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Alex Freeman
Global Head of Sales Operations at YouGov
about
Alex Freeman
Alex Freeman is currently the Global Head of Sales Operations at YouGov, a position he has held since January 2023. As a Revenue Operations & Enablement Leader, he focuses on first principles-based problem solving and process building to drive maximum growth. Alex is known for his expertise in optimising both people and tech stacks to create smart, scalable, and measurable processes that enable continuous optimization and data-driven decision-making. His experience spans both high-growth and established SaaS businesses, working across the entire customer lifecycle to deliver predictable and consistent revenue growth.
How do you think marketing could evolve to support sales more effectively in today's B2B landscape?
While account-based marketing is clearly effective and a step up from an individual based approach, we need to evolve beyond gated content and MQL downloads. The future lies in demand generation and capture. We should leverage our insights through open, accessible thought leadership content.
Successful modern organisations are blending sales and marketing efforts by involving key buyer personas not just in content creation, but also in significant customer interactions. It's about creating value and building relationships before the sale.
Our focus should shift from lead capture to demand generation. We need to involve our target personas more deeply in the buying process, including on important calls with prospects and customers. This approach aligns sales and marketing efforts more closely, positioning us as trusted advisors in our industry.
How effective do you find MQLs in identifying real buying opportunities? What alternative signals or processes would you prefer from marketing to ensure leads are truly sales-ready?
MQLs have limited effectiveness in identifying real buying opportunities. I've found value in separating hand-raisers, like inbound demo requests, from the broader MQL category. This 'unblending' of the funnel is crucial, but it leaves the remaining MQL bucket quite ambiguous.
The lead generation process is akin to panning for gold - we need to strike a balance between quality and quantity. However, the current MQL system needs refinement. Rather than lumping all leads into one category, we need more granular insights into prospects' interests and behaviours. Understanding whether they're engaging with vertical-specific resources, technical content, or challenge-related solutions would significantly help sales in their approach.
Moving forward, I believe businesses are shifting away from using MQLs as a key performance indicator for marketing. While attribution has its place, it's often overemphasised. The focus should be on the success of the entire revenue organisation, rather than siloed metrics. It's not about generating enough leads; it's about generating the right leads that contribute to closed deals.
What types of buyer intent signals or data do you need from marketing to help you identify and engage prospects earlier in the buying journey?
Intent data is particularly valuable, especially when working with large companies where you could potentially be engaging with multiple buying centres across different regions. It would be really helpful to get at least some sort of regionalised intent data to see where interest is spiking and to understand if what we can sense from their web activity matches with what they're doing on our site too.
Particularly for smaller companies, I've really seen the value of knowing when someone's in-market. If you're a much smaller brand in the space, you're not expecting people to know to come to you. Therefore, that intent data is really invaluable to get ahead and get into a sales cycle early with someone who might not know about you otherwise.
Given the changing B2B landscape, what types of content or resources do you anticipate needing from marketing to engage buyers more effectively?
Thought leadership is crucial in today's B2B landscape. We should focus on guiding potential buyers on how to think about our industry and solutions. Ideally, businesses should aim to become a world-class resource centre for their target personas.
To achieve this, companies should invest heavily in the function they're selling to. For instance, if selling to RevOps, develop a strong internal RevOps team. These internal experts can provide valuable product feedback and participate in commercial calls, offering peer-to-peer insights that resonate with potential buyers.
Marketing's role is to amplify these internal voices in the market. This approach aligns with Chris Walker's concepts of 'dark social' and demand generation versus demand capture. Creating content like podcasts and other channels that help people think differently about their roles can be incredibly effective. While this may not immediately generate leads, it builds trust and positions us as industry leaders. Over time, this approach consistently drives high-quality prospects who seek us out based on the value we've provided.
How do you envision the ideal sales and marketing collaboration? What specific support from marketing would have the biggest impact on your sales success?
The ideal collaboration starts with aligning both teams on shared outcomes: closed deals, good retention, and growth. We need to move away from finger-pointing and over-reliance on metrics that don't capture the full picture. Marketing shouldn't be bogged down justifying every spend, as it detracts from their core role.
A good partnership allows for flexibility. If the forecast is low, we focus on short-term lead generation. If the pipeline is strong, we invest in long-term growth strategies.
Specific impactful support includes digital sales rooms, which serve as shared spaces for collaboration and centralising information for the buying committee. We should also leverage sales conversations more effectively. The discussions our sellers have should inform our most targeted collateral. Capturing key insights from these interactions can help us navigate complex buying environments more effectively. Additionally, as we move down the funnel, marketing should help tailor messaging to address specific client needs identified during sales conversations. This adaptable content creation approach can significantly boost our success in closing deals.
about
YouGov
YouGov is a leading international research data and analytics group headquartered in London, UK. Founded in 2000, the company specialises in market research and opinion polling through online methods. YouGov is known for its accurate political polling and consumer behaviour insights, serving a wide range of clients including media, brands, and governments. The company operates in over 40 countries worldwide, leveraging its proprietary panel of over 20 million people globally to provide real-time data on various topics, from public opinion to consumer preferences.
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.