The B2B Optimizer Blog

The Sirius Decisions Demand Unit Waterfall: what it is and how you can make it the framework of your B2B go-to-market plans, driving optimal results and better alignment inside your organization.

Determining the size and nature of your total addressable market as a whole and for each go-to-market campaign is the principal objective in the Target Demand stage. Problems to avoid, preparing for success, tools you will need, your deliverables, team makeup, and critical KPIs are covered as is a discussion on the power of predictive analytics.

Attracting, identifying and nurturing in-market accounts until you have determined that they are interested in the kind of products or services that your company sells is the principal objective in the Active Demand stage. If you are running or planning to run demand generation or awareness campaigns, this is the stage you would be doing that in. Problems to avoid, preparing for success, tools you will need, your deliverables, team makeup, and critical KPIs are covered in this post.

Nurture accounts along by driving deeper levels of engagement with the aim of validating that the account is moving into a product assessment phase is the principal objective in the Engaged Demand stage. Problems to avoid, preparing for success, tools you will need, your deliverables, team makeup, and critical KPIs are covered in this post.

Evaluating when an account has reached a threshold of engagement, indicating sufficient buying signals to warrant passing it to the sales team is the principal objective in the Prioritized Demand stage. This is the rough equivalent to creating a marketing-qualified lead (MQL) through lead scoring but expanded from a lead to an entire account. Problems to avoid, preparing for success, tools you will need, your deliverables, team makeup, and critical KPIs are covered in this post.

Getting direct interaction with an account so we can understand their needs and determine what their budget, timeline, and authority to purchase is the principal objective in the Qualified Demand stage. This is generally done through a series of meetings or phone conversations between the sales team and the account, though it may be occasionally possible to validate by email. Problems to avoid, preparing for success, tools you will need, your deliverables, team makeup, and critical KPIs for the Qualified Demand stage of the Demand Unit Waterfall.

Moving accounts from an opportunity to close is the principal objective in the Pipeline stage is. This is best achieved through a direct interaction between sales and marketing, where marketing’s role is to provide the materials that prospects need to support their buying decision. Problems to avoid, preparing for success, tools you will need, your deliverables, team makeup, and critical KPIs for the Pipeline stage of the Demand Unit Waterfall.

Understanding what is working and what is not throughout the Demand Unit Waterfall, and what that learning implies for the fine-tuning of your processes, messaging and collateral is the principal objective in the Closed stage. Problems to avoid, preparing for success, tools you will need, your deliverables, team makeup, and critical KPIs for the Close stage of the Demand Unit Waterfall are covered in this post.