It’s as true in sales as it is with anything else: you can’t know what you don’t know. But more specifically, when it comes to understanding the buyer journey, you can’t sell to prospects you can’t identify or track. Without the right intel, you can’t identify in-market accounts, their buying teams and what they’re looking for, or when they’re ready to convert. At least not until they reveal themselves to you.
Historically, that’s the way it’s been. Marketing and sales teams work together to take prospects from the top of the traditional funnel into the depths of it, where deals are nurtured and made. That’s the buyer journey most companies base their marketing and sales strategies on.
But what about all the prospective buyers you can’t see? They’re there too, waiting to be engaged — hidden in what’s known as the Dark Funnel™.
Okay, I’ll bite… What’s the Dark Funnel?
The Dark Funnel is actually where most of the buyer journey takes place today. Imagine a hub of anonymous buyer data with signals such as anonymous web visits, third-party research, and even fake form fills. The Dark Funnel contains the kind of granular activity data that can help you discern qualified buyers from unqualified buyers, if you can tap into it and pair it with real buyer intent.
It’s not enough for marketing and sales teams to go after accounts that may be interested in buying; they also need to know when they’re prepared to buy. Without access to the Dark Funnel, you’re only seeing part of the buyer journey, and missing out on important signals in the process.
Two outcomes that matter to marketing and sales teams
As prospects develop new ways to hide from view, marketing and sales teams need to become more data driven. But they also need to become more clairvoyant. Simply put, businesses need better data and they need better visibility into that data to drive the following outcomes:
- Higher qualified net-new leads and net-new pipeline
- Improved ROI on marketing investments
Case study: Demystifying the buyer journey for Sisense
Sisense — an end-to-end BI platform that empowers data engineers, developers, and analysts to build analytic apps that deliver highly interactive user experiences — needed an account-based sales and marketing solution that could seamlessly integrate with their robust data platform. Before 6sense, their account data was siloed.
With 6sense’s account engagement platform, Sisense was able to see the light in their Dark Funnel. They achieved complete visibility into buyer intent and whether those accounts are known or unknown. We helped them access critical information such as what keywords prospects are searching, as well as predicting where accounts are in the buying journey; that way, they’re able to intelligently time their outreach. As Ilan Hertz, Sisense Head of Marketing Strategy and Operations, says, “[6sense is] able to do magic with the data.”
The method behind our magic
Marketing and sales teams need to be able to align on account data, scale engagement, and track metrics to achieve revenue growth and customer success. Our platform was designed with those factors at the forefront, to help customers get a clear picture of the buyer journey. That begins with uncovering buyer intent.
How we accurately identify and deliver on buyer intent signals
6sense is unique in both the quality of the data we collect and our ability to inform models and identify opportunities with it. We have a proprietary intent network of billions of websites, as well as our patented Company Graph, which identifies anonymous accounts up to 80% better than anyone in the market.
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To break it down: We’re able to pick up buyer intent signals on our customers’ websites, in addition to 3.5M+ B2B websites, revealing anonymous buyers who fit their ideal customer profile and are actively in the market for their solutions or services. Then with our Company Graph, we match those buyer intent signals to accounts and buying teams, providing more opportunities to engage buyers and generate revenue.
See the light in your own Dark Funnel
You can’t know what you don’t know… until you can. It’s possible to pull the curtain back and see qualified leads clearly with the right technology. 6sense provides better account match rates and stronger predictive capabilities, with these significant benefits to marketing, sales, and customer success teams:
- Earlier, better insight into deals and an increased win rate
- Increased pipeline and optimized spending
- Increased cross/upsell opportunities and reduced customer churn
Data isn’t a guessing game, and with insight into the anonymous buyer journey, marketing and sales strategies don’t need to be either.
Learn about the full effects of our solution and expected ROI with our Revenue Generation Estimator.
