Getting to closed when your Q4 runway is short
Three things B2B marketers and sellers should do now
The clock is ticking, and it’s getting louder. As the end of the fourth quarter approaches, the pressure on B2B sales and marketing teams ratchets up. Leveraging strong content marketing to elevate confidence and trust in your solution becomes vital, as does the need to be as efficient as possible with your sales operations. At a time when closing deals is critical and the runway is short, where can you focus to make the biggest impact?
At Knack, we help leading B2B software vendors activate their partner channels to engage buyers at all stages of the sales and marketing cycle. Here are three best practices proven to help you close more deals when teams are running low on time and resources.
1. Encourage partners to be bold with their current customers and highest-scoring leads.
Prioritize conversion-driven conversations. With limited time, partners should invest in leads with the most promise and highest propensity to convert—the most granular version of their ICPs. Collaboration is central to making this happen. For example, marketers should request up-to-date insights from sales on recent buyer/ICP behavior and on what’s resonating with customers. Sales should ask marketing for details on the messages, offers, and content that’s inspiring buyer attention. Winning in Q4 takes extra cross-team alignment and attention to detail.
Target based on data and AI. In Q4, reaching your goals is less about moving in a general direction than striding toward a specific destination. Vendors should advise partners on how to use data and insights to determine where leads are in their buying journey and to identify the indicators that show the most closed/won potential, as well as advising them on how to optimize sales techniques and marketing CTAs to boost conversion rates. Use your data to message with precision and turn every touchpoint into an easy way to move buyers forward.
Your first job is to help. Through the many hundreds of campaigns we’ve led, we’ve learned to reinforce the importance of relatability and to minimize friction between buyers and transaction opportunities, especially given how self-directed buyers have become. As a result, we are now pointing more buyers to marketplaces than ever before. This hasn’t obviated the need for one-to-one sales conversations, but it has shifted how vendors and partners prioritize their resources. Key theme: As a vendor, you’re here to help, and the more targeted and timesaving you can be, the more help you can provide.
2. Get creative with surround-sound engagement.
Be social. When we think of B2B social, we start with LinkedIn, where a combination of trusted and emerging opportunities is available via paid and organic formats, including InMail. Over the years, we've found that mid- and lower-funnel leads (the leads you’re prioritizing in Q4) tend to respond favorably to case studies, customer testimonials, first-party data, and other evidence that de-risks their purchase and paves an express lane to closed/won. Showcase helpful content with easy-to-follow CTAs in your ads and posts. The smarter your buyers feel, the more confident they’ll be in their decisions.
Nurture. The end of the calendar year is for personalization. Meet buyers and buying committees on their terms with emails segmented by company, industry, region, sales stage, and proven needs. For as many campaigns as we and our clients have executed, the power of email remains undiminished. When in doubt (especially in Q4), send the extra email. While you’d rather not bombard, you also want to avoid being bashful and miss opportunities. Package your nurture stream with relevant content, automate where you can, and drive requests for demos and conversations.
ABM at speed. We love ABM campaigns, of which social, email, and highly targeted display are core components. We know ABM can increase conversions by 14% (Gartner) and often more. In Q4, simplify your ABM. Test shorter sequences and cut to the chase. Buyers are receiving so much information that only the clearest signals will get through. Make yours one of them.
3. Equip your sales teams with your most-proven ideas.
Demos. Use your marketing to promote live demos that help buyers visualize the benefits of your solutions. When you do, make it easy to sign up and schedule. Also highlight what buyers should expect to learn by participating in your demo (or demo series), how much time it will take, and next steps. Be transparent, not opaque. Today’s buyers, many of whom are millennials, will respond to nothing less.
Preboard based on insights from customer success. Market your onboarding and implementation plan before closing. Put to work what you’ve learned from customers who at one time were leads. Showcase best practices and early optimizations. If you’re a vendor, provide your partners with a template illustrating how to get buyers and users up to speed fast. By backing up your vision for a buyer’s future happiness with real-life expectations, you mitigate risk and accelerate to “yes.”
If we could offer just one Q4 suggestion, it would be this: Make the ask.
Marketing: Ask sales where you can step in and make a positive difference.
Sales: Ask marketing to put their Q4 playbook to work ASAP.
Align resources to turn your leads into customers and your Q4 KPIs into success stories.
2024 beckons: We look forward to seeing you there with the results and positive momentum you generated to close 2023.
From partner demand programs that are built to scale to co-sell and pipeline acceleration campaigns, custom GTMs for GSIs, co-branded design systems, and end-to-end co-marketing strategies, we reset expectations for B2B and partner marketing. We’ll be happy to explore how you can make the most of Q4 and help turn 2024 into your best year ever.