Two weeks ago, Left Brain Marketing unveiled The Left Brain Model (TLBM) – our firm’s take on how to approach structuring and building a modern demand generation program. One of the questions I’ve been getting since our announcement is, “What is the difference between TLBM and the SiriusDecisions Demand Metrics Waterfall (SDW)?” Good question.
Let me start by saying I am a HUGE fan of the high quality work that SiriusDecisions consistently contributes to our community. The firm has unquestionably established itself as a perennial thought leader – the real stand-out for demand generation insights among the analyst world – and our team considers the annual SiriusDecisions Summit a ‘must attend’ event within the demand generation and B2B marketing worlds.
Their ‘Waterfall’ model – SDW – does an outstanding job of illustrating the need for an integrated marketing and sales process. It also highlights the importance of leveraging a universal lead definition to govern lead hand-off and the importance of this definition being something that both marketing and sales are bought into.
Our model is intended to build on this foundation. What is different about our approach? What we’ve developed is focused on a slightly different challenge. We are focused on helping marketers actually construct a granular, multi-step demand generation program. Our model is a blueprint primarily for the nurturing, content engagement, scoring and qualification process that happens upstream from a lead being passed to sales. Thus we are focused on helping a B2B marketer answer the question, “How do I translate broad lead qualification stages into an integrated and layered pre-sales nurturing and qualification program?”
Let me explain why I believe TLBM is a better, more-granular template when it comes to answering this practical question – and for translating demand generation strategy into live B2B marketing programs.
I’ll focus on two issues in comparing and contrasting the two models.
Issue #1: TLBM includes Prospects, an essential stage for comprehensive marketing measurement, whereas the SDW omits this stage.
The SDW is missing what we believe is the first stage of demand generation activity, which prevents the marketer from measuring the front end of the funnel. Developing the marketing requirements for an effective demand generation campaign requires applying reverse-funnel math. The marketer needs to work backwards from closed deals to calculate opportunities, leads and, ultimately, the number of prospects one has to touch in order to achieve that marketer’s goal. Without that initial number, there’s simply no way to determine the right combination of marketing activity that’s required.
Understanding the appropriate mix of tactics is necessary for the marketer when it comes to accurately determining marketing spend. More importantly, without that data, one misses the golden opportunity to actually justify a marketing budget based on a formula that analytically demonstrates budgetary requirements (imagine what your CFO would say!).
Demand generation always starts by engaging a pool of Prospects, yet the SDW begins at the Respondents stage (“Inquiries”). By contrast, TLBM enables the marketer to account for that critical step and systematically determine the volume and cost of marketing activity needed to achieve a company’s sales goals.
Issue # 2: TLBM breaks down the Prospect to Sales Ready Lead process into simple, more manageable steps, whereas the SDW’s “Marketing Qualified Lead” stage is too broad.
The MQL (Marketing Qualified Leads) stage in the SDW mashes up several complex and critical elements without explaining how they work, limiting its ability to aid marketers in building an effective demand generation model. According to the SDW, MQLs are leads that are “deemed to be worthy of a handoff to sales.” This “assessment … as to the viability of the prospect to convert into an opportunity” is done by “nurturing,” referencing a “demographic profile,” and evaluating “additional interactions.”
Nurturing and lead scoring (using both demographic and behavioral elements) present significant challenges to most marketers. The SDW identifies those as components of an MQL, but it doesn’t explain or inform the marketer about how to create one. Telling a marketer that a qualified lead should include an “assessment as to the viability of the prospect to convert” is akin to telling an aspiring chef that the key to making a good meal is simply “putting together ingredients that taste good.” The question (s)he needs answered is how do I make that meal? Which ingredients should I include, and how much should I use? TLBM provides a framework or roadmap that explains how a marketer should go about acquiring qualified leads and supports the marketer with specific steps to get there.
As I wrap up, let me be clear. I’m not saying not to use SiriusDecisions’ model. There’s no either/or in the complex world of modern demand generation. On the contrary, I believe their model really helps to think through the marketing to sales lead hand-off process, and frankly their model has provided critical leadership when it comes to getting marketing and sales to think about demand generation in a more operational mindset. They also have backed up their model with annually-refreshed baseline data on average conversion rates organizations experience at each stage.
But when it comes to actually building out multi-step, iterative nurturing programs that produce leads that are ready for sales – the types of programs that drive B2B marketers to purchase marketing automation systems – greater granularity is needed. That’s why we developed TLBM. Our experiences with our enterprise clients, in the trenches of B2B marketing, tell us that translating strategy to tactics is a real hurdle in this brave new world of demand generation. Marketers have a knowledge gap – one that is preventing them from shifting from ‘one and done’ lead generation to true, holistic demand generation – and TLBM is designed to help them further fill in that gap.
That’s why we believe TLBM is a critical – and necessary – enhancement to the SDW.