Marketers: Are you in all the deals you could be? Probably not, says data recently published by Sara Boostani of 6sense Research.

Just 9-11% of buyers are in-market in a given quarter, according to the 392 B2B marketers Boostani surveyed.

Of those buyers, the typical mid-stage B2B tech firm has opportunities in their CRM for just 12% early in the buying cycle; 25% later on. (This is according to Boostani’s analysis of data from 448 6sense customers in technology and software.)

So, for the typical mid-stage firm with a total addressable market (TAM) of 100 accounts: 

1) ~10 of their target accounts are in-market in a given quarter

2) Of those, they’ll only have open opps for 1 account early in the buying process, and 2 later in the buying process.

How do you beat these weak odds? The answer matters, since win rates continue their precipitous drop from 29% in 2021 to 17%, per Winning by Design’s latest read.

Brand and Advocacy

Most marketers agree that brand counts for a lot. But, you might be surprised by just how much it impacts the likelihood that a target account will evaluate your solution: 

According to a September 2022 survey of 1,208 buyers by Bain and Google, ~90% of buyers have a list of preferred vendors from “day one” of their search; 90% of those will go on to buy from their “day one” list.

How do you get on buyers’ “day one” list? 

1) Build your brand. Engage buyers before they buy: Get them to know you ahead of their solution search by building presence at key industry intersections, such as at events, in trade journals, and in other places buyers “exist.”

2) Earn customer advocacy. On day one, 84% of B2B decision-makers start by asking for referrals, according to a 2021 Gartner market study. Get customers to tell new buyers about you by way of case studies, speaking features, and other advocacy enablement.

Intent Data

Get data that tells you which of your target accounts are surging in interest for your solution (and when). Better yet, incorporate that intent data into a model which predicts the location of each account in their buying cycle: This will help your Sales peers identify accounts where they should seek to open opps early-on and help them catch accounts which are about to buy.

Thanks again to Sara and the 6sense Research team for yet another insightful study!