Whether you’re a super mature business or in the first two years of delivering, there’s a common thread with pipeline: a lack of top of funnel demand.

Or, and sometimes at the same time, an overreliance on inbound, particularly a reliance that hasn’t been industrialised.

And an overreliance on inbound is hard to scale, and certainly isn’t predictable or sustainable.

Sometimes it’s down to systemisation of sales, like having the right people in the right place across the pipeline.

Or, it could be that there’s a lack of momentum, meaning that the flywheel only turns sporadically which leads to an inconsistent flow in the pipeline.

In this case, we needed to put systems in place to achieve conversations at scale.

Graphite are a great business, with great people, but they wanted a guiding hand to take the next step on their growth journey.

But, as we know, solving top of funnel demand isn’t a quick or simple fix. We had to achieve scale quickly, which meant onboarding quickly. Here’s what we proposed.

Getting the engine turning to create a scalable, predictable and sustainable demand-gen engine takes a lot.

Scaling the resource, tools, processes and strategy needed to generate a flow in your pipeline needs a unique blend of skills and attitude.

Which is why committing to the journey is a must, as sales isn’t an on/off activity.

We always aim to help a business move their operation towards this whilst supporting them in the detail of managing their very own campaigns. At the end, the business can take full ownership and run with it from there.

The tailored solution for Graphite was a Sales Accelerator programme, running for three months with a rapid onboarding, ramp up, and live campaigns from the off.

This leads nicely into a training period in which they can get their hands fully on the wheel.

The components of that solution, however, are a little more nuanced.

In a nutshell, here’s what we set out to do:

• Review and assess the current proposition – because your proposition should always connect to your buyer, and by extension, your sales strategy
• Review market challenges and sector profiling to ensure the right audiences get targeted
• Build out a robust authority building plan, through value-laden content linked to the sales strategy
• A fresh sales ladder, with a productised offering is key to developing gateway products so you’re never going for the big sell immediately
• Sales flow design to get the campaigns launched at speed, and to show what good looks like
• Full tooling and system set-up inside the client’s business, not ours. Meaning full ownership is always available
• Training on all tools, systems and our methodology so that when the scope of work is complete, the client is empowered to run the engine themselves

Here’s how we went about solving the top of funnel challenge for Graphite.

As with most, if not all, projects, kicking things off with the overarching strategy is the way to go. So, we dived straight into to discovery so we could:

• Get clear on the problem
• Develop a strategic approach to solving the top of funnel issue
• Review and assess the current proposition
• Review the market challenges
• Review sector profiling

This approach allowed us to develop an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) from the off, which unlocked the ability to develop campaigns targeted at the right people, in the right industries, and in the right geographic locations.

Quick-start campaigns are critical to achieve the momentum we all need. So, one of the first workshops we ran with Graphite was the ICP session.

Tooling and tech set up was conducted and completed at lightning speed, within a day or two of the ICP session, which allowed us to get some quick start campaigns going early on in the project.

Alongside the quick start campaigns that were helping to build momentum in the background, we were also:

• Developing medium and long range campaign strategies
• Feeding the campaign strategy work into the campaign planning
• Building out a content plan to build authority in the target industries
• Reviewing and adjusting the sales ladder so that the gateway offers were both appealing and a soft sell (rather than battering the door down with a high ticket item)
• Developing a campaign tool box, so that Graphite were empowered to take ownership and drive accountability when we handed over the keys to their shiny new demand-gen engine

And to be crystal clear, all of the above is always, always done in collaboration and partnership with the client.

This helps to develop a clear sense of understanding, ownership, and accountability for when the time is right to hand over the reins.

The momentum we built together was genuinely brilliant to see, and a perfect example of accountability and ownership in action.
What followed was a period of full tooling, technology, and tactics training for Graphite hosted by our Head of Demand Generation.
This period acted as a handover period, as well as a training period, so that the full Graphite team could hand on heart say “We’re bought in, we know what we’re doing now.”

The whole of this project would mean nothing without clear deliverables and outcomes. The fact that there was a speedy onboarding, ramp up into campaigns, and then clear training periods made life easier – but it’s not relevant unless there were tangible outcomes.

The profiles we used for demand generation grew their reach significantly with their Ideal Customer Profile and their LinkedIn profile visitor stats increased by 20% within the first 4 weeks. 

Connections and followers have grown at a rapid rate and the overall reach of the profiles has increased significantly supported not only by the outreach but through the content strategy. 

The meeting booking rate for all profiles was also a brilliant result, booking 20+ meetings in the first 4 weeks of the campaign engine running, which keeps improving month on month. A true example of what operating at scale can do for you.

But most importantly the top of funnel engine had been adopted by the internal team and continues to scale under their management. 

The outcomes speak for themselves, but even internally we’ve all said how much we enjoyed the project. A shining example of sales accountability and ownership in action.

But what’s important isn’t us, it’s what the client thought.