What it takes to focus growth in a larger B2B business

Focus sounds simple. Most leadership teams agree that concentrating effort on fewer, better opportunities is the right thing to do, yet in larger B2B businesses it is rarely done consistently. The cause is seldom a lack of desire or hard work. It's usually that a focused approach is at odds with the way in which the business is set up to work.

We believe growth starts with deliberate decisions about priorities, and that those decisions belong to the whole leadership team, not just marketing.

We see six things need to be in place to make it work.

A balance between now and next. When the pressure is on this quarter's forecast, attention goes to deals already in the pipeline. Yet only around 5% of buyers are in market at any one time, according to research by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for LinkedIn's B2B Institute. Growth in a year or two depends on the other 95%, so it needs proper planning now, but it can easily be deprioritised because it won't show on this month's report.

Priorities that don't compete. Teams are often organised around products, services or functions, and rarely around the accounts they serve. Every leader has their own targets, which means the business ends up competing with itself rather than collaborating.

Discipline when opportunity is plentiful. It's tempting to try to go after everything. Many businesses focus their efforts on acquiring net new accounts, yet growing and retaining existing ones may offer a stronger return. That balance needs to be a proactive choice.

Clarity on the data. There is more data than ever, and not all of it is equal. It is important to check where it has come from, how up to date and reliable it is, and to triangulate across sources before deciding what should guide the choices.

A shared purpose and strategy. The business needs a clear purpose, objectives and a long-term strategy. The priorities beneath them can then be clear, and something everyone can align to.

Visible senior commitment. Choosing where to focus means choosing where not to, and this is hard. Senior people must debate and make those decisions and then communicate them across the business so everyone is on board.

How to move forward

We believe where to focus is a leadership decision, not a marketing technique, but your marketing team has a valuable role to play in shaping it.

Account-based marketing (ABM) can help. ABM brings the whole business together to win and grow the accounts that matter most, and it starts with deciding where to focus. It’s the first of the questions we explore in our 7 Questions Behind Effective ABM series, and the introduction to the series might be a good place to start.

When did your business last decide to stop pursuing something, and who stood behind that decision?