resonance by encouraging our audience members to share their own stories about rethinking their drinking habits. Making your community less about your brand and more about your customers shows how much you value them. It also inspires greater engagement, repeat purchases, and long-term loyalty.”

Investing More in PPC Advertising

PPC advertising gives you immediate results. Unlike organic search efforts that take time to build, PPC ads can place your business at the top of search engine results pages or across various digital platforms instantly.

This is especially important for smaller businesses that want to drive quick traffic and sales for newer products or time-sensitive promos. 

And the best part is, you can track every aspect of your campaign, from impressions and clicks to conversions and revenue. This allows you to analyze the performance of your ads in real-time, make data-driven decisions, and continuously optimize your campaigns for better results.

Andrew Dunn of Zentro Internet shared his plan to invest more in PPC in 2024:

“I plan on increasing my investment in PPC. I believe PPC can get even more leads. So for the next six months, I will boost my PPC efforts and target a 200% increase in lead generation.”

PRO TIP: Are you planning to increase your PPC investments on Facebook? You can download our free Facebook Ads Campaign Performance Dashboard for a better way to keep track of your most important metrics, like ad spent, clicks, impressions, CTR, and similar ones.

Focusing More on Existing Clients to Increase Retention

It’s no secret that acquiring new customers is more expensive than retaining existing ones.

Retaining existing customers and consistently overdelivering is cost-effective, as it leverages the established relationship and trust you’ve already built. This also translates into a higher return on investment for your marketing and sales efforts.

What’s more, these clients are more likely to make repeat purchases, upgrade to premium offerings, and explore additional products or services.

So, while it’s important to focus on getting new business, don’t overlook the lifetime value of your current customers.

Lyndsey Maddox of Digital Third Coast follows this principle:

“Our focus is on clients that we can make a measurable difference for. We are having thorough discovery conversations and conducting research and competitive analysis in order to ensure our solutions will be effective and efficient for them. While new business will always be part of our growth, our focus is on getting the right clients on board who will stay with us for years. Our vision is that every client can be a case study.”

Lyndsey Maddox

CEO at Digital Third Coast

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Changing Your Team Structure and Bringing More Help

Restructuring your team allows for more specialization because you can define roles more clearly and ensure that each team member is operating in their area of expertise.

And if your budget can support it, it’s always a good idea to bring in additional help so you can distribute workloads more evenly and prevent burnout in your team.

With a larger, well-structured team, you can also provide more personalized service to your clients.

John Reinesch of Asset Growth is one of the respondents who plan on building out his team more:

“We are building out the team more so I have some support. We are bringing on a prospector and an SDR and then I will be focusing on just the sales calls and closing. We are also creating quarterly plans and reporting that we review each week and then make adjustments in real-time throughout the quarter. We used to be more reactive at the end of the quarter and now we are creating processes to make sure we can adjust at a faster rate so we achieve our goals.”

Nathan Bliss of Kinsta talked about restructuring to a different function type:

“We are changing our structure from being based on position type (SDRs and AE’s) to function type (inbound and outbound). We are following OKR methodology to execute a plan against this transition, all driving towards an end goal of growing revenue and increasing our growth rate.”
Nathan Bliss, Kinsta,

As for Ben Donahower of No Bounds Digital, he plans to “get an SDR agency to focus on our more productized services.”

Stay on Top of Your Sales Strategies and KPIs with Databox  

When it comes to scaling small businesses, having a firm grasp on what drives success can make all the difference.

And from our extensive research based on the insights of over 180 experts, it’s clear that the most successful small business owners and entrepreneurs share certain habits that set them apart.

Some of these things include personalizing your sales and marketing efforts, using artificial intelligence for more granular insights, producing content at scale, and doubling down on channels like email marketing and social media.

But how can you make sure your approach is on par with these high achievers?

Well, this is where Databox comes in.

With Databox’s Benchmark Groups, you can instantly access real-time insights into how your business measures up against the best in your industry. Whether it’s sales performance, marketing effectiveness, or operational efficiency, you’ll have the data you need to identify gaps and opportunities for growth.

And the benefits don’t stop there. You also get Databox Dashboards which allow you to visualize your most critical metrics in one place, making it easier than ever to track your progress and adjust your strategies accordingly.

Join a Benchmark Group today to see how you compare, and start using these powerful tools to drive your business forward. The path to success is clearer with the right data at your fingertips.

The post Sales Habits of Successful Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs (Based on 180+ Expert Responses) appeared first on Databox.