Buying Groups: The Next Seismic Shift in ABM

Shownotes

In this episode of the OnBase podcast, Chris Moody hosts Jeremy Schwartz, who shares insights on the seismic shift from MQL-based approaches to buying groups in Account-Based Marketing (ABM). Jeremy discusses his extensive background in marketing and the challenges of traditional lead-based systems, emphasizing inefficiencies like low conversion rates and misaligned metrics. He highlights the transformative potential of buying groups, explaining how they enable better targeting and personalized engagement across accounts. Jeremy delves into the importance of leveraging data science, marketing automation, and RevOps collaboration to identify and activate high-value opportunities, while sharing practical examples from his experience at Palo Alto Networks. This engaging conversation offers actionable strategies for aligning sales and marketing teams to drive opportunity creation and improve pipeline outcomes.

Best Moments

• 00:40
  Jeremy's diverse marketing background and its role in cross-team collaboration
• 02:17
  Challenges of traditional MQL models and their inefficiencies
• 07:13
  Introduction to buying groups as the next evolution in ABM
• 07:38
  Importance of leveraging intent signals for targeting high-value opportunities
• 12:06
  Aligning sales and marketing with personalized, buying group-centric tactics
• 16:01
  Using data science to identify key personas and drive strategic targeting
• 22:46
  Tools and technology stack required for implementing buying group strategies
• 28:52
  Iterative, people-first approach to scaling buying group strategies
• 29:10
  The future of marketing: buying groups as the next seismic shift in B2B
• 31:32
  Recommendations for learning more about buying groups and industry insights

About the guest

Jeremy Schwartz is the Sr. Manager of Global Lead Management & Strategy at Palo Alto Networks. He is a seasoned Global RevOps Marketing Leader with over 25 years of experience driving growth and innovation for B2B organizations. Renowned for pioneering strategic buying group models, Jeremy specializes in optimizing demand generation and lead management to deliver measurable results. His expertise lies in architecting large-scale, integrated campaigns that enhance visibility, engagement, and revenue. Committed to fostering collaboration, Jeremy aligns marketing and sales to achieve operational harmony and shared objectives. By leveraging data-driven insights, he transforms complex challenges into strategic growth opportunities, creating long-term business impact and scalable success.

Connect with Jeremy

Key takeaways

• Traditional MQL models lead to inefficiencies like low conversion rates, wasted resources, and engagement with low-priority contacts. Jeremy explains how these models fail to identify real opportunities within accounts.
• Jeremy describes buying groups as the next evolution in ABM, focusing on identifying multiple stakeholders within an account and targeting them collectively to improve opportunity creation.
• First-, second- and third-party intent signals are critical to identifying active buying groups within accounts. Understanding these signals allows for better allocation of resources and more targeted marketing and sales efforts.
• Jeremy outlines how buying groups allow both marketing and sales to work together by using personalized tactics for different stakeholders, creating a seamless activation process.
• By analyzing historical data, companies can identify key personas involved in successful deals and tailor their outreach to align with the needs of similar stakeholders in the future.
• Jeremy highlights the importance of tools like Demandbase, LeanData, Marketo, and custom-built applications for implementing and scaling buying group strategies effectively.
• Jeremy predicts that buying group adoption will accelerate, and technology will evolve to better support this motion, offering enhanced tools for targeting and collaboration.
• The successful adoption of buying groups requires an iterative approach that starts with manual processes, develops clear workflows, and eventually integrates technology to scale.

Quotes

On Identifying Buying Groups:

“Being able to see who’s in a buying group and understanding their personas is the first step to transforming your account-based strategy.”

On Optimizing Resources Based on Signals:

“Don’t spend money where you see low or no engagement. When you see a high signal account, throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at it.”

Highlights from this episode

Can you share your background and how it shapes your approach?

Jeremy shared his extensive career journey, which spans roles in design, sales, project management, and marketing operations. He explained how this diverse experience gives him a unique perspective on challenges faced by various teams, allowing him to communicate effectively and drive better outcomes. He emphasized that his current role at Palo Alto Networks as a Global Lead Management Strategy Leader enables him to integrate these experiences to improve marketing and sales alignment.

What challenges do traditional MQL-based models present?

Jeremy highlighted the inefficiencies of traditional MQL-based models, such as low conversion rates, wasted resources, and misaligned metrics. He explained how these models often focus on individual leads rather than broader account-level insights, leading to poor-quality leads being passed to sales. He also described the “second lead syndrome,” where leads are generated for accounts already engaged, resulting in wasted efforts and miscounted marketing influence.

How do buying groups address these challenges?

He explained that buying groups are more aligned with the reality of B2B sales, where decisions involve multiple stakeholders. By identifying and targeting these groups instead of individual leads, organizations can significantly improve opportunity creation, deal sizes, and win rates. Buying groups enable both marketing and sales teams to focus on the right personas and roles within an account, ensuring more precise engagement.

How can intent signals improve targeting?

Jeremy emphasized the importance of leveraging first-, second-, and third-party signals to identify active accounts and stakeholders. These signals provide actionable insights into where accounts are in their buying journey and what products they are interested in. For example, he shared how his team uses data from sources like G2, TechTarget, and Demandbase to determine when to engage an account and tailor their approach.

How do you align sales and marketing using buying groups?

He described the integration of marketing and sales tactics, such as using marketing automation to activate campaigns and sending pre-MQL leads to sales for multi-threaded engagement. Jeremy stressed the importance of personalization in outreach, such as referencing other team member’s involvement in a deal to create more authentic and impactful conversations.

What tools and technology are essential for implementing buying groups?

Jeremy listed tools like Demandbase for identifying intent signals, LeanData for account-to-contact matching, Marketo for automation, and Tableau for reporting. He also explained how his team developed a custom buying group app to track and activate buying group signals. These tools work together to provide a cohesive system for managing buying group strategies.

What steps are required to successfully scale a buying group strategy?

He advocated for starting small, with manual processes to refine workflows before automating them through technology. By first gaining buy-in from sales teams and ensuring alignment, organizations can scale more effectively. Jeremy also highlighted the importance of enabling sales teams to understand and manage buying groups, ensuring a smooth transition to the new approach.

What are your predictions for the future of marketing in 2025?

Jeremy predicted that buying groups would continue to gain traction as organizations recognize their effectiveness in driving revenue. He also foresaw the development of new technologies designed specifically to support buying group strategies, making it easier for companies to implement and scale these approaches.

Resource recommendations

Communities:

• Buying group members (LinkedIn community):  A community dedicated to discussions and insights on buying group models in B2B marketing. He recommends this group for professionals seeking to deepen their understanding of buying groups and to engage with industry experts.

Shout-outs

• Terry Flaherty, VP, Principal Analyst. Demand Services at Forrester: Jeremy praised Terry for his thought leadership in the shift from MQLs to opportunity-centric and buying group models. He highlighted Terry’s insights into improving marketing and sales alignment and his ability to articulate the next big shifts in B2B marketing.
• Jessica Kao, Senior Director, Marketing Operations and Martech at Cloudflare: Jeremy recommended Jessica for her wealth of information on buying group strategies and highlighted her ability to translate complex ideas into actionable insights.