How to Engage B2B Buying Groups

B2B sales teams winning in Indonesia and Malaysia are adding a new layer to GTM --> community group approach. Cold outreach and ads still bring leads. But they only reach the visible 50%. The rest, the silent, referral-driven half, live in WhatsApp, Linkedin, Facebook and Telegram groups. Teams that join those spaces early don’t replace outbound, they amplify it. Warm intros appear. Demos happen faster. Deals feel easier. That’s where buyers trade stories, compare tools, and build trust long before your first message lands. We’ve seen this playbook lift pipeline quality across 10+ B2B SaaS and cybersecurity teams in KL and Jakarta. Same SDRs, same messaging, just added community visibility. Here’s how it works 👇 📢 Awareness ↳ Get seen where local conversations happen. Online Locations: - LinkedIn and Facebook niche groups - WhatsApp or Telegram industry chats - Local webinars and WhatsApp communities KPIs: - Engagement on local posts or updates Strategy: - Ask targeted prospects, which groups they trust - Join as a member, not a marketer - Share useful content and insights (plz don't share any brand logo of your company on it) they need to trust YOU first! 📚 Consideration ↳ Build familiarity through trust. Online Locations: - Community Q&A threads - Local SaaS meetups or support chats KPIs: - Replies or tags from group members - Repeat visibility in discussions Strategy: - Respond with insights, screenshots, or case snippets - Keep tone polite, Bahasa-inclusive - Offer help before you offer links 🎯 Intent ↳ Identify when buyers start evaluating. Signals: - Users asking about pricing, integrations, or ROI - Group mentions turning into DMs KPIs: - Demo requests via chat - Warm inbound leads Strategy: - Personalise outreach referencing the conversation - Use a quick voice note 🤝 Loyalty ↳ Keep customers visible in the same communities. Online Locations: Product user groups WhatsApp beta communities Local customer events KPIs: Community engagement from paying users Peer referrals and feature feedback Strategy: Share updates or early features Reward advocacy publicly Use active users as proof in future conversations The question isn’t “should we join communities?” It’s “how long can we afford not to?” ♻️ Repost so more GTM teams in APAC see how trust is actually built here.

When reps tell me enterprise is "just harder," I hear them saying they're playing the mid-market game on a bigger field. Enterprise isn't harder selling. It's a different sport with different physics. You win by aligning buying groups, writing CFO-grade business cases, and running structured pilots. I generated over $100M selling at IBM and Google. Here are the 5 disciplines I wish I knew when starting: 1. Map the buying group or your forecast is fiction Complex purchases involve 7+ stakeholders now. More roles, more veto points, more delay. Create a buying-group map with three columns: Economic (CFO/GM who owns P&L), Operational (VP/Director who owns outcomes), Technical (IT/Security/Legal/Procurement). Align these three early. If any column is empty, your forecast is fiction. In complex B2B, the problem is consensus, not charisma. 2. Write like a CFO, not a seller CFOs are capital allocators first. They green-light initiatives that upgrade unit economics and reduce risk. Translate your value into P&L levers (revenue uplift or expense reduction), cash levers (DSO/DPO, capex vs opex), and risk levers (compliance, security, continuity). The case is stronger when you quantify THEIR operating metrics, not generic ROI. Treat your proposal like capital planning, not a pitch deck. 3. Turn "hope" into a schedule A Mutual Action Plan turns hope into a schedule. List the decision milestones, owners on THEIR side and yours, artifacts required, and dates. Keep it on one page, update it live, and treat slippage as a risk you escalate. Gartner says 74% of B2B buyer teams show unhealthy conflict during decisions. If you aren't mediating that conflict, you're watching a deal stall. 4. Run a pilot-to-decision, not an endless proof One metric, one team, four weeks. Pre-agree pass/fail criteria and the exact commercial step if you hit the target. No "we'll see" or "let's discuss next steps." Before founding Seamless I learned this selling at IBM and Google. What generated over $100M wasn't better demos. It was turning every pilot into a binary decision with a scheduled close. 5. Forecast artifacts, not intent Don't forecast on "verbal yes" or "they're interested." Forecast on artifacts: redlined one-pager, booked security review, pilot agreement with pass-fail metrics, procurement templates exchanged. Intent doesn't move deals. Artifacts do. The difference between hope and deals is whether you can point to a document, calendar hold, or signed pilot plan. — Big deals don't die from bad pitching. They die from unmanaged buying groups and weak business cases. When you manage consensus instead of hoping for it. When you speak CFO, not sales rep. The value follows.

75% of buyers don't want to talk to you. - We all hear this stat, but love to ignore it. They want to buy. They just don't want to be sold to. Until THEY are ready. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗜-𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗕𝗨𝗬𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗦 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟 Look at your own behavior: LinkedIn message from vendor? Ignored. Unknown number calling? Declined. "Quick chat" request? Deleted. You're not being rude. You're protecting your time. Your buyers are doing the exact same thing to your reps. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗛 𝗡𝗢𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗬 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗔𝗗𝗠𝗜𝗧 75% of B2B buyers prefer self-service over talking to sales. Not because they hate salespeople. Because they want to learn on their own timeline, at their own pace, without the pressure. But here's what kills me: Most companies respond by either forcing more meetings OR going fully hands-off. Both miss the point. 𝗚𝗨𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 "𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗙-𝗚𝗨𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗗" Self-service doesn't mean no service. It means structured discovery without the discovery call. You still need to guide buyers to value. But invisibly. 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗢 𝗘𝗡𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗕𝗨𝗬𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗗𝗢𝗡'𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞 1. 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 - What do they need to know at each stage? - What questions will they have? - What objections will surface? - What proof points matter most? Don't just throw content at them. Sequence it. 2. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 Not: "Here's a demo video" But: "Based on your role, start here" Not: "Check out our resources" But: "Companies like yours typically need these 3 things" Structure the path without being in the path. 3. 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘆 - Give them the tools to determine fit for themselves: - ROI calculators they can use alone - Assessment tools with instant results - Comparison guides they can share internally They're qualifying themselves anyway. Help them do it right. 4. 𝗘𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 Your champion is selling when you're not there. Arm them with: - Forwardable content (short, scannable, valuable) - Pre-written business cases - Stakeholder-specific value props Make it easier to buy without you than with you. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗨𝗦 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗖𝗛 This is why I’m getting started with Consensus They've figured out how to deliver personalized demos at scale. Buyers get exactly what they need, when they want it, without a meeting. But here's the key: It's guided self-service. The demo adapts based on their responses. It tracks what they care about. It shows you their digital body language. You're not absent. You're invisible. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗘𝗧 𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗙𝗧 Stop thinking: "How do I get them on a call?" Start thinking: "How do I help them buy without me?" Because the best sales experience might be no sales experience. At least not the traditional kind. Meet the buyer where THEY are and you'll be shocked how much more likely they will be to meet you where YOU want.

Research is catching up to what we can see about how B2B buying is changing. The 3rs: 𝗥elationships, 𝗥ecommendations, and 𝗥elatability factors are taking centre stage. While product features, price, or brand recognition are in decline. Research from Warc reveals that emotional factors are more consequential in B2B buying decisions than rational levers. • Recommendations from similar customers or trusted colleagues are 3x more likely to tip the balance than cheaper prices • These recommendations are also 3x more influential than products promising better performance So cultural, social signals, and emotions are shifting decision-making. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁? 2/3 of big-ticket B2B buyers are now millennials or Gen Z. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸: This isn't about giving old tactics new names. It's about recognising that B2B buyers (especially younger ones) make decisions based on what their peers say and who they trust, not just specs and prices. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁? Stop treating B2B buyers like robots comparing spreadsheets. Focus on the right places to build relationships. LinkedIn (not spam), WhatsApp groups, Slack communities, industry events. Focus on getting more recommendations, and broadcasting them. Create customer communities where peers validate each other's decisions. Avoid the BS: fake testimonials, aggressive automation, undisclosed paid recommendations. Most B2B marketers still pump budget into feature comparisons. Your prospects aren't asking "what does it do?" They're asking "who else like me uses this?" Track where your best deals come from. It's not the trade show booth. It's Sarah telling James at drinks that your product saved her quarter. That's your real marketing channel now.

The MQL was never what we wanted — it was just what we could measure. Time to fix that. What we actually want are engaged buying groups showing legitimate purchase intent. Not just one person downloading an eBook, but multiple stakeholders from a target account actively researching and demonstrating they're moving through a buying process. HAND RAISERS I’d argue that the best way to measure this is a steady stream of actual hand-raisers who genuinely want to talk to Sales. This was a key metric we used at Marketo. Real hand-raisers: ✅ Show demonstrate legitimate purchase intent ✅ Have genuine budget and timeline constraints ✅ Want to validate decisions, not collect information These people (and accounts) convert. They close. Sales velocity and win rates increase dramatically. WHY WE NEED LEADING INDICATORS But… buyers are far along their journey before raising hands. 6sense research shows 81% of buyers have a preferred vendor by first contact, and 85% have established requirements before reaching out.  In other words, they’ve already basically made their decision by then. So… we also need earlier signals (e.g. leading indicators) to help us know we’re on the right track. This leads to the following framework: TIER 1: TARGET ACCOUNT ENGAGEMENT Web visits, content downloads, etc. from the right accounts TIER 2: MEANINGFUL MOMENTS Real engagement from decision makers at target accounts, including executive attendance at your events or dinners, participation in your community discussions, and live discussions with your team. (This is especially important in the Age of AI, where increasingly AI will disintermediate our traditional digital signals, like web visits and email opens.) TIER 3: BUYING GROUP FORMATION & INTENT Activities that show purchase intent, including multiple visitors from the same account, intent signals, and pricing/ROI research. TIER 4: HAND RAISER Genuine inbound requests to engage with Sales. So, this means we should also be tracking: ✅ Account Coverage: What percentage of our target account list is showing engagement? ✅ Buying Group Velocity: How quickly are accounts moving through the journey stages? ✅ Engagement Intent: Are we seeing surface-level interest or genuine research behaviors? ✅ Multi-threading Success: How many stakeholders per account are we reaching? The beauty of this approach is that it gives both Marketing and Sales much richer intelligence. Sales isn't getting a random lead who filled out a form, they're getting context about an entire buying group's journey, key stakeholders, and specific interests. And it forces marketing to think like sales, activating buying committees, not generating individual leads. The MQL obsession has created what I call “lead theater” — lots of activity that looks productive but doesn't move the revenue needle. This is a better way. #B2BMarketing #MarketingAutomation #AccountBasedMarketing #LeadGeneration #MarTech

The B2B Sales Reality Check: Are You Still Selling Like It's 2015? Did you know that 62% of B2B buyers complete their research before ever talking to sales? Yet most sellers are still using interruption-based prospecting from 2015. The buyers have evolved. Have you? The New B2B Buyer Journey Reality Today's B2B buyers are: • Self-educating through 5-7 pieces of content before engaging • Researching solutions on their own timeline, not yours • Comparing alternatives across multiple channels simultaneously • Seeking peer reviews and case studies over sales pitches • Building consensus internally before external conversations What This Means for you! Stop interrupting. Start adding value. The most successful sales professionals today are: ✅ Content creators who share insights before prospects ask ✅ Thought leaders who solve problems publicly ✅ Relationship builders who nurture over time, not just during "sales cycles" ✅ Research experts who understand their prospects' challenges better than generic pain points ✅ Consultative partners who lead with education, not elevator pitches The Shift in Action Instead of: "Hi [First Name], I see you work at [Company]. We help companies like yours save 30%..." Try this: Share a case study about how a similar company solved the exact challenge your prospect just posted about on LinkedIn. Instead of: Cold calling with a generic script Try this: Engaging meaningfully with their content and adding valuable perspectives to their industry conversations. The Bottom Line Your prospects are doing their homework. They're comparing solutions, reading reviews, and building internal business cases long before they're ready to talk. The question isn't whether you can get their attention, it's whether you deserve it. Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Kenneth Nel for more. -------------------------------------------------------- 🪓 - Nothing happens if you don't take action 🗣️ - Leave a comment if you want to get seen #B2BSales #SalesStrategy #ModernSelling #BuyerJourney #SalesTransformation #LinkedIn #Prospecting

No B2B buyer ever said: "Hey, I'm interested in being your MQL. Please, send me your automated email nurturing cadence and transfer my email and phone number to your Sales Rep. I'd love to spend a few hours on a qualification call and then hang out with your Account Executive." B2B buyers don't engage with marketing content, sign up for webinars or field events, because they are READY to buy. They engage because the topic resonated with them, and they'd like to learn more. We have a fundamental problem here. Because of siloed sales and marketing, marketers are under the pressure to generate leads. Nobody even questions the LEAD definition. Hence, marketing collects any engament (sign-ups, downloads, email link clicks) and handovers it to sales. If, eventually, sales generate an opportunity, this opportunity is presented as marketing-influenced. But in the most cases it ends up with blaming each other at the next board meeting. Stop thinking about conversions at each touchpoint. Start doing this: 1. UNDERSTAND YOUR BUYERS. - What do my best customers have in common? - What triggers their research? What attracts their attention? - Where do they learn? Hang out? Whom do they follow? - What are their jobs-to-be-done and their daily challenges? 2. BE PRESENT IN THE CHANNELS WHERE YOUR BUYERS ARE. Clicks and downloads doesn't matter. Account awareness and nurturing matters. Stop: 1. Dropping links to your website in every social post. 2. Create mediocre articles based on high-volume keywords 3. Producing low-quality PDFs to collect MQLs and transfer them to sales 3. CONNECT AND ENGAGE WITH YOUR BUYERS. In complex B2B the relationship is what drives the revenue aside from a strong brand and content. Enable your marketing and sales to be active on target social platforms and communities to connect and engage with the target buyers, not pitching them. 4. DISTRIBUTE CONTENT. Creating great content without making sure your target audience consumes it is a waste of time. Develop a content distribution workflow through: - Own assets: newsletter, social profiles, etc. - Sharing with adjustments to the rules in communities - Paid and 1-1 distribution to target accounts 5. CAPTURE THE DEMAND. Sales-ready buyers will reach out to you. Here's what to do with the others: - Remove friction from the buying process - Do a progressive profiling - Add target accounts that hit an engagement threshold to ABM playbooks - Develop personalized warm-up and activation --- Stop living in a funnel utopia. "LEADS" are the consequence of brand awareness, demand generation, joint marketing and sales nurturing and activation, customer advocacy, and great product. --- On Thu 19th I'm joining Andy Culligan and Vlad Gozman on the last webinar this year sharing how to develop a full-funnel strategy focused on revenue in 2025. Sign up and join us here: https://lnkd.in/dp9-3unP

Buying Groups aren’t just theory anymore. The best GTM teams are making them the foundation of their entire GTM system. Here’s how you operationalize Buying Groups at the CRM level: The biggest miss in GTM? Most opportunities in CRM still only have one contact attached. But we know B2B buying decisions involve 6–10+ people. That gap is why pipeline conversion, forecasting, and attribution break down. This is largely due to the fact that for most opportunities are based on MQLs. The most impactful step that can be taken is creating opportunities with buying groups pre-populated and each stage of the funnel requiring increasing engagement with the buying group. Forrester recommends the opportunity object in your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) as the perfect container for buying groups. Why? - It aligns Marketing, SDRs, and Sales around the SAME OBJECT instead of leads vs. opps. - It lets you systematically ASSOCIATE CONTACTS INTO BUYING GROUPS linked to the solutions they care about . - It enables you to track PROGRESSION OF THE ENTIRE GROUP, not just a single contact. And the evidence is clear: - According to Forrester, companies that systematically use buying groups to build pipeline see 2x HIGHER OPPORTUNITY WIN RATES and FASTER DEAL CYCLES compared to traditional lead-based approaches . - In Demandbase customer data, opportunities with buying groups attached consistently show HIGHER CONVERSION TO CLOSED-WON than single-contact opportunities. Operationalizing buying groups this way gives you: 1. Clarity: Everyone focuses on opportunities populated with the right group of buyers. 2. Efficiency: Less waste from scattered leads and misrouted signals. 3. Predictability: A true view of pipeline health because all decision-makers are visible. If your CRM opportunities aren’t fully populated with buying groups, you don’t really have visibility into your pipeline. You’re running on incomplete data. That’s why we’re making buying groups central at Demandbase. They’re not just the bridge between ABM and pipeline — they’re the foundation for creating, accelerating, and winning opportunities.

Want to speed up B2B buyer decisions? Ask how they feel. Not just what they think. B2B sales teams love structured questions: → What’s the budget? → Who signs off? → When are you looking to implement? Useful? Yes. Complete? Not even close. Here’s the gap: None of those questions speaks to how the buyer is 'feeling'. Neuroscience tells us that decision-making happens in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that blends logic and emotion. But emotion hits first. You’re operating on 'half the data' if your discovery is purely logical. Dialog Example: Seller: “How are you feeling about our direction?” Buyer (pause): “Honestly? It’s a good fit… but I’m worried it might take more internal buy-in than I thought.” That’s the truth. And truth unlocks movement. You didn’t get that by pitching. You got it by asking how they 'feel'. Questions to Try: → “What’s exciting about this? And what still feels risky?” → “What would need to happen for this to feel like a no-brainer?” → “What concerns haven’t we talked about yet?” Buyers will answer questions that feel safe. And emotional questions — asked with warmth — create that safety. Tactic to Try: Build one emotional check-in into each sales stage: • Post-discovery: “What’s your gut saying right now?” • After a demo: “Is there anything that didn’t land how you expected?” • Near proposal: “Is anything about this still feeling off?” Because emotionally honest buyers don’t ghost. They collaborate. They tell you what’s going on. Which emotional check-in could you ask today that you didn’t ask yesterday? Try one. Let it breathe. Watch what opens up. ___ Follow me for more sales tips and repost if this resonated.

The Future of B2B Events in 2025: Why Webinars aren't Enough Anymore. Webinars are still Good in 2025. But., If you are relying only on webinars to drive your B2B strategy in 2025, you're missing the bigger picture. ❌ The Old Playbook: Host a webinar. -Gather MQLs from form fills. -Send follow-up emails. -Push MQLs to sales. -Pitch your product. It's time to evolve: 👉 What's working in 2025: -Today's B2B buyers want more than a one-way conversation. -They crave value, interaction, and a sense of community. A few Examples and my favorites: ✔️ Workshops Over Webinars: 💡 Buyers want to be involved, not just observe. -Interactive workshops let them learn better. -Whether solving real problems in a live session or gaining hands-on experience, workshops create deep, personal engagement. I conduct workshops, which help me learn a great deal while teaching. -I Structured them as a hands-on, problem-solving session around a common pain point my prospect faces. ✔️ Micro-Communities: 📍 Think beyond large, impersonal webinars. -B2B decision-makers get increasingly drawn to smaller, niche groups where they can connect with peers and gain specialized knowledge ✔️ Live Case Studies with Clients: Inviting clients to co-host live case studies where they share their success stories and strategies. -It helps build trust and showcases real-world solutions. -These sessions highlight the tangible outcomes of your product or service. ✔️ Courses and Micro-Learning Sessions: 📚 Today's B2B buyers appreciate short, focused courses that they can immediately apply to their work. -Building an educational track with bite-sized learning around key topics is a win-win for engagement and brand positioning. ✔️Casual In-person Local Events The most underrated B2B growth lever in 2025. We’re seeing a revival of local, low-pressure, high-value meetups. You can organize: -CXO breakfast roundtables -12-person pizza & strategy evenings -Founder-led coffee sessions with 1-2 enterprise prospects -Co-branded "mini ABM events" with a customer as a host The vibe is Informal. Intentional. Invite-only. These formats are perfect for 1:Few and 1:1 ABM strategies. No decks. No sales pitches. Just proximity, context, and honest conversations. Here's an Example: -Use LinkedIn + HubSpot (or your CRM) to map your Tier 1 and Tier 2 accounts by city or region. -Once you’ve got your local clusters, don’t just wait for conferences—host your micro-events quarterly. -Even a 2-hour breakfast session with 5 decision-makers can create a more robust downstream pipeline than 500 passive webinar attendees. . It’s not about the number of attendees. It’s about curating the right conversations with the right people.