Plus, MQLs are easy enough to measure with traditional marketing systems and processes already in place, leading many marketers to work the law of large numbers: the more leads you have, the more conversions will result. In pure statistical theory, this is bang on, but it doesn’t pan out in the real world. It’s like trying to buy a car with pennies — entirely possible, but not easy to manage or keep track of, and definitely an inconvenience for all involved. But for lead-centric marketing teams, the MQL ultimately proves problematic. For one thing, MQLs typically rely on outdated methods of gathering data, like lukewarm event leads or forgotten form fills. Additionally, subsequent leads from the same company tend to be ignored in favor of the more heavily weighted first lead. That alone shows that many marketing teams aren’t aligned with modern B2B buyers. If you’re playing a numbers game, five leads from the same company should light up your scoreboard. And yet, any lead(s) after the first are effectively ignored by marketing and certainly by sales. In this scenario, sales often doesn’t even know there were other leads knocking on the door. This is what Vice President, Principal Analyst at Forrest, Kerry Cunningham refers to as Second Lead Syndrome. Effectively, the rules of measuring MQLs — where one lead is gold and more leads from the same account drives down conversion metrics — means organizations actively dismiss additional leads that solidify an account’s interest in your offerings. Most marketers will admit that they don’t want to focus on generating random “leads” — they’d prefer to spend time optimizing resources and warming accounts for sales that are most likely to close. But with this traditional way of thinking, when and how can marketers transition to account-based metrics? Ideally, new metrics (and the process of reporting on them) should be defined before you begin to focus on an account-based strategy. But if you’re already there, stumbling in the dark of account-based experience (ABX), all is not lost. This guide is designed to help you understand why it’s necessary to redefine metrics to properly assess the performance of your ABM programs — and how. 6sense.com | (415) 212-9225