And just like that, the era of inefficient growth has come to a grinding halt. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is a symptom of that larger issue.
With inflation skyrocketing and the stock market falling, venture capitalists (VCs) — whose investments companies have relied on to maintain growth — are becoming more risk averse to tying their money to businesses that have little (or no) evidence of financial health and stability.
A lack of outside funding is leading some growth companies to withdraw large sums of money to finance their operations. A rush of withdrawals from hard-hit tech companies was a major factor that contributed to SVB’s sudden demise.
Fortunately, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will make all of the SVB depositors whole. But the incident heralds tough news for startups; they’ll likely remain cash restrained for a while. VCs will be more reluctant to invest, and banks may be slower to issue loans due to liquidity concerns.
Through all this turbulence, businesses must continue looking to the future while reducing cash burn. Implementing tools and processes that eliminate go-to-market waste could be a matter of survival.
Keep reading to learn how your B2B organization — be it a technology, manufacturing, or financial services company (and far beyond) — can maximize resources while sustaining growth.
What This Means for Growth-Stage Businesses
Although your pool of buyers may become smaller in this economic climate, there are still companies out there that are willing and ready to buy your product. So, it’s critical today to identify and target the right prospects for immediate ROI.
You should also take steps to reduce risks like unexpected customer departures (which stunned SVB), and unproductive spending (which plagues many revenue organizations).
Smarter Spending
Revenue teams should use a more proactive and strategic approach to narrow their efforts toward in-market buyers, and deliver meaningful messaging to them at just the right time.
This can be accomplished by using intent data, AI, and machine learning to:
Know More
- Identify and engage all of your potential customers that are in-market
- Understand what your target accounts are researching, so you can craft and deliver messaging specific to their needs
- Spot the evolving buying stages of these in-market buyers, and understand which campaigns and messages are influencing them toward a deal
Spend and Plan Wisely
- Sharpen your ad targeting to pay to reach only potential buyers
- Capture a larger share of in-market buyers and improve your contract win rate
- Develop a better pipeline forecast by combining the power of illuminated Dark Funnel™ insights with the known data already being captured in your CRM and other tools.
Earlier Risk Warnings
Pivoting from new customers to existing ones, we know that customer retention is key for long-term growth. Companies that use market intelligence tools to their fullest capabilities understand the value of listening for signs of customer dissatisfaction or outright distress.
SVB seemed to be caught off-guard by the sudden demand for withdrawals from its tech-company customers, but it didn’t have to be that way. Swaths of the industry have been visibly struggling since summer 2022.
A lender like SVB would have been smart to use intent data as an early warning system by tracking customer research into terms like “funding solutions,” “accounts receivable,” “collections,” “invoice financing,” and other topics that could indicate cash flow issues.
If a large and growing share of your customers seem to be at risk, you should probably take steps to mitigate the impact of their departure.
Tighten Your Belt without Crippling Long-term Growth
While the prospect of growing your customer base seems challenging, using the right technology enables you to:
- Focus spending and resources only on the accounts likely to buy
- Boost ROI
- Track customer sentiment, and
- Make the most compelling case to both potential customers and investors
According to the Forrester Total Economic Impact of 6sense Revenue AI™ study, 6sense’s revenue technology identifies opportunities that are more likely to close. Focusing on those opportunities leads to larger deals, shorter sales cycles, and higher revenue. In fact, the study found that businesses using 6sense saw:
- A 27% increase in overall opportunities won after three fiscal quarters
- A 23% shorter sales cycle overall
- Deals that were 60% larger
Grow Your Business, Lower Your Spend
Rather than wasting money and resources on poor targeting and weak conversion strategies, invest your budget where you’re most likely to see a return.
6sense helps customers focus their revenue generation efforts and create more pipeline growth.
This makes it an ideal solution for companies that aren’t in line for another immediate cash infusion and need to be smarter about spend — while also improving their cash trajectory and making them more attractive to investors.
