B2B Growth Channels Available for Each CAC Level with Michael Gaudet (Part 3)

Michael Gaudet is a Performance Marketing Leader with over a decade of digital marketing experience building and managing high-achieving revenue teams.

He joined the Predictable Revenue podcast to discuss the best B2B growth channels for different CAC levels and how to use them to drive your sales pipeline. Part 1 of the interview covered $1-10k CAC levels, and Part 2 $10-50k CAC levels.

This third part of the interview is focused on the best channels to drive sales growth at $50k+ CAC levels.

Metrics for $50k+ CAC levels

With sales cycles of 1-3 years, it can be challenging to estimate the ROI from the expected pipeline. Michael recommends making your metrics as objective as possible by weighing your expected revenue against historical data.

For this deal size, leading indicators of success include time to close, ROI on the expected pipeline, and win rate (both aggregate and per channel). Knowing these numbers should allow you to estimate the expected revenue, as well as how much new pipeline is being generated by each marketing channel.

Every organization has different ways of forecasting; some base their estimates on the number of deals with a high win rate, while others use tech like InsightSquared to improve accuracy.

The important part is that you have some method of reliably predicting the amount of revenue coming in. If you have a very long sales cycle, you can’t wait until the deal closes to figure out which channels are most effective.

Best B2B growth channels for higher CAC levels

Account-based marketing

Account-based marketing (ABM) involves very selective targeting where sales and marketing dedicate their time to serving a small group of prospects (no more than 50-100) with white-glove service.

Marketing may advertise on multiple platforms (ie., LinkedIn, ad networks, events), watch which prospects interact with the content, then feed that information to sales.

The idea is to target multiple stakeholders from the same company with different, tailored messages for each. For example, a SaaS company may include the decision maker or CEO, IT, security, and legal departments.

ABM isn’t a very scalable growth strategy, and performing this sort of targeted outreach can be expensive. However, the high investment also leads to higher conversion rates.

Before beginning an ABM initiative, make sure you have adequate marketing automations in place, a strong CRM system, and alignment between sales and marketing. Also, keep in mind that this is a long-term strategy, and it may take several years to see an ROI.

User Conferences

User conferences are a powerful B2B growth strategy, especially for SaaS companies. These in-person events provide an opportunity for existing clients to network, learn about the product, and see what’s new with the software.

Inviting new clients to a user conference is a great way to increase retention rates and let your other clients do the selling.

If you have a large prospect in the pipeline, consider inviting them to attend for free, giving them a special VIP experience. Using this strategy with early-stage leads can accelerate the deal and increase the probability of it closing–or push late-stage deals over the finish line.

Conferences are also an excellent opportunity for the prospect to form a relationship with the salesperson or customer success team they would be working with if the deal closes. Generally, the smaller the conference, the more likely it will advance the deal.

Larger conferences are better suited for existing clients, keeping them as happy and knowledgeable as possible, increasing lifetime value, and upselling where possible.

User conferences require a significant time and financial investment. They take upwards of six months to plan, but you can then reuse the same materials year after year.

Review sites

Pay-to-play review sites like Forrester and Gartner are another B2B growth strategy that requires significant investment.

Costs are typically around $50k for one of these companies to assess your software or product, but the final study offers a powerful lead gen magnet and accelerator for the sales process.

To gain a better idea of whether this strategy is right for your company, you can ask the review site you’re considering about expected ROI and ask them to put you in touch with other companies who have used their services in the past.

Other growth strategies for large deal sizes

For longer sales cycles, there are likely to be many touchpoints with both sales and marketing. Attribution software like TripleWhale can help your team keep track of those touches and better understand the ROI of each interaction.

Other tech options include tight notifications to the sales team, so they can see what’s going on which each of the target stakeholders and proposal analytics software to see who looked at what and for how long. For example, if a certain stakeholder is lingering on the pricing page.

Site personalization is another great strategy, as mentioned, for $10-50k CAC levels. The higher the CAC level and deal size, the more crucial personalization becomes. At a $50k deal size, each web page should be personalized to both the prospect’s industry and stakeholder type.

B2B growth for $50k CAC levels

The bottom line for $50k+ CAC levels is that growth strategies require a larger investment, but they also result in a more significant payoff. Longer sales cycles don’t necessarily mean unpredictability. With the right tools and software in place, you can still generate predictable revenue year after year.

If you need help finding and closing the right prospects, reach out here to learn how we can help your company implement a custom outbound ROI model.

Interested in connecting with Michael to learn more about B2B growth channels? Reach out via LinkedIn or visit EightyTwentyCMO.com to learn more