Rethinking Demand Generation for Consensus Buying

Key Insight

Conventional demand generation, driven by 'BANT' (budget, authority, need, timing) and an emphasis on content quantity, often results in 'established demand' and low-quality, commoditized deals. This approach focuses on developing 'ready to buy' leads on the customer's terms, failing to shape demand or change customer perspectives. The three main failures include creating excessive content that turns customers off, neglecting to challenge customers' existing business thinking, and focusing on connecting individual buyers to the supplier rather than fostering consensus among buying group stakeholders. An example is a Fortune 100 tech provider experiencing a 60 percent opt-out rate from its customer database over eighteen months due to an engagement-obsessed model.

Instead of generating demand, the strategy should be to 'mobilize demand' by creating content paths that confront and connect. This involves 'Spark-Introduce-Confront' content to attract Mobilizers, drive collective learning, and reshape customer mental models, intercepting them before problem or solution consensus solidifies. Lead-scoring criteria must be adjusted to gauge how 'disrupted' prospects are by content and how well content connects multiple buying group stakeholders. This shifts focus from purchase 'readiness' to the level of disruption and multi-stakeholder engagement with counterintuitive content, prioritizing leads demonstrating collective engagement with disruptive ideas.

Implementing demand mobilization leads to anticipated metric shifts. Initially, overall lead volume may dip but is expected to increase within twelve to eighteen months, with significantly improved lead quality due as content attracts Mobilizers early. Win rates and deal profitability should increase, with 15 to 20 percent price premiums not unusual, as seen in Xerox's 'color drives student performance' insight. Sales cycle time may appear longer if measured from early passive learning, but active consensus building can shorten it. Soft indicators of success include proprietary term adoption, third-party references, invitations to present insights, early engagement with new key decision makers, positive sales force sentiment on lead quality, and instances of getting ahead of RFPs or securing no-bid contracts, such as with Skillsoft's Mobilizer toolkit.