6Sense Dark Funnel Flipbook
Learn about the wealth of anonymized buyer intent data that wasn’t visible to revenue teams ... until now. | 26 pages
A Deep Dive Into the Dark Funnel Learn about the wealth of anonymized buyer intent data that wasn’t visible to revenue teams ... until now. Written by Kerry Cunningham
Table of Contents 2 Table of Contents 19 Getting Real: Dark Funnel Use Cases & Examples 3 Introduction 20 Preventing Uncontested Losses 5 Why You Should Read This Ebook 20 Validating Visible Buying Journeys 21 The Conundrum of Content Consumption 6 Anonymous Buyers and the Dark Funnel 22 Enabling Personalized Marketing and Sales Motions 7 How Misaligned Outreach Can Threaten Deals 22 The Impact of Personalized Outreach 9 What Signals Do Buyers Create As They Conduct Research? 23 Dark Funnel Examples 10 What Buyer Signals ‘Live’ Within the Dark Funnel? 24 Dark Funnel Use Cases 11 Buyer Behavioral Signals 25 Conclusion 12 Buyer Readiness Signals, Explained 26 About the Author & 6sense 13 Buyer Psychographic Signals 14 The Dark Funnel Data Hiding Within Your Own Systems 15 Your Anonymous Website Traffic 16 Additional Buyer Readiness Signals 17 Additional Practices That Send Contacts Into Your Dark Funnel 18 Second Lead Syndrome 2
Introduction About 85% of all the stuff within the entire universe—we’re talking everything from planets, galaxies and even outer space itself—is made up of something that we can’t see and experts aren’t even close to understanding yet. It’s everywhere, floating around you, even floating through you. It’s called dark matter, and it plays such an important role in our We call it the Dark Funnel™. It’s a ghostly data-realm packed with existence, some astronomers say it’s “the glue that holds galaxies buyer intent information that revenue teams historically haven’t been together.” able to access. And this invisible data is great data, the kind that Account-based revenue teams experience a similarly spooky, rapidly moves accounts through the sales funnel. It often includes invisible and super-influential force every day, too. And like dark invaluable intel from digital sources such as: matter, this force often defies understanding, baffles even the saltiest • Industry publications • Influencer outlets professionals, and when ignored—and it often is—can threaten a deal • Blogs • Product review sites like faster than you can say, “Houston, we have a problem.” • Social networks G2 and TrustRadius • And more 3
These signals, transmitted from B2B buyers who conduct research into a cohesive picture. This picture can empower your revenue across thousands of websites and digital resources, are brimming team to navigate prospects through the sales funnel with with incredibly useful and actionable intent data. We know this absolute confidence. vital information exists… but because we can’t see it, we don’t fully Thankfully, world-class revenue technology platforms now exist that understand its significance. can illuminate the Dark Funnel and reveal this data. This never-be- This ignorance represents a missed opportunity. That’s because fore-seen sales intelligence can generate high-impact, actionable the Dark Funnel isn’t really the villain in this story. It’s an untapped answers to questions like these (and many more): source of hidden and powerful knowledge. It’s game-changing uncharted territory, and it’s worth exploring. • How many companies are in-market for what we offer? And much like assembling a multi-part pirate map that leads to • Where should you focus your marketing spend? buried treasure, the true power of the Dark Funnel lies in combining • Where should your sales and sales development teams invest those countless, disparate intent signals spread across the internet their energies? 4
Why You Should Read This Ebook Rather than focusing this ebook on platforms and service providers that excel at “lighting up” the Dark Funnel, we believe it’s critical for account-based revenue teams to: Meaningfully understand Achieve fluency in the Understand the external See examples of how Dark the Dark Funnel kinds of intent data that and internal sources of Funnel data affects reside within it Dark Funnel data outreach and deal health We feel uniquely qualified to provide this information. For nearly a Consider this document a soup-to-nuts exploration of the Dark decade, 6sense has helped over 600 companies—from startups to Funnel, and how understanding—and illuminating—its contents can world-spanning corporations—understand the value of Dark Funnel significantly boost new logo sales and customer satisfaction. data, and pull that data “into the light” where it’s leveraged by revenue teams to help solve their customers’ business problems. 5
Anonymous Buyers and the Dark Funnel We’ve all long known that buyers conduct most of their research online (nearly 70%, according to Forrester), and they do so anonymously, far from the curious eyes of B2B solution providers and their sales reps. They also conduct research so thoroughly that many already come to some kind of buying decision before they ever explicitly engage with a company. Since buyers visit dozens—or even hundreds—of online resources far from where you can effectively track them, you’re never quite sure in which stage a buyer might be in the buying process, or how that might align with your sales funnel. They might have just filled out a form on your website for the first time, but do you really know where they’ve been or what they know already? This is the mysterious Dark Funnel at work. Unless you are able to unlock its hidden treasures, you run the risk of missing deals you could have won, or coming in so late to deals that your sellers can’t effectively compete. You can even alienate buyers. That’s the bad news. The good news is that buyers—whether they know it or not—leave a kind of “breadcrumb trail” across the internet as they conduct their research. It’s a record of what they’re researching, when, and even on which websites. 6
How Misaligned Outreach Can Threaten Deals Can a BDR or rep ruin a deal on their very first probably been anonymously researching their interaction with a prospect? Yep. And the Dark business problem—and even your specific Funnel is largely to blame. solution—for months. They’ve probably read the Let’s say a buyer fills out a form on your site. same early-stage information your team is now Your marketing team assumes this is the first breathlessly providing. engagement that the buyer’s company has made That’s not a good look. Your team is bombarding with your organization, and that the contact is in the contact with noise, not high-value informa- an early stage of the buyer’s journey. tion. Buyers can be so put-off by this rookie move Your marketers and reps then “follow the that they’ll kick any future correspondence right process” and pepper the prospect with lots of into the spam folder. early-stage interactions and educational content. But this isn’t the smooth move we’ve been led to think it is. Why? This prospect has 7
This digital breadcrumb trail is typically anonymous, living its best life in your Dark Funnel. But the right revenue technology platforms and data-science solutions—using privacy-compliant methods via partnerships with governmental organizations, third-party data collectors, regulatory agencies, financial reporting agencies and more—can accurately connect those signals back to the companies conducting that research. These solutions can tell you: • The duration of an organization’s buyer journey • The size of the buying team • The sources where those team members get their information • The financial situation their company might be in, which informs their ability or need to purchase new solutions • The technological condition they’re in, which informs if their tech stack is compatible with your solution • And much more Armed with that kind of information, those anonymous companies can quickly become engaged opportunities within your CRM. 8
What Signals Do Buyers Create As They Conduct Research? It’s hard for most folks to get their heads However, Forrester says, some teams can have around just how much intent data buyers more than 20 members on their buying teams generate as they conduct online research. … and they’re all hunting-and-pecking their Why? For starters, it’s rarely just one person way through Google to find solutions for their conducting all that research. As the internet organizational challenges. has grown, so have buying teams. According Equally significant, these buyers are often to Gartner, most buying teams have about 10 generating at least a dozen digital interactions stakeholders to satisfy during a typical on each digital resource. When this Dark buying journey. Funnel data is illuminated, its rich record of buyer behavior can provide clear insights on buyer interests and intentions. 9
What Buyer Signals ‘Live’ Within the Dark Funnel? As we’ve noted, the Dark Funnel includes highly relevant buyer research activity and intent signals generated mostly on third-party websites. But the Dark Funnel extends to buyer signals that lie in plain sight within your existing marketing automation tools and other solutions, too. (You’ll learn more about this internal Dark Funnel data in a few pages.) There are three main categories of buyer signals that “live” inside the Dark Funnel: • Behavioral signals • Buyer readiness signals • Buyer psychographic signals Let’s unpack these categories, starting with behavioral signals. Behavior Signals, Explained At a high level, behavioral signals can reveal what topics buyers are researching • The buyer’s (or account’s) fit with your solution and what solutions they might be considering. • The solutions or solution categories that the buyer is interested in Behavioral signals typically have three dimensions. • The source of the behavioral signals (what resources did the people or These determine the usefulness of a buyer signal and what it can be used for: accounts interact with) 10
Buyer Behavioral Signals Dimension #1: Dimension #2: Dimension #3: Person and Account Fit Buyer Interest In a Solution (or Solution Category) Source of Behavioral Signals Ultimately, all behaviors of interest begin Some revenue technology platforms can identify the Buyer-behavior signals in the Dark Funnel with individuals. When a buyer’s identity actual solutions that a buyer might be researching. are largely collected and organized by is known, job title and level within the This intelligence can be helpful, especially if the specialized providers, which use data organization can be extremely valuable buyer is investigating a competitor or an influencer. science to acquire and aggregate data in assessing the importance of the But this lone datapoint might not be good enough from a wide variety of primary sources, behavior. And, when individuals identify to activate the kind of marketing and sales motions including: which organizations they represent, that that move an account through the sales funnel. • Industry solution providers too is hugely valuable in assessing the Instead, it’s usually necessary to know precisely • Publications importance of their behavior. what solutions buyers are demonstrating interest in. • Blogs However, in many cases, the precise Here, revenue technology platforms that use • Social networks identity of the individuals researching artificial intelligence become truly invaluable • And more solutions isn’t known. in illuminating and organizing Dark Funnel data. Not all sources carry an equal weight in But even when the individual is They can process the content from hundreds of relevance, and can vary in which part of a anonymous, their behavioral signals can thousands of digital properties across the internet buyer’s journey they serve best. still be extremely valuable if the behaviors and catalog the relevant topics or keywords For example, both syndicated content pub- can be associated with a relevant contained in each. lishers and product review sites provide buyer account. By identifying which organizations are researching behavioral signals from identifiable indi- which solutions, intent signals in the Dark Funnel viduals expressing interest in a category of allow you to focus your marketing and sales actions solution. But consumers of white papers on where they are most likely to be effective. syndicated content sites may be deemed to be earlier in their buying journeys than those who are comparing vendors on product review sites. 11
Buyer Readiness Signals, Explained We’ve covered key aspects of the digital “breadcrumb trail” that buyers leave across the internet as they There are three main types of buyer readiness signals: conduct research. But there’s another type of signal that buying organizations emit in the Dark Funnel, and • Technographics these clues reveal which organizations are truly ready to acquire and use the kinds of solutions you offer. • Organizational performance These signals are generally easy to capture from your existing customers (since they should be regularly • Market forces communicating with your customer success team), but most prospects’ readiness signals lurk within Let’s take a closer look at each. the Dark Funnel, far from your detection. Type #1: Type #2: Type #3: Technographics Organizational Performance Market Forces One of the best ways to identify near-term A prospect organization must also have the Market forces refers to external events that might impact prospects is to uncover their organization’s right set of resources or business conditions a company’s need and ability to make a purchase. technographics—the technologies or that enable—or even require—them to make For instance, these signals might include regulatory technical infrastructures used to achieve their purchases. Even organizations that are otherwise changes, economic downturns or even the entry of new business goals. great fits may not be good prospects now if their competitors in a market. This critical information can reveal if a performance doesn’t afford them the budget and Here are some examples of how market buyer’s company uses solutions that resources to make the acquisition. forces impact buyer behavior: compete with yours, and whether those Key factors that strongly influence these • New regulations might require construction partnerships are new acquisitions or near time-sensitive purchasing decisions include: companies to make investments in the end of their contracts. • Is the company profitable or not? health and safety equipment Technographics can also reveal if a • Is the company growing? • Changes in tax laws may accelerate the company’s tech stack is technically com- adoption of new financial reporting solutions • Has the company recently received for industry-specific businesses patible with your solution, which is often a investment funding? critical sales qualifier. • Is the company gaining or losing market • Governmental infrastructure spending could share? signal the need for machine manufacturers to purchase new equipment • Is it hiring employees or laying them off? 12
Buyer Psychographic Signals The third category of data available to support effective buyer enablement is called psychographics, which are used to classify companies and business contacts based on their attitudes and interests. This category, long studied in the B2C space, is now becoming increasingly important and impactful in B2B sales. These signals are very useful in helping shape interactions between prospects and revenue teams, and can help sales teams more effectively engage prospects with more personalized—and personal—outreach. Likewise, having insight into the communication style and engagement preferences of individuals (such as: Are they active in social media conversations? Do they participate actively in business interest groups?) can help sales teams formulate effective outreach. How can psychographic signals positively impact your outreach efforts? • Psychographic signals at the account level can accurately capture whether an organization supports charitable causes and community organization • Or they might reveal associations with civic organizations or local sporting franchises • They could reflect new organizational-level thinking or priorities resulting from market forces, too 13
The Dark-Funnel Data Hiding Within Your Own Systems By now, it’s clear that most intent data within the Dark Funnel hails from publicly available third-party digital sources. We call this external Dark Funnel data. However, some Dark Funnel data hides in plain sight within your own website traffic and even your marketing automation platforms. We call this internal Dark Funnel data. Here’s more information on what that data might be, and how your revenue team might access it. 14
Your Anonymous Website Traffic Since anonymous website traffic has When you think about who might come historically been challenging to de-an- to your B2B website, it stands to reason onymize, most revenue teams ignore it. that it would be relatively rare for visitors This is why revenue teams rely so heavily to reach your site accidentally. And while on website forms to generate MQLs. some visitors may be competitors, or folks In fact, we lean on them so much, many who just have a professional interest, pros have convinced themselves that mostly many buying team members will also (or only) serious prospects fill out forms. be lurking in that anonymous traffic. But that’s not always true—and in fact, might When you’re able to trace most—or even be nowhere as common as we’ve been led to just some—of that 95% of anonymous traffic believe. (More on this in a few paragraphs.) back to its appropriate companies and buying teams, you can dramatically increase Depending exclusively on form fills is a your understanding of which accounts missed opportunity. B2B website form-fill represent near-term revenue opportunities. conversion rates represent only 2% to 5% of all website visits. But we know that there are far more legitimately interested buyers surfing your site than that anemic number. 15
Additional Buyer Readiness Signals There are other signals that are probably “Dark Funnelling” in your CRM or MAP that can indicate buying readiness for both prospects and existing customers: Re-examine Closed/Lost Data For example, when deals are closed as lost, revenue teams can usually determine: • Which company won the deal • The broad terms of why the deal that was lost, and • The timing for when that lost deal will be up for renewal with the winner This information can be used to tailor future marketing and sales efforts to displace the current provider. Analyzing customer data is also vital for upselling and preventing churn. Take a Closer Look at Current Customer Data There are substantially more signals available for your existing customers than • The number of interactions with customer success and other non-customers. Here are just a few of the sources of data that may be available internal personnel outside of traditional customer-facing marketing and sales systems: • And more • How customers use existing products and services Whether individually or in combination, these signals can reveal when the • Fluctuations in usage over time time’s right to approach existing customers about renewals, cross-sell and • Changes in personnel using existing solutions upsell opportunities. 16
Additional Practices That Send Contacts Into Your Dark Funnel Buying Group Blindness Generally, only 25% of form-fills become a MQL. Neglecting the other 75% can be a big mistake. That’s because more than one buyer from their organization is visiting your site at any given time. (Remember, B2B many buying teams are composed of 10+ members.) By focusing your engagement efforts on that one buying-team member and ignoring the possibility of others visiting your site, you’re not fully understanding the level of a company’s interest, or the scope of its business problems. Forrester Research calls this phenomenon buying group blindness. Do You Suffer from Buying Group Blindness? Conduct this experiment to see if your revenue team is unknowingly 4. Organizations rarely find 1:1 lead-to-account ratios, and frequently suffering from buying group blindness: find ratios closer to 1:5 to 2:1. 1. Examine your form-fill records for a particular period of time, 5. But even when the ratio is 2:1—meaning that on average, you’re such as a business quarter. receiving two leads per account that show up in your lead data— 2. From those leads, examine domain and company names to the distribution of leads will not be even. identify their accounts. It will still be the case that the majority of leads are solos: there are no 3. Compute the ratio of leads to accounts. companion leads associated with it during that period. But in some cases, potential buyers will be represented by numerous leads. 17
Second Lead Syndrome Second lead syndrome is a term Forrester uses to describe the circumstances in which a second MQL (or more) from a prospect’s company is marked as bad or duplicate leads by BDRs. This is another internal misstep that can dump great leads into your Dark Funnel, never to be seen again. Leads that are related to the same solution should be bundled together for the sales and sales development teams. Ideally, the presence of multiple members of the buying team would prioritize that opportunity above opportunities exhibiting few buying signals. An Example of Second Lead Syndrome Here’s how an internal sales process can toss actionable account data • The BDR receives this second MQL, but notes that the first lead from straight into the Dark Funnel: Acme Co. was already qualified • An employee at Acme Co. visits your website, consumes content and • The BDR marks this new MQL as a duplicate converts into an MQL • The second MQL is discarded • The Acme Co. MQL is passed to the BDR team • This means sales isn’t notified that another member of Acme Co.’s • A BDR qualifies the prospect and passes the prospect on to sales buying team is displaying additional interest … which compromises the team’s understanding of the deal and its buyers. • The following week, another buying-team member from Acme Co. also qualifies as an MQL 18
Getting Real: Dark Funnel Use Cases & Examples In the final section of this document, we’ll explore some real-life use cases in which the Dark Funnel often meaningfully impedes the sales process—and how illuminating its hidden data generates positive outcomes for both buyers and sellers. 19
Preventing Uncontested Losses We’d all love to be the 500-pound gorilla in our respective industries, so that every prospect could immediately find us as they started their buying journeys. Most of us aren’t so fortunate. Sometimes we discover that our competitors won deals with prospects we didn’t even know about. So as a B2B solutions provider, how do you ensure: • That potential buyers always find you among the vast web of information they navigate as they progress through their journeys? • That you don’t miss potential opportunities? • That you’re involved in buying cycles early enough to be competitive? The best possible way to cover these concerns is to know about buyer interest as soon as possible. This requires using solutions that effectively give you x-ray vision into the Dark Funnel, highlighting all the relevant buyer signals that insure that your selling teams have a chance to compete for every deal—and engage buyers at the right time. Validating Visible Buying Journeys While most B2B brands are more concerned with missing deals than being drowned in leads, the most famous brands in a market may find themselves awash in leads with no clear way to differentiate real buyers from the casually curious. Revenue teams have long used metrics such as the volume of content consumed as a proxy for whether a website visitor is a near-term prospect. This can be a misguided strategy. Users bebop across B2B websites for all kinds of reasons—and none of them may in fact be directly related to their company’s immediate business needs. In fact, there’s no real evidence that any one website visitor’s content consumption is related to their purchase intentions. 20
The Conundrum of Content Consumption As B2B providers produce more and increasingly valuable content, their website traffic often increases. But this traffic doesn’t actually guarantee a meaningful increase in the percent age of legitimately interested visitors. In fact, it’s likely to contain an ever-increasing percentage of individuals who aren’t immediate prospects at all. Here’s where visibility into the Dark Funnel plays a critical role in account identification. If you’re experiencing a spike of non-buyer content consumption on your website, you should validate a visitor’s intentions by seeking out evidence within the Dark Funnel that their organization is genuinely interested and in-market for your solution. Your investigation may reveal that there’s an entire buying team, not just a lone individual, demonstrating interest. That’s the one you need to prioritize! 21
Enabling Personalized Marketing and Sales Motions Today’s B2B buyers expect their purchasing experiences to match the context-rich, personalized, high-value experiences they have in the consumer space. But contextualizing and personalizing content for B2B buying teams is really hard, especially since buyers are reluctant to share the kind of personal information that would enable such white-glove experiences. Again, here’s where the hidden info lurking inside the Dark Funnel can provide a wealth of information to effectively engage buyers. These details—especially those hailing from the buyer readiness and psychographic signal categories—can help personalize messaging and content to increase the likelihood that digital ads, emails and phone calls will be positively received. The Impact of Personalized Outreach Here’s a real-world example of how illuminated Dark Funnel data informs the creation of an impactful customer acquisition campaign: • Market intelligence and technographic data from the buyer readiness category can alert your revenue team that a competitor is being acquired • With that data, you can produce a list of competitive-install prospects that might be affected • This can trigger a competitive take-out campaign that points out the risks of remaining with the recently-acquired company 22
Dark Funnel Examples We’ve covered a lot of ground in this document. We talked about how there’s a Dark Funnel “out there” but also one within your own revenue team data and process. (External versus internal Dark Funnel data.) We’ve also detailed the different categories of data hidden in the Dark Funnel, from behavioral data and psychographic data to company readiness signals. These tables offer a quick reference to see the kinds of data that exist in each part of the Dark Funnel and within each category: Behavior Readiness Psychographics External Relevant third-party Technographic insights Account psychographics, Dark Funnel publisher content Market intelligence signals such as sponsorships and Data consumption such as growth, funding, organiational priorities Researching competitors events, expansions, and eople psychographics, Visits to product review other changes such as personal attitudes websites and interests Internal Anonymous website traffic roduct usage data et romoter cores Dark Funnel re-M leads ales conversation content Account health scores Data 23
Dark Funnel Use Cases And here’s another table that offers sample use cases for each combination of Dark Funnel source and category of data: Behavior Readiness Psychographics Use Cases for Uncover early-stage Identify prospects with an Aligning campaigns or External Dark buyer journeys acute need sales outreach to key Funnel Data Identify customer Identify competitive organizational priorities churn risk take-out opportunities Charitable donations supported by prospect account as incentive to take a meeting Use Cases for Prioritize leads with Identify future prospecting Customer success rep Internal Dark anonymous web traffic data triggers from Closedost notes provide contet Funnel Data Identify pre- buying data for eecutive outreach team members Identify upsell opportunities from customer-success call attendees 24
Conclusion As we mentioned at the beginning of this journey, the Dark Funnel holds a treasure trove of information. It can tell us which prospects are in-market, which should be, and what their organizations need. But because the vast majority of buyer research happens in the Dark Funnel, it’s nearly impossible to effectively compete for all the potential deals that are happening. The path is clear: You need to illuminate your Dark Funnel. This might sound daunting, but the good news is that the technologies and processes you need are well within reach. We hope you’ll join us in lighting up the Dark Funnel to unlock next-level performance for your organization. 25
About the Author About 6sense Kerry Cunningham has more than 25 years of experience in B2B The 6sense Account Engagement Platform helps B2B organizations demand generation and management, spanning a broad array of achieve predictable revenue growth by putting the power of AI, industries and markets. big data, and machine learning behind every member of the He is a thought leader in the design and implementation of demand revenue team. marketing processes, technologies and teams for a wide array of B2B 6sense uncovers anonymous buying behavior, prioritizes accounts for products, solutions and services. sales and marketing, and enables them to engage resistant buying Kerry authored and co-authored a wide range of key models and teams with personalized, multi-channel, multi-touch campaigns. frameworks for SiriusDecisions and Forrester, and has spoken at We help revenue teams know everything they need to know about dozens of industry events. their buyers so they can easily do anything needed to generate more Kerry continues to drive the buying groups revolution in B2B, helping opportunities, increase deal size, get into opportunities sooner, and organizations transform from outmoded, ineffective lead-based compete and win more often. practices to modern, buying team and opportunity-centric processes to unlock next-level performance. 26
