In the time since launching this book, I've had the opportunity to meet with thousands of marketing and sales leaders who have read it. The response has been overwhelming. It's been exciting and humbling to hear about all the ways in which these professionals have been putting the book's ideas into practice.

It certainly hasn't been a small undertaking. I know I'm asking you to shake up the way you've been doing things for years—maybe decades—and I get how hard that can be. But now that the book has been out in the wild for a couple of years, I can say with more certainty than ever that this approach really works. It does take commitment, openness to change, and a sharp focus on the outcome you're trying to achieve. But it pays off. I've seen it again and again with colleagues, peers, and customers who have implemented it since the book was first published.

In this edition of the book, I want to add a chapter that will help you overcome obstacles to implementing the strategies the book presents. In following the journeys of all these revenue professionals for the past two years, I've heard some common questions about how to go from old-school to new-school revenue. I thought it would be useful to address those questions here, in case they're on your mind too.

How do I know (and show) that marketing is successful?

I know I told you that MQLs aren't worth a dime. They're not a reliable or data-driven way to measure marketing's success for all the reasons I've already explained … but you can't measure nothing, right? So what should take the place of the MQL in accounting for how well marketing is doing its job?

The short answer is that modern marketers measure their success by how they're contributing to revenue. So we use KPIs that track to revenue. These are not vanity metrics—I hope we've moved beyond all of those. These are the metrics that indicate whether the business is moving in the right direction.

In our organization, marketing tracks pipeline, and we look at it every day. There are two different ways to look at pipeline. First is with a sales mindset: Sellers look at how much pipeline they're sitting on that's closeable at the beginning of a quarter or month. The second is with a marketing mindset: I look at raw pipeline produced month over month, quarter over quarter. The reason is that it tells us whether we're on track to meet revenue goals while we still have time to do something about it. For instance, if pipeline is off in Q4, we might have a Q1 revenue gap. So we can take steps now to right the ship.

In addition to the entire pipeline number, we also drill down into the makeup of the pipeline (e.g., new business versus upsell, inbound versus outbound versus ABX, strategic versus commercial versus enterprise, EMEA versus APAC versus AMER). Each of these areas could impact my pipeline assumptions, and I need to be able to see how each is performing against expectations so we can address any issues that come up.

This all ties back to being a chief market officer. When you're focused on your ideal customer profile and really understand it, the market lens affects everything you do— including how you look at how you can influence metrics that matter. There are a number of other revenue-driving metrics marketers should track, including average selling price (ASP), cycle time, win rates, and customer retention. These are all things that come together to create a revenue cycle. Here's how marketing can affect each.

Cycle time + ASP

Marketing has a major role to play in accelerating cycle time and increasing ASP. And a key part of doing that is to only serve up the most winnable opportunities to sales. I think of sales as our most expensive channel. And just like you wouldn't send a bottle of Dom Perignon to everyone who fills out a form on your site, you shouldn't have sales dedicate time and resources toward an account that's not ready. Instead, marketing can play a role in engaging multiple stakeholders on the account and making the most strategic marketing plays possible so that by the time the account is ready for sales outreach, the sales process will be faster and more successful.

Win rates

Tracking both competitive and non-competitive win rates helps marketers understand how our efforts are contributing to closed deals. And by looking at both subsets of win rates, we can see how we're completing two big jobs: differentiating from the competition and creating new projects. There are a lot of ways marketing can contribute to each.

Competitive win rates show how well we're making the case that we are a better choice than our competitors, and we can do that through thought leadership, a compelling value story, high customer satisfaction scores, and partnership with enablement to make sure sellers are delivering the most effective messaging.

Non-competitive win rates show how well we're persuading buyers that indecision is costlier than action—and specifically action that leads to buying from us. Marketing contributes to non-competitive win rates by providing earlier-stage education to create problem and solution awareness, by creating urgency, and by setting the stage for buyers to select our solution when they do decide to buy.

Customer retention

For too long, SaaS economics have meant marketing pours all its resources into customer acquisition, not retention. But keeping current customers happy is essential for predictable revenue. It's far more expensive to replace a customer than it is to retain them. And don't forget the upsell and cross-sell opportunities that disappear when a current customer walks.

Marketing has a huge role to play in retaining customers, and we can measure our success by tracking our net revenue retention (NRR) score. NRR tells us how much revenue is generated from existing customers, and it's a measure of a company's health that investors and markets obsess over. In fact, one survey of private equity firms and strategic buyers¹ found that NRR is the most important metric for the overwhelming majority of investors when evaluating a company. Another measure we should track is gross retention, which doesn't factor in upsell.

CMOs can influence both of these by rethinking customer marketing. Customer marketing is far more than just case studies and reference management. It's about analyzing the entire customer life cycle and running plays proactively to keep customers happy and engaged at each stage. That means making sure we're creating the right programs for customers, knowing our audience, and knowing what they're going to show up for. All in the purview of the chief market officer.

One of the things we do at 6sense is to look at what percentage of our customers have engaged in marketing programs each quarter. If no one is showing up, maybe our programming needs help, or maybe we're not marketing and communicating about the programs effectively. Another thing we do is to partner with the product team to understand how people are experiencing our product and improve the in-app experience.

Ultimately, your brand is not what you say it is. It's how people experience you. And dissecting the overall customer journey through that lens will allow you to positively influence every one of the metrics I've outlined here.

This is an especially high-level view of metrics that matter. I could probably write an entire book about it. Who knows, maybe there's a Volume 2 in our future ….

Moving from reporting to forecasting: Be a financier, not an accountant

Accountants make decent money, but they don't make Wall Street money. So why do the folks on Wall Street get paid so much more? It's because they look forward and project or forecast future profits to figure out where to place bets. Accountants, on the other hand, add up what has already happened and report on it. They're focused on the past.

For marketers who want to elevate their game, I'd suggest a mindset shift: Think of yourself as a financier, not an accountant. Your value to your company increases exponentially when you can start to look at trends and underlying data, make assumptions, and then forecast what's to come.

That's what financiers do every day. They do due diligence on a company, consider historical trends, and build a model for how that company is going to fare in the future to decide whether or not to bet on it.

For marketers, our big bets are the programs and resources we invest in. We're forever asking ourselves whether we are investing in the right things. And we can get a certain amount of validation with accounting-style assessments, like looking at what programs worked in the past. But it's infinitely more useful to be able to understand what programs are going to work in the future. And that's where marketers can apply the financier approach by making predictions about pipeline.

If you're just reporting on pipeline, you're too late to do anything about it. But if you start forecasting pipeline instead, you can see where you're going—and influence it while there's still time.

Sales already has tools to accurately forecast, but I consider marketing's forecast to be the first line of defense in future-proofing bookings and revenue. And we need to be able to predict two things: First, what our pipeline needs to be to meet revenue goals, and second, where we'll end up based on what's currently happening.

A lot of marketers have wanted to do this for years. But we've been held back by the sheer amount of data analysis and predictive capabilities we'd need to make accurate forecasts. We've done our best with spreadsheets and guesswork, but we're only human. Even using good data sets and updating our forecasts quarterly, our forecasts haven't been as accurate as we'd like. What we really need is AI baked into our revenue platforms that accurately adjusts to real-time data and makes predictions based on that.

These dashboard images show hypothetical examples of the kinds of at-a-glance insights that are possible with AI-fueled pipeline prediction. You can easily see not only how you're doing by month, by channel, for the year, etc., but how you're projected to do in the future.

Do I really have to give up my MQLs?

I'm firm in my belief that MQLs are the wrong gauge of marketing success. But they're entrenched in so many revenue organizations that giving them up altogether is a non-starter for some marketers. And that's okay. I'm not saying you need to completely scratch the MQL if it's serving a purpose for you and your organization.

If the idea of giving up entirely on MQLs makes you nervous, then go ahead and keep tracking them. But I would challenge you to change the way you use them. As I just explained, modern marketers need to be focused on pipeline and the metrics that drive it. So instead of focusing on reporting on MQLs as a measure of success, look at them as one of many signals of how you're progressing toward your pipeline goals. Rather than thinking of MQLs as a target, think of them as an indicator and be sure to look at them in the context of ICP, web traffic, meetings booked and completed, and of course the metrics I mentioned earlier.

One of our customers who implemented the no-forms, no-spam, no-cold-calls. approach put it succinctly when she said, “We're not going to miss our revenue targets because we're not going to miss our pipeline targets.” Which sounds obvious, right?

But if you start to think in those terms, and you still want to track MQLs, go for it. It's a signal. That's all. Just like an SQL is a signal. Just like if you're in product-led growth, a free trial download is a signal.

By keeping your success metrics focused on pipeline, you'll notice that people stop asking you about MQLs. They'll start asking about pipeline.

That means that instead of obsessing over MQLs, you can start looking for and optimizing revenue moments that will increase pipeline. For instance, when accounts are researching your competitors. Or, more broadly, when accounts are researching companies that are in the same ecosystem as you. For us, when someone is researching sales outreach tools, we know they're looking for ways to make their BDRs more efficient and effective. They're actively looking to solve a problem that is related to the problems we solve. So that's a revenue moment for us.

Likewise, when a company is actively hiring or has just recently hired key roles, that could be a revenue moment. For us, that might mean when a new CMO comes on board, or when the sales department is ramping up its hiring.

Or for publicly traded companies that file reports laying out their strategy, do they mention problems your solution solves? If so, that's a revenue moment.

These data are all available … but you need to seriously consider what constitutes revenue moments for your organization so you don't miss them. Of course, you also need AI that sorts through all those mountains of data to identify the moments you care about. But the first step is to understand that these are the ways you drive pipeline and revenue.

The mentality of working an account, not a lead

Once people get comfortable reporting on pipeline instead of MQLs, there's still a hurdle to clear: how to get a 6QA to pipeline. I think that's actually the core of the biggest transformation that has to be made when shifting from lead-based to account-based.

This comes back to what I was talking about earlier about the MQL just being a signal. What we do, and what we see our successful customers do, is to say that we don't care what the underlying intent signal is. It could be a hand raise, it could be an SQL (one of the revenue moments I told you about earlier), it could be a 6QA. When we see a signal that's ideal for us, we start working the full account—not just the contact who raised their hand or showed intent.

Contrast that to how lead-based sales and marketing works. In that scenario, a lead comes in with an email attached to it. A BDR or SDR follows up with that lead, books a meeting with that individual, and moves on. But we know that engaging only one person on a deal is a recipe for disappointment. It's just not how B2B buying works. In B2B purchases, there's a buying team of 6 to 10 people or more. So we need to be working as many of those individuals as possible in a coordinated effort—not just the first one we identify.

Sales leaders know that single-threaded deals don't work. If you ever sit on a forecast call with a sales leader, you'll hear their frustration when a seller is only talking to one person at a company because those deals just don't close.

We can apply that same mentality to the entirety of the customer journey. If we don't want a single-threaded deal, why would we want a single-threaded lead? When we start thinking in those terms early on, we see the lead as a signal. And we start multithreading right at the beginning by identifying who's on the buying team and then engaging multiple stakeholders.

To determine who you want to engage, you can take a historical look at deals that have closed and learn from those. If you have good AI, it will tell you which personas have to be involved in a deal for it to be successful. And then you have your game plan: It's not just, “Follow up with this lead, book a meeting, and be done.” Now it's, “Get contact data for these two, four, or six people and book meetings with all of them.”

This is a hugely important change in both philosophy and procedure. And some key things need to happen in order for it to work properly.

First of all, think about how you structure your SLAs for BDRs and SDRs. We're all familiar with the SLA for a hand raiser (i.e., inbound). Typically the expectation is that the rep will respond within minutes. That's a good expectation—and it should be the same for 6QAs, since just like with inbound, every minute you wait decreases the likelihood of response. But the difference in our model is that we don't incentivize reaching out to just one individual, either for inbounds or for 6QAs. Our SLA sets the expectation that for inbounds, the rep will reach out to three people within six minutes. For 6QAs, we still expect outreach to three people, but the time frame is 20 minutes.

Of course, once you identify the personas you need to connect with for a successful deal, you need to know how to contact them. And this is an area people have told me they struggle with—finding current and accurate contact data for the people they want to engage. This is actually what led 6sense to acquire a leading contact data provider. Because the easier we can make it for BDRs and SDRs to do their jobs, the more likely they are to do them well. And if we're shifting expectations on them and requiring them to reach out to multiple key personas, we need to make it as simple as possible for them to do it.

Making the switch from lead-based to account-based requires changes across the board. What I've outlined here alters the way frontline teams operate, as well as how they're comped. It calls for new systems and better data to help you orchestrate it. It's not a small undertaking—but it is where the rubber meets the road in this modern B2B sales and marketing approach.

No 6QA left behind

As leaders, it's up to us to set the right expectations for our teams and to provide them with the resources they need to meet those expectations. But then it's on them to put in the effort and meet them. And the next step in this process is to put systems in place to make sure people are doing what we expect them to do.

As JZ says, you need to “inspect what you expect.” We need to have the right measurements in place to ensure that (1) our BDRs and SDRs are working all the qualified accounts on their lists and that (2) they're working entire accounts, not single leads.

To inspect that first expectation, we need to make sure that we're capitalizing on those revenue moments I described earlier. For us, the best proxy of that is the 6QA. Are our BDRs, SDRs, and sellers working all their 6QAs, and are they working them in a timely fashion? We have dashboards and reports that show us that at a glance, and I am hyper-focused on them. We know statistically that 6QAs convert 30 percent better at two times the deal size, with a 30 percent faster cycle time than non-6QA accounts. So not working them is like leaving money on the floor.

Every Friday I get a report that flags any unworked 6QAs so we can inspect and improve. I also look at the quality and quantity of activity to make sure that not only is our SLA met, but also that we're personalizing and reaching out through multiple channels.

To address the second concern—whether outreach is happening in the right way—we've implemented something called the Quality Outreach Score. That shows us not just whether the accounts are being worked, but how they're being worked. Are we engaging all the right personas? Are we personalizing well and working a variety of channels? In addition to emailing, are we utilizing social, calling, and gifting when appropriate? Each of these factors into the quality of the outreach and implementing this scoring system has allowed us to make sure that we're providing the level of personalized engagement that our customers deserve.

With these systems and our tech at our disposal, it's pretty easy to stay on top of 6QAs and make sure they don't sit untouched. But the nature of the BDR and SDR roles is that they're prone to turnover—either because people do so well that they advance and become sellers, or they don't work out and they move on. Either way, average tenure in the role is 1.8 years, according to research from the Bridge Group. That means we are perpetually training new people in this role. And the systems, tech, and processes— along with a robust enablement program—ensure that we maintain our standards even as the teams change.

Of course, even with the best team, tech, processes, and enablement, stuff happens. People get sick, go on vacation, or just have a bad day. Whatever the reason, there will be times when plan A doesn't pan out. It's essential to anticipate that and to have a safety net in place so that even when there's a gap in coverage, no 6QA gets left behind.

This is another place where AI comes to the rescue. We have our AI configured to take over when humans aren't following up on 6QAs fast enough. The first touch in any sale is incredibly important, and we know that there's no second chance to make a first impression. So we don't use canned emails; our AI is sophisticated enough to personalize and give that five-star first-touch experience. Of course the first preference is to have a human doing the outreach, but our backup plan truly helps me sleep at night because I know it means we'll never have 6QAs sitting there untouched, no matter what life throws at us.

The “No Spam Nurture”

To be clear, AI-powered outreach is not spam. After all, I can't write a book with “No Spam” in the title and then send out a bunch of junk emails. We follow the basic rule: If you know nothing, do nothing. In order to not spam, we need data that allow us to be timely and personalized, such as persona, role, timing, keywords, and industry. And, of course, contact data.

Now while all that data are critical to sending personalized and timely emails, data orchestration is equally important. If you just rely on occasional mass updates of your data, your outreach and messaging will quickly be outdated. Data orchestrations allow you to use up-to-the-minute data to set up real-time plays.

With the right data and tailored orchestration, we can send automated emails or nurture sequences that are not spam.

With this in mind, I challenged our team to create what I call the No Spam Nurture. We started with these key data points: persona, role, and timing. Persona and role can be hard data to get, but we've been able to automate this process just as soon as an account starts to show early signs of interest. We have set up a play that acquires the contact data for the account and enriches the record in Salesforce. We have gotten to the point now where 98 percent of our active contacts in Salesforce have persona and role data. That's the only reason we can do this No Spam Nurture.

This rich, clean, and fresh data are the key to putting all our creative ideas in motion. With our No Spam Nurture, priority number one is that the outreach needs to feel authentic. And priority number two is that it needs to be pure give. Again, that first touch is so important, and the last thing we want to do is start off a relationship by asking for something. So there is no call to action or anything. We simply provide resources that we believe will be genuinely useful based on persona, role, and timing.

So a CMO, for instance, might receive a series of emails from me letting them know about CMO Coffee Talk, the networking group I help run for other CMOs. The group has been an amazing community for me and the 1,700+ other members who currently take part in it, and I am always thrilled to bring new CMOs into the fold. So when we see an account starting to show interest in 6sense, the CMO is entered into this No Spam Nurture to receive communications directly from me, CMO to CMO.

The marketing ops person will receive a similarly value-oriented nurture from our marketing ops person, Chris Dutton. His emails talk about things that keep him up at night in his role and offer some resources that have helped him.

And so on. We have a set of very tailored, very helpful email nurtures that allow us to engage positively and genuinely with people we can each relate to. It's a real relationship-builder … even if it includes some automation and is powered by AI.

With this nurture in place, we can be sure that our first touch with every contact is on brand, helpful, and engaging. And, most definitely, not spam.

You gotta wanna

It was only a few years ago that the name of the game—the only game you had—was spam, forms, and cold calls. But technology has come such a long way since then, and you don't have to operate in that old way anymore. You now have the opportunity to gather volumes of data, and volumes of signals, about your buyers’ behavior.

AI is so advanced now that it can recognize patterns in data that no human could ever hope to pick up on. Those patterns tell you what your buyers are interested in, whether it's the time to reach out, and what channels you should use to do it most effectively.

This new tech is making it possible to innovate in ways we never could have before. And it couldn't come at a better time because we know that customers are fed up with the experiences we've been providing. According to Gartner's research, 64 percent of B2B buyers say they're so underwhelmed by the digital experiences companies are providing that they can hardly tell them apart.

So it's no surprise that the companies that are embracing this new technology—the data and the AI that can turn it into actionable intel—are completely changing the game. They're engaging with prospects and customers in new and exciting ways, and it's setting them on a path to unbelievable success.

That's a choice they're making, and it's paying off for them. And that success is available to you too. The tools are here. They're available to you right now. Right now, you can have visibility into your Dark Funnel™. Right now, you can revolutionize how your sales and marketing teams create, manage, and convert pipeline to revenue. Right now, you can generate an experience that's meaningful, with no forms, no spam, no cold calls. And with this opportunity, you can create a competitive advantage for your organization and yourself.

I wish I could tell you that you could flip a switch and the change would be made, and you could go sip a margarita on the beach while your pipeline fills. But the reality is that creating and maintaining a competitive advantage takes work—and will. As I tell my sons all the time, you can have all the resources in the world in front of you, but in order for those to make a difference in your goals, you gotta wanna.

You gotta wanna change the game. You gotta wanna add value for your buyers. You gotta wanna tear down silos between sales and marketing. You gotta wanna provide real insights and stop with the guesswork. You gotta wanna believe that it's possible. And you gotta wanna put in the work to make it a reality.

I'm a big believer in professional and personal breakthroughs. Breakthroughs call on us to commit to something that's big and a little uncomfortable. Making that commitment to something audacious—and then putting your back into it—is how you create the change you want to see.

The good news for you is that most of your competitors are not doing that. They're not embracing change and setting their sights on what's possible. But you are, which means that competitive advantage is yours if you want it. You've read this book, which tells me you're ready for a breakthrough. Now lean into it, and make your big, bold vision a reality.