Development. It’s the topic that every sales and marketing leader is focused on right now. We’re coming off a tough year in B2B SaaS, and economic headwinds continue to add complexity to our plans. Here’s why effective growth matters more than ever.
To dive into the current challenges, trends and solutions for economic growth in the coming year, we recently partnered with Gong to host a panel discussion in London. As G2’s vice president of EMEA, I’m joined by Lesley Ronaldson, VP of EMEA Sales at DiscoidPaul Gilhooly, Vice President of EMEA Sales at 6 senseand Julia Pilkes, Senior Director of Marketing at HubSpot.
I was excited to hear what these expert leaders are seeing, hearing and doing in their own organizations. It was also nice to reconnect with Paul, as he and I shared our father’s journeys for the first time and GM roles at the same time, and with Lesley, who was my previous LinkedIn colleague.
As you can imagine, several key themes emerged from our discussion.
Harnessing artificial intelligence to increase efficiency
AI adoption is growing as shoppers increasingly expect personalized experiences across all touchpoints. With this in mind, my colleagues and I agreed that AI should be leveraged not just to create more content, but to free up time for high-value tasks.
For example, Gong uses AI to automate 10% of its pipeline and display red flags to managers, while Hubspot has reduced landing page design from weeks to minutes, allowing marketers to invest elsewhere.
Target the right accounts
With sales cycles lengthening, targeting high-potential accounts is critical. The targeted account approach is a more effective approach than the higher volume approach for quality over quantity, panelists agreed.
To take this approach, AI presents another application for dynamically assigning intra-market accounts and mapping market commissions. Focusing on emerging personalities such as revenue professionals is another way to increase your win rates.
Optimizing the customer journey
To improve retention and engagement, it’s important to ensure that friction points are eliminated in the customer journey. This means creating integrated customer experiences across sales, marketing and customer success – aligning these teams with common goals, data, tools and human relationships. Also, try to optimize the journey, but build in consistent involvement at the executive level.
Emphasizing strong leadership
Participants also emphasized focusing on what they see as “controllable”—such as execution, resource focus, and transparent communication. Strong execution and process disciplines pay off, especially in tougher times.
Also, try to try different approaches and embrace different points of view, as authentic, empathetic leadership will earn trust. And this is paramount to guiding teams through uncertainty.
I am grateful to have the opportunity to hear from industry leaders like Lesley, Paul and Julia. In the year ahead, I will focus even more on what is in my control and prioritize initiatives that have the greatest business impact while maintaining compassion as a leader.
Our discussion reinforced that while times are challenging, leaders who double down on effective growth, transparent leadership and customer experience can create momentum despite market uncertainty.
