For the past five or six years, we've operated in a hypergrowth environment focused on growth at all costs. Demand budgets expanded to meet higher customer acquisition costs (CAC) and continued to fuel that growth.
In the current economy, the hypergrowth mindset no longer holds. Gone are the days of 10x valuations (or even 50x!) and free-flowing funding. Profitability has replaced pure revenue growth as a key performance metric.
So now is the time for marketers to adopt a "hyper-efficient growth" mindset. Here are four ways to do that in practice.
1. Take a fresh look at your ideal customer profiles and personas
Your ideal customer profile (ICP) represents the customers and prospects you believe will get the most value from your product or service. It serves as the center of gravity for your go-to-market efforts, keeping your marketing, sales, and customer service teams aligned.
When you use the same ICP definition across teams and tools, your campaigns and touchpoints can take the same focus for targeting, personalization, and sales prioritization. That keeps everything moving in the same direction—toward the same high-revenue-potential prospects.
It's natural for your ICP to change as your business or the broader market changes. For example, the recent shift in the economy is a good catalyst for taking a fresh look at your ICP and personas.
When reassessing your ICP, consider whether you should narrow your focus, increase win rates, or widen your definition to fill your pipeline. Are there adjacent markets that make more sense to enter now? Is your CAC consistent across your ICP segments, or are some customers "less expensive" than others?
And evaluate your personas through a budget lens. Does your target persona still have the budget to spend on your product or services? Is your persona facing team or vendor consolidation pressure? Does your primary buyer have the clout needed to get approval from the CFO in this market?
2. Rethink your customer's 'jobs to be done' and where you fit in
Shifting markets and shrinking budgets likely mean that your prospective customers are thinking about their "jobs to be done" a little differently today than they were even a few months ago. As the saying goes, buyers don't need a drill; they need a hole.
Prospects are prioritizing must-have results (a hole) over nice-to-have tools (a shiny new drill), so you need to show up with differentiated products and services that speak directly to specific, pressing needs.
In particular, products that have an ROI based on saving time or avoiding "manual effort" may find that buyers' appetite for a bit more manual work—if it saves some budget—has increased in a particular market.
3. Look for efficiencies across the marketing funnel
To find efficiencies across your marketing funnel, start by exploring new channels to create awareness and demand. Perhaps, instead of spending more on ads, consider using partners more and tapping into their audiences through co-marketing, which can be efficient if you have complementary products or services.
You may also want to explore product-led growth (PLG) or hybrid PLG/sales models. During a downturn, buyers may not have the budget to make a purchase, but you can still capture their interest (and grow your user base) with a trial or free tool.
4. Automate revenue operations wherever you can
The hypergrowth mindset of the last few years has brought on an explosion in revenue operations teams and technology. Deployed wisely, RevOps can deliver even more value in a hyper-efficient environment. For example, having the right data foundation in place to automate lead scoring and routing enables Sales to engage prospects at the right time.
RevOps can also help ensure go-to-market teams are prioritizing accounts based on fit with your ideal customer profile and intent signals, instead of wasting time and resources on prospects who aren't likely to buy.
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The shift in the economy has had ripple effects throughout every B2B sector. Even as the current economic conditions make for a less predictable outlook, marketers have reason to be optimistic and proactive about growth. A hyper-efficient growth mindset can allow smart businesses to continue to grow during the downturn—and even emerge stronger on the other side.
More Resources on How to Adopt a Growth Mindset
Growing Pains and Marketing at Scale: Five Key Lessons From B2B Marketing Leaders
How to Kickstart a Growth Marketing Automation Strategy
How to Grow Your Company Fast: 'Scale or Fail' Author Allison Maslan on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]
