BDO Digital’s D3 methodology is a holistic model for driving growth through high performance demand generation. What exactly does that mean, and how can you apply the methodology to your own business to drive demand and revenue growth?
Experts from BDO Digital and Adobe recently collaborated on a recent webinar, “B2B Demand Generation Masterclass” to share some actionable insights and tips that you can apply immediately to implement the D3 methodology and advance on the demand generation maturity curve. This blog post summarizes knowledge shared by each of the speakers.
An Exciting Time to Be a Marketer
David Lewis, Founder of DemandGen International and Partner at BDO Digital, kicked things off with an engaging history of the evolution of Demand Generation, beginning with an assessment of the current pressures facing marketing teams today. “Today’s world is much more digital and there’s a lot more pressure on the client experience – and COVID really accelerated all the work that we had to get done,” he said. At the same time, the cost of doing business is much higher. “It’s not just ‘chicken and gasoline’ that are more expensive these days – marketing and sales technology solutions require significant investments, as does building a winning marketing team,” he said, adding that the complexity of the solutions and marketing strategies are driving up costs.
David explained that since the early 2000s when the Demand Waterfall methodology first came out, the focus was on sales and marketing alignment and creating a common lexicon and taxonomy. As this approach was operationalized and enhanced, it eventually evolved into the Demand Funnel, and finally the D3 methodology which is the future of B2B marketing. “Adobe has been phenomenal in making the investments needed in technology to get us where we are today,” he said. “Thanks to Adobe, we’ve got platform tools like Marketo and a really wide portfolio of different applications needed for modern marketing. It’s a very exciting time to be a marketer.”
The D3 Methodology, Explained
Ryan Johnson, Director of Strategic Marketing Advisory at BDO Digital, explained the specifics of the D3 methodology, BDO Digital’s elastic model for driving growth, including the three key pillars and four foundational elements that help to create a revenue-generating machine in any organization. According to Ryan, today’s customer has far more power and influence over the customer journey and experience than they did 10 years ago, and the D3 methodology is designed to address this new reality. It can be explained using the metaphor of a universal gear system, which Ryan dissected for attendees.
The three key disciplines of marketing – Demand Generation, Demand Management and Demand Expansion – are illustrated by planetary gears that rotate around a central hub – and the bracket, which represents alignment and holds the gears in place. “Alignment is essential; otherwise, the gears run into each other,” he said. Finally, the outer layer represents the four main elements of marketing: people, technology, analytics and data. These are placed in the outer ring because they enable the three disciplines in the center of the system. “All of this centers around this center sun gear: Revenue Output,” he said.
Finally, Ryan took a closer look at each of the pieces in detail to demonstrate how the D3 Methodology can be used to identify different priorities and initiatives in real-world scenarios. “This metaphor helps communicate all the different pieces that go into the complexity around demand generation so as modern marketers, we can prioritize our efforts and drive revenue,” he said.
Flexible, Scalable Technology Is Essential
After Ryan’s deep dive on the D3 Methodology, Jill Steinhour, Director of Industry Strategy, High Tech and B2B at Adobe shared her insights on trends driving B2B marketing today, along with Adobe’s point of view on demand marketing and management, and the technologies that support it. “When we think about demand marketing, it’s really powering the Sales and Marketing teams together to build tested relationships with the buying committees, to accelerate and smooth out the complex journeys and handoffs to drive predictable growth,” she said.
According to Jill, the rules of demand generation and marketing have fundamentally changed. Buyers are spending more time doing research using digital channels, and according to Miller Heiman Group, 70% of buyers have already defined their needs by the time they engage with sales. Additionally, Jill said that there are more buyers on the buying committee within an organization today. “The objective is to get them involved early in the lifecycle and provide differentiating, meaningful, valuable experience,” she said. Another consideration is the tendency for buyers to switch vendors more frequently, due to the simplicity of moving from one SaaS solution to another. “This notion of switching vendors is becoming a real threat,” she said.
Designing technology solutions in a way that is flexible and scalable is therefore extremely important. Today’s solutions need to accommodate customers’ business models and priorities. For example, many B2B organizations are also delivering products directly to consumers, so an infrastructure that’s extensible and manages both B2B and B2C is critical. Other priorities include data and analytics, managing the customer journey, and content management capabilities.
According to Jill, with Experience Cloud, Adobe meets all of these critical requirements, and Marketo Engage acts as a keystone to Demand Generation. “Adobe enables tech brands to deliver on growth goals through innovative digital sales and service experiences for technology buyers on modern-extensible architecture that supports both B2B and B2C RTMs,” she said.
Two Demand Marketing Tactics in Practice
Finally, Rachel Vermeal and Randy Latimer, both Strategic Marketing Advisors at BDO Digital offered their expertise. Rachel covered in detail the “TEAM” framework for account-based marketing (ABM), including an overview of ABM, and its core components.
“Account Based Marketing is a cross-functional discipline that derives results by allowing us to focus primarily on not just the individual,” she said, adding that a key benefit of ABM is that it encourages alignment between sales and marketing – 82% of B2B marketers agree. This is important, because marketing generates 208% more revenue when that alignment exists. Additionally, 86% of B2B companies say ABM improves win rates.
During her presentation, Rachel walked attendees through the TEAM framework – which stands for Target, Engage, Activate and Measure – explaining how it enables teams to be hyper-focused on strategic accounts.
Next, Randy covered five tactics for a high-performing Demand Funnel, a key element of the demand management process. “The Demand Funnel is the process of qualifying and nurturing prospective customers from first interaction to closing as a customer,” he said.
A former musician, Randy likened each step to an important member of a performance group, “The Five Secrets,” with the first, most important step being the “lead singer”:
- Align and integrate with your sales team’s view of deal creation
- Audit your lead management process
- Implement or update a lead scoring system
- Make sure your systems are integrated properly
- Clean data closes more deals
“When it’s done right, you can get ‘in the pocket’ – your head starts bobbing, your feet start tapping, and the next thing you know, you sound like Barry White.”
Where Do You Fall on the Demand Generation Maturity Curve?
BDO Digital has a tool available to help you determine where you stand on the B2B demand generation maturity curve: the B2B Demand Generation Maturity Assessment.
You can use your results to identify what key areas you need to work on, and where your team excels. It just takes 10-15 minutes to complete, and we’ll send you your score via email. For taking the assessment, you’ll also get a free 45-minute consultation with one of BDO Digital’s strategic advisors, who can walk you through some key insights from the finding and help identify some low-hanging fruit. Take the assessment today.
If you are looking to level-up your demand generation strategy and embrace digital transformation see how BDO Digital’s services can help.
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